L.S. Vygotsky in the 21st Century: Impact on Psychology of Emotion (based on dissertations in English)

Abstract

Despite the popularity of L.S. Vygotsky in the English-speaking world, there is much debate about how exactly his ideas are applied in contemporary research. The article provides a quantitative analysis of dissertations on the psychology of emotions that mention L.S. Vygotsky from 2000 to 2020. It covers 177 dissertations from the ProQuest Dissertations & Thesis database, considering their topics and application of Vygotsky's ideas in the texts. It was discovered dissertations are distributed roughly equally into pedagogical (89) and psychological (88) dissertations. Half of all dissertations refers to Mind & Society, while a quarter relies on English editions of Thinking and Speech. Another 16% of dissertations contain no direct references to L.S. Vygotsky. In the majority of works, L.S. Vygotsky is mentioned either as the author of the sociocultural theory as a whole or as one of the concepts in the field of development. The methodology of the analysis of the semantic structure of consciousness and experiences is little in demand by English-speaking researchers. Only two dissertations have dealt with the concept of "experience". In 13 works, based on L. S. Vygotsky, the authors apply the ideas of mediation, development zones, development of concepts to emotions in childhood, the cultural specificity of emotional language, and consider the emotional side of speech. It is possible to trace both indirect influence of L.S. Vygotsky's legacy on psychology of emotions, testifying to graduate students' familiarity with the cultural-historical approach, and direct, through contemporary advancement of is core ideas.