Mind, Culture, and Activity

Mind, Culture, and Activity
Author: Michael Cole
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 526
Release: 1997-07-13
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780521558235

This volume presents articles important to contemporary studies of the cultural and contextual foundations of human development. It address es the need to create a Psychology which focuses upon the actions of people participating in routine, culturally organized activities. The discussion includes: the nature of context; experiments as contexts; culture-historical theories of culture, context and development; the analysis of classroom settings as a social important context of development, the psychological analysis of activity in situ, and questions of power and discourse.

Culture, Mind, and Brain

Culture, Mind, and Brain
Author: Laurence J. Kirmayer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 683
Release: 2020-09-24
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1108580572

Recent neuroscience research makes it clear that human biology is cultural biology - we develop and live our lives in socially constructed worlds that vary widely in their structure values, and institutions. This integrative volume brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from the human, social, and biological sciences to explore culture, mind, and brain interactions and their impact on personal and societal issues. Contributors provide a fresh look at emerging concepts, models, and applications of the co-constitution of culture, mind, and brain. Chapters survey the latest theoretical and methodological insights alongside the challenges in this area, and describe how these new ideas are being applied in the sciences, humanities, arts, mental health, and everyday life. Readers will gain new appreciation of the ways in which our unique biology and cultural diversity shape behavior and experience, and our ongoing adaptation to a constantly changing world.

Sociocultural Studies of Mind

Sociocultural Studies of Mind
Author: James V. Wertsch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 1995-04-28
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780521476430

Based on three unifying ideas, this landmark volume defines an approach to sociocultural psychology which the authors hope will continue to be debated and redefined. It addresses the question of how mental functioning is related to its cultural, historical and institutional settings.

Contemporary Approaches to Activity Theory: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Behavior

Contemporary Approaches to Activity Theory: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Behavior
Author: Hansson, Thomas
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2014-10-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1466666048

The human mind is best understood when it is studied in the context of meaningful and goal-oriented interactions between individuals and their environment. These internal and external activities help to shape the human consciousness and experience. Contemporary Approaches to Activity Theory: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Behavior is an opportunity to study the complex, socially-oriented contexts of humans by considering the entirety of our environments: cultures, motivations, signs and tools, and various activities. Highlighting strategies in design, educational and work practice, and methodological analysis, this book is an essential reference source for academicians, researchers, and students interested in gaining a thorough understanding of the interaction between humans and their environments.

Mind Shift

Mind Shift
Author: John Parrington
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2021-04-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0192521640

John Parrington argues that social interaction and culture have deeply shaped the exceptional nature of human consciousness. The mental capacities of the human mind far outstrip those of other animals. Our imaginations and creativity have produced art, music, and literature; built bridges and cathedrals; enabled us to probe distant galaxies, and to ponder the meaning of our existence. When our minds become disordered, they can also take us to the depths of despair. What makes the human brain unique, and able to generate such a rich mental life? In this book, John Parrington draws on the latest research on the human brain to show how it differs strikingly from those of other animals in its structure and function at a molecular and cellular level. And he argues that this 'shift', enlarging the brain, giving it greater flexibility and enabling higher functions such as imagination, was driven by tool use, but especially by the development of one remarkable tool - language. The complex social interaction brought by language opened up the possibility of shared conceptual worlds, enriched with rhythmic sounds, and images that could be drawn on cave walls. This transformation enabled modern humans to leap rapidly beyond all other species, and generated an exceptional human consciousness, a sense of self that arises as a product of our brain biology and the social interactions we experience. Our minds, even those of identical twins, are unique because they are the result of this extraordinarily plastic brain, exquisitely shaped and tuned by the social and cultural environment in which we grew up and to which we continue to respond through life. Linking early work by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky to the findings of modern neuroscience, Parrington explores how language, culture, and society mediate brain function, and what this view of the human mind may bring to our understanding and treatment of mental illness.

Cultural Psychology

Cultural Psychology
Author: Robyn M. Holmes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 801
Release: 2020-01-30
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0197503071

Cultural Psychology draws upon major psychological topics, theories, and principles to illustrate the importance of culture in psychological inquiry. Exploring how culture broadly connects to psychological processing across diverse cultural communities and settings, it highlights the applied nature of cultural psychology to everyday life events and situations, presenting culture as a complex layer in which individuals acquire skills, values, and abilities. Two central positions guide this textbook: one, that culture is a mental and physical construct that individuals live, experience, share, perform, and learn; and the second, that culture shapes growth and development. Culture-specific and cross-cultural examples highlight connections between culture and psychological phenomena. The text is multidisciplinary, highlighting different perspectives that also study how culture shapes human phenomena. Topics include an introduction to cultural psychology, the history of cultural psychology, cultural evolution and cultural ecology, methods, language and nonverbal communication, cognition, and perception. Through coverage of social behaviour, the book challenges students to explore the self, identity, and personality; social relationships, social attitudes, and intergroup contact in a global world; and social influence, aggression, violence, and war. Sections addressing growth and development include human development and its processes, transitions, and rituals across the lifespan, and socializing agents, socialization practices, and child activities. Additionally, the book features discussions of emotion and motivation, mental health and psychopathology, and future directions for cultural psychology. Chapters contain teaching and learning tools including case studies, multidisciplinary contributions, thought-provoking questions, class and experiential activities, chapter summaries, and additional print and media resources.

Social Sciences and Cultural Studies

Social Sciences and Cultural Studies
Author: Asunción Lopez-Varela Azcárate
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2012-09-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9535107429

This is a unique and groundbreaking collection of questions and answers coming from higher education institutions on diverse fields and across a wide spectrum of countries and cultures. It creates routes for further innovation, collaboration amidst the Sciences (both Natural and Social) and the Humanities and the private and the public sectors of society. The chapters speak across socio-cultural concerns, education, welfare and artistic sectors under the common desire for direct responses in more effective ways by means of interaction across societal structures.

The World of Science Education

The World of Science Education
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 703
Release: 2019-02-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9087907478

The focus of this Handbook is on North American (Canada, US) science education and the scholarship that most closely supports this program. The reviews of the research situate what has been accomplished within a given field in North American rather an than international context.

Where Culture and Mind Meet

Where Culture and Mind Meet
Author: Brady Wagoner
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2021-01-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1648022588

Cultural psychology explores the mutual constitution of persons-minds and socialcultural worlds. It aims to be both transdisciplinary and international in its approach, and to develop theoretical models that remain faithful to people’s lived experiences. This volume further advances these objectives through an exploration of core concepts (especially, normativity, liminality, and resistance), cultural psychology’s foundations in philosophy, and the translation of theory into a methodology for investigating distinctly human ways of relating to the world.