Piaget and Vygotsky are two great figures in the study of evolutionary psychology and development, their theories have influenced several authors, from classic to modern, thanks to them we can understand, from a broad perspective, how children develop.
Historically, however, Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories have been categorized as completely opposite, but is that really the case?In this article we will analyze the similarities and differences between these two authors, analyzing all the information they have discovered will help us interpret it from an integrative context and give us a more complete view of human development.
- First.
- It should be understood that Piaget and Vygotsky developed their theories completely separate.
- Both of which are from different eras and from different countries.
- But it is interesting to see how they came up with similar ideas about the development process.
Then, we’ll talk about each of the key points of your theories, so we can find important connections or differences between them, let’s go a little further.
It is important to compare and evaluate how each author perceives the question of the explanation of development in general. In a first observation, it is interesting to note that Piaget and Vygotsky distanced the the the apart from the innate and empirical proposals to explain the acquisition of knowledge. Both present their theory from a constructivist paradigm.
It is curious that both start from the same general conception, based on constructivism and interactionism, for them the changes produced in development are mainly qualitative, with complex determinants of an interactive and dialectical character, so the individual is categorized as an active agent that acts in their environment to create a particular version of their reality.
However, if we start to deepen, the differences between the two authors become apparent, first of all they use different factors as the main source of knowledge, for Piaget the important thing was individual action. On the contrary, for Vygotsky, the key was interaction with the social environment.
Piaget talks about a “necessary and universal” development. Thus, development is the result of internal reorganizations of the individual, based on his objective manipulations, without the help of an external source. On the other hand, for Vygotsky, development was “contingent and contextualized”. It would be linked to the continuous internalization of cognitive-cultural means and resources acquired through interaction with the social context.
An essential aspect is that Lev Vygotsky distinguishes “natural development” and “cultural development”. This contrast is not observed and is even rejected in Piaget’s theory. This distinction between Piaget and Vygotsky shows the marked differences in their thoughts on the importance of culture.
The dichotomy created by Vygotsky shows us the dualistic approach to his theory, which is based on opposing concepts, such as biological growth (maturation) versus cultural development (learning). On the contrary, Piaget’s perspective is monistic, with the subject as the unifying reference of this contrast (social versus biological).
It may seem from what was said above that Piaget has ignored the social aspects of development, but this is not true. What happens is that he interprets or assumes the social factor in a very different way from Vygotsky’s. “For Piaget, the unit of analysis is the individual, and the social factor would be only a variable that influences processes.
For Vygotsky, on the other hand, the analysis unit is the sociocultural environment in which the individual is immersed. Individual aspects?
Who is right What is the unit and what is the external variable that influences it?These questions don’t make sense. In fact, the unit of analysis is the reference point and, of course, does not have a fixed position, it is like seeing a geometric figure from different angles, a cylinder, seen on one side, can look like a square and, on the other, a square. circle, but there’s still a cylinder.
Perhaps the biggest difference is the direction of development proposed by each of the authors, for Piaget the development is to move towards greater decentralization and socialization, that is, the individual part of the internalism towards a conception of reality.
For Vigotsky, the reverse process occurs. Knowledge is socially outside the individual. This, through internalization processes, transforms the sociocultural into something individual.