German psychologist W. Stern was educated at the University of Berlin, where he studied with the famous psychologist G. Ebbinghaus. After receiving his doctorate, he was invited in 1897 to the university in Breslau, where he worked as a professor of psychology until 1916. While remaining a professor at this university, Stern founded the Institute of Applied Psychology in Berlin in 1906 and at the same time began publishing the Journal of Applied Psychology, in which he, following Münsterberg, developed the concept of psychotechnics. However, his greatest interest is in research on the mental development of children. Therefore, in 1916, he accepted the offer to become the successor to the famous child psychologist E. Meimann as head of the psychological laboratory at the University of Hamburg and editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. At this time, he was also one of the initiators of the organization of the Hamburg Psychological Institute, which was opened in 1919. In 1933, Stern emigrated to Holland, and in 1934 he moved to the United States, where he was offered a professorship at Duke University, which he held until the end of his life.
Stern was one of the first psychologists to place the analysis of child personality development at the center of his research interests. The study of the integral personality and the patterns of its formation was the goal of the theory of personalism he developed. This was especially important in that period, that is, in the tenth years of the 20th century, since studies of child development at that time were reduced mainly to the study cognitive development children. Stern also paid attention to these issues, exploring the stages of development of thinking and speech. However, from the very beginning, he sought to study not the isolated development of individual cognitive processes, but the formation of an integral structure, the child’s persona.
Stern believed that personality is a self-determining, consciously and purposefully acting integrity that has a certain depth (conscious and unconscious layers). He proceeds from the fact that mental development is self-development, the self-development of a person’s existing inclinations, which is directed and determined by the environment in which the child lives. This theory was called the theory of convergence, since it took into account the role of two factors - heredity and environment in mental development. The influence of these two. factors are analyzed by Stern using the example of some basic activities of children, mainly games. He was the first to highlight the content and form of gaming activity, proving that the form is unchangeable and is associated with innate qualities, for the exercise of which the game was created. At the same time, the content is set by the environment, helping the child understand in what specific activity he can realize the qualities inherent in him. Thus, the game serves not only to exercise innate instincts (as the famous psychologist K. Gross believed), but also to socialize children.
Stern understood development itself as growth, differentiation and transformation of mental structures. At the same time, speaking about differentiation, he, like representatives of Gestalt psychology, understood development as a transition from vague, indistinct images to clearer, structured and distinct gestalts of the surrounding world. This transition to a clearer and more adequate reflection of the environment goes through several stages and transformations that are characteristic of all basic mental processes. Mental development tends not only to self-development, but also to self-preservation, that is, to the preservation of the individual, innate characteristics of each child, especially the preservation of the individual pace of development.
Stern is one of the founders of differential psychology, the psychology of individual differences. He argued that there is not only a normativity common to all children of a certain age, but also an individual normativity that characterizes this particular child. He was also one of the initiators of experimental research on children, testing and, in particular, improved the methods of measuring the intelligence of children proposed by A. Binet to measure not mental age, but intelligence quotient (IQ).
The preservation of individual characteristics is possible due to the fact that the mechanism of mental development is introception, that is, the child’s connection of his internal goals with those set by others. Stern believed that the potential capabilities of a child at birth are quite uncertain; he himself is not yet aware of himself and his inclinations. The environment helps the child to understand himself and organizes him inner world, giving it a clear, formalized and conscious structure. At the same time, the child tries to take from the environment everything that corresponds to his potential inclinations, putting a barrier in the way of those influences that contradict his internal inclinations. The conflict between external (environmental pressure) and internal inclinations of the child also has a positive significance for his development, since it is the negative emotions that this discrepancy causes in children that serves as a stimulus for the development of self-awareness. Frustration, delaying introception, forces the child to look closely at himself and at the environment in order to understand what exactly he needs to feel good and what exactly in the environment causes him negative attitude. Thus, Stern argued that emotions are associated with the assessment of the environment, help the process of socialization of children and the development of their reflection.
The integrity of development is manifested not only in the fact that emotions and thinking are closely related to each other, but also in the fact that the direction of development of all mental processes is the same - from the periphery to the center. Therefore, first, children develop contemplation (perception), then representation (memory), and then thinking, that is, from vague ideas they move on to knowledge of the essence of the environment.
