Personality, emotions, and behavioural mastery in the thought of Lev Vygotsky

In this thesis I reveal, interpret, and apply the ideas of Lev Vygotsky concerning emotions and relationships among emotions, personality, and behavioural mastery. The application is to current debates and controversies over the use of Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) in educational contexts. I will argue that the ZPD can successfully facilitate learning and development if, and only if, it is understood and employed in the context of a holistic conception of cultural development – a conception that assumes the tripartite relationship among emotion, behavioural mastery, and personality. In the course of my investigation, I will analyze in detail the concepts of cultural development, socio-cultural-historical context, emotions, personality, mastery of behaviour, and their educational applications. I will explain what cultural development within the dialectical paradigm entails for Vygotsky. More specifically, I will discuss the mechanisms, processes, and products of cultural development (i.e., the notions of mediation, internalization, externalization, struggle, culture, and neo-formation). I also will consider whether or not cultural development goes beyond adolescence. I will examine: (a) the concepts of emotion in general, and cultural emotion in particular; (b) the way in which Vygotsky understood emotions and their purpose; (c) the notion of emotional experience (perezhivaniye), as Vygotsky’s last and most complete unit of analysis of cultural development; (d) practical considerations concerning the cultural development of emotions; and (e) the consequences of disintegrated and undeveloped emotions. I will further clarify and develop Vygotsky’s ideas concerning relations among emotions, behavioural mastery, and personality (leachnost) – the Tripartite Model – within a social-historical context. Of particular importance will be to demonstrate exactly how these ideas and relations enable the conception of a holistic cultural development. Here, I will argue that Vygotsky’s understanding of cultural development can be explicated most clearly and fully with the Tripartite Model in place. Then, I will clarify Vygotsky’s understanding of learning within the Russian cultural-historical-educational context. This critical analysis will be followed by the application of my Tripartite Model to achieve an enriched understanding of the ZPD, an understanding that also will be illustrated with respect to its implications for educational practice.