socio cultural perspective in psychology

Socio-cultural Perspective
Group 4
Group member
Aqsa shahid
Hina majeed
Arifa Bashir

Broad or Infinite ?

• A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural
influences on behavior. It is the influence that a culture and
society has on a person'sworldview and perspective.
• This perspective includes:
Social psychology or the study of socail rules, roles, groups and
relationships)
Cultural psychology or the study of cultural norms,
socioeconomic status, gender ,values and expectations.

Assumptions
Examines how culture and politics effect our behavior.
A major influence on people’s behavior, thought processes and
emotions are other people and the society they have created.
How we communicate, understand, relate and cope with one another is
partially based on this theory. Our spiritual, mental, physical, emotional,
physiological being are all influenced by sociocultural perspective theory.
 Human’s ability to recall information is a result of our understanding of
complex language.

Vygotsky
• Lev Vygotsky is the pioneer of the sociocultural perspective in psychology.Vygotsky
developed the sociocultural theory of cognitive development which focuses on how a
child's mind develops as a result of interacting with their social environment..
• Important aspects :
1-Socail Interaction
2-Language
3-Culture important
• Important terms:
1-Terms zone of proximal development (ZPD)
2-Scaffolding

Socail –Cultural theory of
development
According to Vygotsky, social interaction-especially involvement with
knowledgeable community or family members-helps children toacquire
the thought processes and behaviors specific to their cultureand/or
society.

Socail –Cultural theory of
development
• Socail interaction
• Vygotsky emphasized that effective
learning happens through
participation in social activifies.
• Parents, teachers and other adults in
the learner's environment all
contribute fo the process. They
explain, model, assist, givedirections
and provide feed back.
• Peers, on the other hand, cooperate
and Collaborate and enrich the
learning experience.
• Language
• Language can be viewed as a verbal
expression of Culfure
• Every culture has the words it needs for its
lifestyle.It opens the door for leaners to
acquire knowledgethat others already have.
• It is use to know and understand the world
and solveproblems.If servesa social
function but it also has an
importantindividual function.
• It helps the learner to regulateand reflect
on his own fhiinking.

Cultural context:
• Vygotsky believed that human activities take place in cultural
settings and cannot be understood apart from the settings-our
specific mental structures and processes can be traced to our
interactions with others.
• In Vygotsky's system, children's cognitive development is affected by
culture in two ways. First, children acquire most of their
knowledge (the contents of thought) through culture. In addition,
not only does culture teach children what to think but also how to
think.

Zone of proximal Development
• Vygotsky is also credited with developing the
concept of the zone of proximal development
(ZPD) which includes the skills that learners can
develop with the help of someone who already
knows that specific skill.
• Vygotsky believed that the ZPD was a far better way
to gauge. A child’s intelligence than through the
standard academic testing, which can often fail to
account for cultural differences with regards to
learning. Vygotsky claims that there are three cultural
tools which children use to inform their
cognitive abilities.

Scaffolding
• Vygotsky coined a definition of instructional scaffolding that
focused on teacher practices. He defined this as, 'the role of
teachers and others in supporting the learner's development
and providing support structures to get to that next stage or
level' (Raymond, 2000).
•

Impact on personality & behaviors?
• Gender influences our behavior.
• Job’s opportunities to influence people’s goals and ambition.
• This approach helps us understand how behaviour can be influenced by
other people, and the situation they find themselves in.
• It helps us understand that people’s behaviour may change if their situation
changes.
• The Social Approach underestimates the influence of individual
differences in behaviour – it doesn’t explain why some people differ from
the norm expected in any given social situation.
• It helps us understand extreme human behaviours; this is good because if
we can understand the causes of behaviour (such as power abuse by
prison guards, SPE) then we can take steps to prevent it.
•

Strength of sociocultural theory
• Vygotsky's sociocultural approach provided an alternative viewpoint about
cognitive development from that of developmental psychologist Jean
Piaget whose work focused on cognitive development via interactions with
the physical environment.
• In general, the theories within psychology are great tools to help us better
understand and explain why we act and think the way we do. Theories may
also help us predict behavior.
• Our sociocultural settings teach us things that are flexible. From an early
age, we may internalise and accept notions that we acquire from our
environment, but as we become older, we may encounter various cultures
and social settings that could ultimately affect what we choose to internalise
and accept as our own.Raise button

Weaknessess of sociocultural theory
• The sociocultural perspective in psychology tends to downplay personal
respThe sociocultural approach doesn't account for all factors that play a
part in cognitive development.
• Even though there are sociocultural factors that influence our behavior
and mental processes, there are other factors as well, and each person
is unique.
• Vygotsky's theory of sociocultural cognitive development places a lot of
importance on the power of language. Scaffolding is heavily dependent
on verbal instructions. However, this may not be as important or relevant
in all cultures and all types of learning.
• The sociocultural approach doesn't account for all factors that play a part
in cognitive development.
• Vygotsky's theory is hard to evaluate scientifically.
•

socio cultural perspective in psychology

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