Stern believed that in the development of speech, a child makes one significant discovery - the discovery of the meaning of a word, the discovery that each object has its own name, which he makes at about one and a half years.
This period, which Stern first spoke about, later became the starting point for the study of speech by almost all scientists who dealt with this problem. Having identified 5 main stages in the development of speech in children, Stern not only described them in detail, in fact developing the first standards for the development of speech in children under 5 years of age, but also tried to highlight the main trends that determine this development, the main one of which is the transition from passive to active speech and from word to sentence. Great value There was Stern's study of the uniqueness of autistic thinking, its complexity and secondary importance in relation to realistic thinking, as well as his analysis of the role of drawing in the mental development of children. The main thing here is Stern's discovery of the role of the scheme in helping children move from ideas to concepts. It was Stern's idea that helped the discovery new form thinking - visual-schematic or model thinking, on the basis of which many modern concepts developmental education for children.
Thus, it can be said without exaggeration that V. Stern influenced almost all areas of child psychology - from the development of cognitive processes to personality development, emotions or the periodization of child development, as well as the views of many outstanding psychologists who dealt with the problems of child mental development.
Literature
Stern V. Differential psychology. 1911.
Stern V. Language of children. 1907.
Stern V. Personality and thing. 1906-1924.
American psychologist and sociologist J. Baldwin was one of the few at that time who called for studying not only cognitive, but also emotional and personal development. The social environment, along with innate prerequisites, was considered by him as the most important factor in development, since the formation of a system of norms and values, a person’s self-esteem, occurs within society. Baldwin was one of the first to note social role games and considered it as a tool of socialization, emphasizing that it prepares a person for life in a system of complex social relations.
Baldwin substantiated the concept of cognitive development in children. He argued that cognitive development includes several stages, beginning with the development of innate motor reflexes. Then comes the stage of speech development, and this process is completed by the stage of logical thinking. Baldwin identified special mechanisms for the development of thinking - assimilation (interiorization of environmental influences) and accommodation (changes in the body). These provisions of Baldwin's theory influenced the views of J. Piaget.
The German psychologist W. Stern (1871-1938), the author of the theory of personalism, placed the analysis of the spiritual development of the child and the formation of the holistic structure of the child’s personality at the center of his research interests. Stern believed that personality is a self-determining, consciously and purposefully acting integrity that has a certain depth (conscious and unconscious layers). He proceeded from the fact that mental development is self-development, the self-development of a person’s existing inclinations, directed and determined by the environment in which the child lives. Stern understood development itself as growth, differentiation and transformation of mental structures, as a transition from vague, indistinct images to clearer, structured and distinct gestalts of the surrounding world. The potential capabilities of a child at birth are quite uncertain; he himself is not yet aware of himself and his inclinations. The environment helps the child become aware of himself, organizes his inner world, and gives it a clear, formalized and conscious structure. At the same time, the child tries to take from the environment everything that corresponds to his potential inclinations, putting a barrier in the way of those influences that contradict his internal inclinations. This theory was called the theory of convergence (mutual influence) of two factors, since it took into account the role played in mental development by two factors - heredity and environment.
