Synopses & Reviews
Review
Nowhere will a reader find as rich and thorough a historical account of the origins and evolution of an approach that has become increasingly influential in American psychology.
Review
Michael Cole's latest book represents an impressive synthesis of the many disciplinary strands of cultural psychology, as well as an inspiration for this discipline...Cole's tale is made even more compelling by theaccount of how he was able to address the concrete theoretical, methodological, and practical problems he and his colleagues encountered while trying to take culture into consideration in their research...Cole's book should be ofinterest to a broad audience concerned with the systematic examination of culture and mind...All educators concerned with creating, evaluating, and sustaining productive environments for learning are likely to find both examples andanalytic tools that may help them in their ventures. Cole's subtitle calls cultural psychology a 'once and future discipline.' With this work, he offers a significant boost to the discipline's future.
Review
A pathbreaking volume on cultural psychology by one of the moderm masters of that subject. Full of riches.
Review
In an increasingly diverse society, the neglect of cultural differences or their banishment as 'extraneous variables' should be troubling to psychologists, and Cole's prescriptions for a new "cultural psychology"are most welcome.
Review
An immensely important book. Cole is a leading researcher and theorist whose work has for decades provided impetus for advancement in our understanding of culture and mind, and this volume offers readers a big stepforward. In it, Cole integrates cultural and historical ideas with the traditional findings and approaches of psychology, and he relates very important theoretical concepts to empirical work on cognition and learning in everyday life.By coordinating cultural ideas with processes of individual development as well as species development, this volume helps move the field beyond the nature-nurture dichotomy. Cultural Psychologyis avaluable contribution that is sorely needed.
Review
In a very readable, clear book, Cole uses the domain of cognitive development to show how a cultural framework can help us understand the dynamic interplay between individual, social, cultural, and historical linesof development...[It is] a convincing argument for why studying culture can open new horizons and frontiers.
Review
Michael Cole argues that, just as fish do not see water because they swim in it, so humans do not see culture because we swim in it. The first part of the book is a fascinating tour of the early days of psychology.He argues that when psychology tried to become a science, it stopped thinking about the culture in which individuals operate.
Review
This clear and engaging introduction to cultural psychology will have a major impact on a wide range of readers, and its sociohistoric approaches to mind will bear reading and rereading at more advanced levels.Cultural Psychologypromises to be a very important book.
Review
[This book] throws...light on Max Velman's belief that awareness should not be thought of in terms of happenings in the brain alone, but is rather located in 'events as perceived'--in amalgams of the external worldwith brain activity. After reading Cole, there's not much room for doubt that the cultural and social world of the experiencer, as well as the physical world, enters the amalgam. To reach a full understanding of conscious mind, culturemust be given as much weight as neuroscience.
Review
Culture is back in psychology. Michael Cole, one of the most significant contributors to this movement, gives a thoughtful synthesis of his three decades of theoretical and empirical research in this book. Thoughmild-mannered in his writing, Cole's proposal amounts to nothing less than a radical restructuring of the entire discipline of psychology as a scientific enterprise. Whether one agrees with him or not, anyone interested in theculture--mind relation should read it cover to cover. In fact, any psychologist, basic or applied, will be richly rewarded by a close reading of it...Cole's cultural psychology is an impressive achievement with a promising future.
Review
Does experimental psychology face a cross-cultural crisis? Michael Cole believes so, and in his engaging and lucid book...he offers the beginning of a solution. Cultural Psychologycovers a wide range of topics, sometimes retrospectively, other times with an eye towards the future, and consistently woven with the threads of his own experience--from early work in Liberia, to ongoing research in the Laboratory ofComparative Human Cognition at the University of California San Diego. Discussion varies from the theoretical to the practical to the historical, all the while painting an engaging picture of a potentially reborn discipline...The resultis an excellent integration of a widely diverse set of influences, arguing for the shortcomings of general psychology while providing a positive alternative, and demonstrating the practical application of this 'secondpsychology.'...[It] is not only an interesting and excellent piece of synthesis and scholarship, but also potentially important across the multiple disciplines of philosophy, education, cognitive science, and psychology. The book shouldtherefore appeal to a wide audience, and rightly so...Overall, Cultural Psychologyis an inspiring and prescient work.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [363]-390) and index.
About the Author
Michael Coleis Professor of Communication and Psychology and Director of the <>Laboratory of Comparative HumanCognitionat the <>University of California, San Diego.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Sheldon H. White
Introduction
Enduring Questions and Disputes
Cross-Cultural Investigations
Cognitive Development, Culture, and Schooling
From Cross-Cultural Psychology to the Second Psychology
Putting Culture in the Middle
Phylogeny and Cultural History
A Cultural Approach to Ontogeny
The Cognitive Analysis of Behavior in Context
Creating Model Activity Systems
A Multilevel Methodology for Cultural Psychology
The Work in Context
Notes
References
Acknowledgments
Index