Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Problem of Determinants and Mechanisms of Child Development; The Structure and Content of the Book
- 1 Vygotsky's Approach to Child Development
- 2 The Neo-Vygotskian Elaboration of Vygotsky's Approach to Child Development
- 3 First Year of Life: Emotional Interactions With Caregivers as the Leading Activity of Infants
- 4 Second and Third Years of Life: Object-Centered Joint Activity With Adults as the Leading Activity of Toddlers
- 5 Three- to Six-Year-Olds: Sociodramatic Play as the Leading Activity During the Period of Early Childhood
- 6 The Period of Middle Childhood: Learning at School as Children's Leading Activity
- 7 The Period of Adolescence: Interactions With Peers as the Leading Activity of Adolescents
- Conclusion The Neo-Vygotskian Approach to Child Development: Accomplishments and Shortcomings
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
7 - The Period of Adolescence: Interactions With Peers as the Leading Activity of Adolescents
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Problem of Determinants and Mechanisms of Child Development; The Structure and Content of the Book
- 1 Vygotsky's Approach to Child Development
- 2 The Neo-Vygotskian Elaboration of Vygotsky's Approach to Child Development
- 3 First Year of Life: Emotional Interactions With Caregivers as the Leading Activity of Infants
- 4 Second and Third Years of Life: Object-Centered Joint Activity With Adults as the Leading Activity of Toddlers
- 5 Three- to Six-Year-Olds: Sociodramatic Play as the Leading Activity During the Period of Early Childhood
- 6 The Period of Middle Childhood: Learning at School as Children's Leading Activity
- 7 The Period of Adolescence: Interactions With Peers as the Leading Activity of Adolescents
- Conclusion The Neo-Vygotskian Approach to Child Development: Accomplishments and Shortcomings
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Rephrasing the words of Lerner and Villarruel (1996, p. 130), adolescence is a period about which much is known, but little has been explained. There is no shortage of descriptions of specific characteristics of cognition, personality, emotional life, and social behavior of adolescents. Adolescence is associated with the ability to think at the formal-logical level (Inhelder & Piaget, 1955/1958), which leads, in particular, to a qualitatively new level of moral reasoning (Kohlberg, 1981, 1984); with adolescents' search for personal identity (Erikson, 1968); with a the development of new sexual desires and sexual intercourse becoming the major motive of adolescent behavior (Freud, 1920/1965); with a substantially increased role of peer interactions in adolescents' lives (Brown, 1990); and with the period of “storm and stress” characterized by conflicts with parents, mood disruptions, and adolescents' risk behavior (see Arnett, 1999, for an overview). What is missing, however, is a holistic explanation of the reasons for the development of all these neo-formations. Whereas different theories (Erikson, 1968; Freud, 1920/1965; Inhelder & Piaget, 1955/1958) make it possible to explain some of the accomplishments and problems that are typical of the period of adolescence in industrialized societies, none of them gives a holistic explanation of the reasons for all the neo-formations during this period. The neo-Vygotskian approach to the analysis of the period of adolescence is not an exception to this rule.
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- The Neo-Vygotskian Approach to Child Development , pp. 203 - 228Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005