Psychology as a science took shape not so long ago, it is much younger than mathematics, physics, medicine, physiology. Russian scientists who lived and worked both in pre-revolutionary Russia and in the Soviet period made a rather significant contribution to its development and formation.
THEM. Sechenov
The founder of psychology in Russia is considered to be I. M. Sechenov, and the starting point of the development of this science was his book "Reflexes of the Brain" (1863). In his writings, the scientist concludes that mental processes occurring in the human brain have the same development pattern as reflexes: they originate in external influences, are processed by the central nervous system, and then a reaction follows (response to a stimulus).
Studies of conditioned reflexes I. P. Pavlov
Understanding the nature of the psyche, laid down by I. M. Sechenov, was deepened and expanded by another Russian scientist I. P. Pavlov. His works were aimed at studying the conditioned reflex activity of the organism and the physiological nature of mental phenomena. Many have heard of his experiments on dogs, explaining the peculiarities of the formation of sensations during the development of conditioned reflex reactions.
Cultural-historical theory of L. S. Vygotsky
The above scientists drew their conclusions about the formation of the human psyche without taking into account the influence of cultural and historical factors. L. S. Vygotsky put forward theories about the relationship between the development of higher mental functions (he was the first to introduce this concept into psychology) and intelligent speech. Moreover, his concept assumes that this connection is natural both for the individual development of a person and for the formation of speech in general.
In addition, Lev Semenovich pointed to the interiorization of higher mental functions: attention, memory, thinking, that is, at the initial stage of development, these functions are external manifestations, and only later are they formed as internal parts of the psyche. Vygotsky wrote a lot about development in the process of learning - the transfer of accumulated experience to an adult child.
Other big names
Practical psychology was founded by the Austrian Z. Freud, but its experimental part with the use of objective research methods was developed thanks to the activities of V. M. Bekhterev. A number of studies on the study of interiorization, as a process of mastering weapon-symbolic actions, were carried out by A. N. Leontiev.
P. Ya. Halperin considered mental functions as a result of a person's mobile activity, that is, as a reaction to changes in external conditions and stimuli. The practical application of his theory makes the learning process easier.
A. V. Zaporozhets, D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov are the first Soviet scientists to study child psychology. D. B. Elkonin is the author of the periodization of age-related development, which speaks of the discreteness (unevenness) of the formation of the child's psyche.
S. L. Rubinstein went down in the history of Russian psychology as the creator of a fundamental and extensive work on the problems of this science called "Foundations of General Psychology."