Table 6
The theory of convergence of two factors by V. Stern
Main subject Mental development
research
Research methods Observations
Basic concepts: Inclinations, heredity, giftedness
Main ideas Stages of child development, stages of muscle formation
language, speech and other aspects of the child’s psyche
Development factors Convergence of hereditary and environmental factors
Valuable Principle of Personal Integrity. Interaction,
mutual influence of external and internal factors
Directions of criticism Emphasis on heredity, and the environment as external
a factor that already initially shows this direction
The conflict between external influences (environmental pressure) and the child’s internal inclinations is, according to Stern, of fundamental importance for development, since it is negative emotions that serve as a stimulus for the development of self-awareness. Thus, Stern argued that emotions are associated with an assessment of the environment; they help the process of socialization and the development of reflection in children. Stern argued that there is not only a normativity common to all children of a certain age, but also an individual normativity that characterizes a particular child. Among the most important individual properties, he named individual rates of mental development, which are manifested in the speed of learning. Stern also paid attention to issues of cognitive development, studying the stages of development of thinking and speech, and for the first time carried out systematic observation of the process of speech formation. The results of this work were reflected in Stern’s book “The Language of Children” (1907). Having identified five main stages in the development of speech in children, Stern described them in detail, in fact developing the first standards for the development of speech in children under 5 years of age. He was the first to draw attention to a turning point in the development of children's speech (at the age of about one and a half years), which is associated with the child's discovery of the “meaning” of a word, namely, that each object has its own name; highlighted the main trends speech development- transition from passive to active speech and from word to sentence. V. Stern's ideas influenced almost all areas of children's
psychology (study of cognitive processes, study of the development of emotions, personality, periodization of development) and on the views of many outstanding psychologists who dealt with problems of the child’s psyche.
Mental development of a child: influence of the environment
Sociologist and ethnopsychologist M. Mead sought to show the leading role of sociocultural factors in the mental development of children. Comparing the features of puberty, the formation of the structure of self-awareness, self-esteem among representatives of different nationalities, she emphasized the dependence of these processes primarily on cultural traditions, the characteristics of raising and teaching children, and the dominant style of communication in the family. The concept of enculturation, introduced by her, as a learning process in the conditions of a specific culture, enriches general concept socialization. Mead identified three types of cultures in the history of mankind - postfigurative (children learn from their predecessors), cofigurative (children and adults learn mainly from their peers, contemporaries) and prefigurative (adults can learn from their children). Her views had a great influence on the concepts of personality psychology and developmental psychology; it clearly showed the role of the social environment and culture in the formation of the psyche
child. Thus, we have traced the formulation of the problem of determining mental development in the theoretical positions and empirical studies of a number of major psychologists.
SELF-TEST QUESTIONS:
1. Outline the main trends in the development of developmental psychology during the first third of the 20th century.
2. What are the fundamental positions on the problem of determining human mental development?
3. How was the issue of determining the mental development of children resolved in the approaches of M. Montessori and A. Gesell? What pedagogical conclusions logically follow from their views?
4. What is the main idea of K. Bühler’s theory?
5. What are the limitations of the method of zoopsychological experiment in child psychology? What can and cannot be installed with it?
EXERCISE
Read an excerpt from the memoirs of A. Gesell, a participant in the experiments. Find references to Gesell's research design and child development methods: “I remember Dr. Gesell well. We first met him in New Haven when I was still a child: my mother brought me, a 10-month-old baby, to his laboratory for another examination. Dr. Gesell always willingly talked to my mother about me, asked a lot of questions and at the same time wrote down in his notebook everything that she told him. Father usually did not come with us to these examinations. As soon as we appeared in the laboratory, I was placed under some kind of glass dome and an unimaginable commotion began around me. I couldn’t see what all these people in white coats were doing there, outside, but they observed everything that was happening under the dome, but I didn’t know about it then. I was allowed to play with a variety of beautiful toys, and when I learned to speak, they began to ask me a lot of questions. I was one of hundreds of babies studied at the Yale Children's Clinic, founded by Dr. Gesell in 1911. I was lucky when I grew up, I found myself participating in the most extensive research and experiments in the history of science on the problems of child development, starting from birth. Now it is clear to me that those long conversations between Dr. Gesell and my mother were structured like interviews: he asked questions - first simply about my well-being, and then, when I went to school, about my behavior and successes, and my mother answered them in detail. All my games were recorded on film (the film camera was attached to the metal parts of the glass dome. These games and questions were a series of tests designed to find out all the changes that occurred in me from visit to visit to the famous clinic of Dr. Gesell" (Flake-Hobson K. , Robinson B.E., Skin P. Development of the child and his relationships with others, M., 1992, pp. 36-37).
1. Galperin P.Ya. To the problem of biological in human mental development // Age and educational psychology: Texts. M., 1992. pp. 34-49.
2.The nature of a child in the mirror of autobiography: Tutorial in Pedagogical Anthropology / Ed. B.M. Bim-bada and O.E. Koshelevoy. M., 1998.
