Cultural History

Vygotsky made a distinction between lower and higher mental functions, believing that all higher level mental functions begin with the social. What he means by this is that our lower level mental functions are those we are born with and represent the arsenal we originally have to interact with our environment. However, as we participate in culture and social activity, our mental process are influenced by the social interaction. Vygotsky (p. 162) theorized that our mental processes begin on a social (interpsychological) level and move toward an inner (intrapsychological) level. In other words, we internalize or transform social experiences, symbols, events, and interactions into psychological processes that provide meaning. As Vygotsky (p. 162) argues, "When we speak of a process, external means social. Any higher mental function is external because it was social at some

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Category: Psychology - C