Jaan Valsiner

Bio: Jaan Valsiner is an academic researcher from Aalborg University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Cultural psychology & Dialogical self. The author has an hindex of 55, co-authored 384 publications receiving 12659 citations. Previous affiliations of Jaan Valsiner include University of Luxembourg & University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

CATALYSIS: Cultural Constructions and the Conditions for Change

Abstract: In the inaugural issue of JISS, Puopolo (2009) suggested that a careful examination of affective catalysts in the model of abductive reasoning is needed. Along these lines, I here address: (1) the process of catalysis and (2) the concept of a catalyst. These will be addressed by concentrating particularly on enzymatic catalysis and autocatalysis. Moving from the life sciences to the social sciences, I then adapt and develop the process of catalysis and the concept of a catalyst in psychology. A psychological catalyst—or a semiotic catalyzer—is conceptualized as a particular meaning—a point-like sign, a fieldlike sign, or a hypergeneralized sign—within the psychological system that provides the conditions necessary to enable the production and regulation of other meanings in the stream of consciousness of the person. The goal of this paper is to adapt and develop the theoretical process of catalysis and the concept of a catalyst in the psychological sciences and chart out its empirical relevance.

Homeless in the mind: A case-history of personal life in and out of a close orthodox community

Abstract: A sociogenetic theoretical framework is applied to Berger, Berger, and Kellner's (1973) concept of cultural homelessness, extending its use beyond the sociological effects of modernity to the psychological development of persons who are closely tied to their collective-cultural contexts. The theory is grounded in the bidirectionality of cultural transmission, and the construction of culture in different cultural members. The construction of internal personal cultures is brought about by the individual with the support of social others. The processes by which cultural messages are internalized and externalize back into the culture explain how feeling at home or not at home are normal aspects of socialization. An illustrative example of a retrospective case-history of a woman's feeling of homelessness in an ultraorthodox community shows how the individual internalizes and transforms cultural norms. Examples of further applications of the theoretical principles are presented, and implications of feelings of homelessness for understanding the normal processes of socialization.

Culture and cognition in developmental perspective.

Abstract: In this chapter we focus on the relation between culture and cognition from a developmental perspective, emphasizing learning to read as a way of illustrating the co-constructive nature of development. The ideas expressed in the previous chapters have provided the perfect context within which to provide a developmental approach to this issue. Magnusson and Cairns's first proposition stated, “An individual develops and functions psychologically as an integrated organism. Maturational, experiential, and cultural contributions are fused in ontogeny. Single aspects do not develop and function in isolation, and they should not be divorced from the totality in analysis” (Magnusson & Cairns, Chap. 2). This proposition was illustrated nicely by Gottlieb (Chap. 4), who focused primarily on interactions (or coactions) at the genetic level, but persuasively argued that human functioning cannot be understood without consideration of the complexity of interactions at all levels, from the cellular to the cultural. In fact, many of the points raised by Gottlieb with reference to geneticorganismic interaction would apply equally to the relation between individuals and culture. For example, his statements, “Genetic activity (expression) can be influenced by events inside and outside the cell, including the environment of the organism” and “Considerable morphological and behavioral ‘evolution’ can occur without changing the genetic composition of an interbreeding population,” could with little difficulty be rewritten to account for the development of individuals in cultures, including change from within the culture and without.

Where is culture within the dialogical perspectives on the self

Abstract: This Special Issue covers recent international efforts to domesticate the general theoretical framework of the Dialogical Self (DS) within cultural contexts where the Self/Other distinctions have historically been less clearly differentiated than in the occidental societies. This collective effort demonstrates that the theoretical perspective is applicable universally—yet with modifications in the ways in which its basic concepts— voice, I-position, polyphony of voices—have been originally set. The dynamic affective complexes such as shimcheong (in Korea—Choi & Han, 2008; Han & Choi, 2008) or utushi (Morioka, 2008a, 2008b) require a new notion of opposition where the contrasts between the opposing poles feed into each other without a rupture—yet constituting a dynamic barrier in itself. The Dialogical Self is contextualized in an equally multiple context of social relationship hierarchies (Chaudhary, 2008; van Meijl, 2008) which both calls for functional fluidity of the DS processes (to adapt to changes in the relationships) and limits the differentiation in the Self in relation to the Other. The form of operation of the voices and their derived I-positions is likely to be imaginal first (Ruck & Slunecko, 2008) and verbal only as a translation from the affective-visual code. This brings the cultural nature of DS close to the efforts of contemporary semiotics to understand the operation of non-verbal signs in human minds and environments. The 19 papers (5 target papers and 13 commentaries with two responses) in this special issue are valuable contributions to the DS framework by expanding and challenging the DS theory in diverse dimensions.

Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The emergence of learning activity as a historical form of human learning 3. The zone of proximal development as the basic category of expansive research 4. The instruments of expansion 5. Toward an expansive methodology 6. Epilogue.

Remembering. A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology, Cambridge (University Press) 1964.

Abstract: Part I. Experimental Studies: 2. Experiment in psychology 3. Experiments on perceiving III Experiments on imaging 4-8. Experiments on remembering: (a) The method of description (b) The method of repeated reproduction (c) The method of picture writing (d) The method of serial reproduction (e) The method of serial reproduction picture material 9. Perceiving, recognizing, remembering 10. A theory of remembering 11. Images and their functions 12. Meaning Part II. Remembering as a Study in Social Psychology: 13. Social psychology 14. Social psychology and the matter of recall 15. Social psychology and the manner of recall 16. Conventionalism 17. The notion of a collective unconscious 18. The basis of social recall 19. A summary and some conclusions.

Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again

Abstract: From the Publisher: The old opposition of matter versus mind stubbornly persists in the way we study mind and brain. In treating cognition as problem solving, Andy Clark suggests, we may often abstract too far from the very body and world in which our brains evolved to guide us. Whereas the mental has been treated as a realm that is distinct from the body and the world, Clark forcefully attests that a key to understanding brains is to see them as controllers of embodied activity. From this paradigm shift he advances the construction of a cognitive science of the embodied mind.