3. The role of heredity and environment in the formation of human individuality / Ed. I. V. Ravich-Scherbo. M., 1988.
4. Rubinshtein S.A. Fundamentals of general psychology. M., 1989.
5.Leach P. Children first: What our society must do - and is not doing - for our children today. N.Y., 1994.
Quotes: 1. Individuality always means singularity. Each individual is a picture, a picture that never exists anywhere else in a single form. 2. I value, therefore... I have value (Ich werte, also bin ich...Wert). 3. By “individuality” we understand the individual as a whole in his uniqueness. 4. There is no gestalt without the personality producing it.
Achievements:
Professional, social position: Outstanding German psychologist and philosopher.
Main contributions (known for): The founder of personalistic psychology and the European direction of psychotechnics, is considered one of the pioneers of differential, child, educational and legal psychology. Creator of the concept of intellectual quotient (IQ)
Deposits:
1. Personalistic psychology. Stern defined psychology as “the science of the individual who has experience or is capable of acquiring experience.”
1.1. Stern viewed personality as a central category, as a unique, living and genuine whole, endowed with a desire for a goal, as a primary, real, self-sufficient and self-valuable unity, internally determined and open to the world.
1.2. Personality forms the meaning-forming context in which the psyche itself and all mental processes acquire meaning. “There is no Gestalt without a personality producing it” (Keine Gestalt ohne Gestalter). Psychology itself appears only as a part of personalism.
1.3. He introduced the concept "personal world"(gelebten Welt) (1935), in which man actually exists and which differs from the “world of experience” (erlebten Weltn) and the “objective world” (objektiven Welt).
1.4. He stated that personality development is not a mechanical exchange between a person and his environment, but involves a willingness to realize the meanings that are offered by the outside world.
When considering the motivational sphere, Stern emphasized the importance will, which involves the conscious representation of a goal.
1.5. He suggested "convergence theory" according to which personality is formed as a result of the interaction between heredity and social environment, and also introduced the concept introception, understood as the transformation of external goals into the individual’s own goals.
2. Differential psychology. In his book Differential Psychology (1900), Stern was one of the first to turn to the systematic study of individual differences and laid the foundations of the discipline of the same name.
In 1897, Stern invented a tone variator, which allowed him to significantly expand the possibilities of studying human sound perception.
3. The concept of intelligence quotient. He was one of the first to conduct intelligence testing and introduced the concept of intelligence quotient, or IQ (1912), calculated as the ratio of mental age to chronological age. He developed the theory of giftedness and was the initiator of the use of tests for career guidance and selection of gifted children.
4. Child and educational psychology. Stern is especially famous for his contributions to child psychology, especially his research on the development of language in children (for example, he said that a child, at the age of about 1.5 years, makes one significant discovery - that every thing has its own name, and every word its meaning). Stern was the first to put the development of a child’s holistic personality at the center of his research interests. Beginning with the birth of their first child in 1900, Stern, along with his wife Clara, began recording observations of the psychological development of their own children. Later, based on these diaries, two monographs were published. He identified 5 main stages in the development of speech in children, and identified the main trends that determine its development.
Game theory. He was the first to identify the content and form of children's play, and considered it as necessary condition for the development of the child's personality.
Development Stern understood it as growth, differentiation and transformation of mental structures, as a transition from vague, indistinct images to clearer, structured and distinct gestalts.
5. Legal (forensic) psychology. Stern is known for his research into the reliability of eyewitness testimony and the psychology of judicial procedures. He noted that witnesses' recollections may be inaccurate and time dependent.
6. In philosophy Stern developed the concept personalism, which is a comprehensive worldview based on the distinction between man and thing. In his theory, he tried to integrate the natural and human sciences, consciousness and body, causality and teleology, associationism and holism. Stern viewed the world as a hierarchy of “personalities” of various levels (adult, child, animal, plant, crystal). He distinguished personality, as a kind of internally active and purposeful integrity, from a thing, which is a sum of parts determined from the outside. A person is capable of evaluating, things can be valued, a person is valuable in itself, but things are not.
7. In 1906 Stern founded in New Babelsberg near Berlin Institute of Applied Psychology(together with his student Otto Lipmann), and in 1907 “ Journal of Applied Psychology", in which he developed the concept of psychotechnics. In 1919 Stern founded Psychological laboratory at the University of Hamburg, where he also published the Journal of Educational Psychology and Experimental Pedagogy.
Main works: On the psychology of individual differences (differential psychology) (1900), Children's speech “Die Kindersprache” (with Clara Stern) (1907), Memories, statements and lies in early childhood (with Clara Stern) (1909), Methodological foundations of differential psychology (1911 ), Psychological methods of testing intelligence (1912), Psychology of early childhood up to the age of six (1914), Psychology and personalism (1917), Foundations of personalistic philosophy (1918), Personality and thing: Systematic philosophical worldview of human personality (1918), Philosophy of meaning ( 1924), Autobiography “Selbstdarstellun” (1927), Comprehension of the science of personality (1930), General psychology from the point of view of personalistics (1935, 1938).
Life:
Origin: Grandson of the German-Jewish philosopher reformer Sigismund Stern. Father Sigismund Stern (small business owner), mother Rosa Stern (cousin of her husband).
Education: He graduated from the University of Berlin. Friedrich-Wilhelm (1888-1893) (now Humboldt University), where in 1893 he received his doctorate in psychology (Doctoral dissertation “Analogies in popular thought.”
Influenced: Stern was a student at Ebbinghaus and was influenced by Alfred Binet, founder of France's first Laboratory of Experimental Psychology.
Main stages of professional activity: He taught at the University of Breslau (Wroclaw) (1897-1916), at the University of Hamburg (1916-1933), where he also worked as director of the Psychological Laboratory until 1933. In 1931 he was elected president of the German Psychological Society.
In 1933, fleeing the Nazi regime, he emigrated first to Holland and then to the USA, where he taught at Duke University (1933-1938).
Main stages of personal life: V. Stern was married to Clara Josephy, a psychologist. They had 3 children: Hilda, Eva and Gunther, who became a famous German writer and philosopher.
Highlight: Stern was the father of the German writer and philosopher Gunther Anders.
Stern(Stern) William(1871-1938) - German psychologist and philosopher.
He studied at the University of Berlin under Ebbinghaus. In 1897-1916. at the University of Breslau, first associate professor, then professor. Stern acted as an original scientist in five areas of psychology: 1) he announced the problem of individuality in psychology - “On the Psychology of Individual Differences” (“Uber Psychologie der individuellen Differenzen”, 1900) revised into the book “Differential Psychology” (“Die Differentielle Psychologie” 1911); 2) he contributed to legal psychology. In 1902, the work “Towards the Psychology of Witness Testimony” (“Zur Psychologie der Aussa-ge”) appeared; 3) during the same period, he began studying the psychology of the child: in 1907, his “Children’s Language” (“Die Kindersp-rache”) was published and in 1908, “Memory, Testimony and Lies at an Early Age” (“Erinnerung, Aussage und Luge in der ersten Kindheit"); 4) his publications of this period also presented applied psychology - “Applied Psychology” (“Angewandte Psychologie”, 1903), in which Stern, following Münsterberg, develops the concept of psychotechnics. In 1906, Stern founded the Institute of Applied Psychology in Berlin and the Journal of Applied Psychology; 5) in 1900 he began work on the foundation of the philosophy of critical personalism. In 1906, the first volume of his fundamental three-volume work “Person and Thing” (“Person und Sache”) was published. The last - third - volume was published in 1924.
Stern's research in the field of child and educational psychology received the greatest popularity and recognition. Using the test method, he introduces the concept of mental giftedness coefficient (IQ) in the book “Psychological methods for testing mental giftedness in their application to school-age children” (M., 1915). In the book that followed this book, "Psychology of Early Childhood up to the Age of Six" (M. 1915), Stern sets out the theory of the mental development of the child. In 1916, Stern became the successor of E. Maimann at the University of Hamburg as head of the psychological laboratory and at the same time editor " Journal of Educational Psychology" (Zeitschrift fur padagogische Psychologie). He contributed to the founding of the Hamburg" Psychological Institute (1919), which became a major research center in the field of Educational and Vocational Psychology. In 1925-1928. Stern paid great attention to the study of adolescence and youth (The beginning of maturity - "Anfange der Reifezeit", 1925). In 1933, Stern emigrated from Germany to Holland. Here he worked on the book “General Psychology Based on Personalism” (“Allgemeine Psychologie auf personalistischer Grundlage”, 1935). In 1934-1938 - Professor at Duke University in the USA.
Stern's intensive and fruitful activity in various fields of psychology is presented in Soviet psychological literature with varying completeness. The least known remains his work in the field of psychological and philosophical problems of personality.
Lit.: Allport G. The personalistic Psychology of William Stern. - In: Wolman V.V. (ed.). Historical roots of contemporary psychology, chap. 15. N.Y., 1968.
William Stern (1871-1938) - German
psychologist and philosopher, considered one of the
pioneers of differential psychology and
personality psychology. Had a great influence
on the emerging child psychology.
who placed at the center of their research
interests analysis of child personality development.
Main task: studying the holistic personality,
patterns of its formation.
This was especially important at the beginning of the century, since
Child development research at that time was limited to
mainly to the study of cognitive
processes. Stern also paid attention to these
questions, exploring the stages of development of thinking and speech.
The results of this work are reflected in the book
Stern "The Language of Children" (1907). However, he sought
explore the non-isolated development of individual
cognitive processes, and the formation of a holistic
structures, child's persona.
Convergence theory
Stern believed that personality is self-determining,consciously
And
purposefully
current
integrity having a certain depth
(conscious and unconscious layers).
He proceeded from the fact that mental development is
self-development, which is directed and determined by that
environment in which the child lives. This theory received
the name of the theory of convergence, since it took into account
the role of two factors - heredity and environment - in
mental development. The influence of these two factors Stern
analyzed using the example of some main types
children's activities, mainly games. Development
Stern
understood
How
height,
differentiation and transformation of mental
structures. At the same time, he understood development as a transition
from vague, indistinct images to clearer ones,
structured and distinct gestalts
the surrounding world. This transition to a clearer and
adequate reflection of the environment passes
through several stages, characteristic of all
basic mental processes. Mental
development tends not only to self-development,
but also to self-preservation, i.e. to conservation
innate characteristics of each individual,
first of all, the individual pace of development.
Differential psychology
Stern argued that there is not onlycommon to all children of a certain age
normativity,
But
And
normativity
individual, characterizing a specific
child.
Among the most important individual
properties he just called individual
pace
mental
development,
which
is also evident in the speed of learning. Violation
this individual pace can lead to
serious deviations, including
neuroses. Stern was also one of the initiators
experimental study of children,
testing.
IN
in particular,
He
improved
ways
measurements
children's intelligence, created by A. Wiene,
proposing to measure not mental age,
and intelligence quotient is IQ. Saving
individual
features is possible due to the fact that
the mechanism of mental development is
introception, i.e. connection by a person of his
internal goals with those that are set
those around you.
Frustration, delaying introception,
forces the child to look at himself and
surroundings in order to understand what exactly
he needs to feel good and what
specifically in the environment causes him
negative attitude. The integrity of development is not manifested
only that emotions and thinking are closely
interconnected, but also in that
direction of development of all mental
processes proceed in the same way - from the periphery to
center. Therefore, children first develop
contemplation
(perception),
Then
representation (memory), and then thinking. The study was of great importance
Stern
originality
autistic
thinking, its complexity and secondary nature
relation to the realistic, as well as
analysis of the role of drawing in the mental
children's development.
The main thing here is detection
role of the scheme in helping children move from
representations to concepts. This is Stern's idea
helped the discovery of a new form of visual-schematic, or model, thinking. The work of V. Stern is presented in his book
"Mental giftedness: Psychological
methods for testing mental talent in their
application to school-age children"
(1997).
It says that in youth
age
arises
new
quality
self-awareness. Stern attributes this
age the following characteristics:
introspection,
self-esteem,
self-registration,
self-avoidance.
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