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Mind, Culture, and ActivityPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hmca20

The Psychology of Emotions and CulturalHistorical Activity Theory, Part 1Manfred Holodynski & Falk SeegerAccepted author version posted online: 12 Nov 2012.Version ofrecord first published: 25 Jan 2013.

To cite this article: Manfred Holodynski & Falk Seeger (2013): The Psychology of Emotions andCultural Historical Activity Theory, Part 1, Mind, Culture, and Activity, 20:1, 1-3

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2012.746370

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Mind, Culture, and Activity, 20: 1–3, 2013Copyright © Regents of the University of California

on behalf of the Laboratory of Comparative Human CognitionISSN 1074-9039 print / 1532-7884 onlineDOI: 10.1080/10749039.2012.746370

INTRODUCTION

The Psychology of Emotions and Cultural HistoricalActivity Theory, Part 1

It has become a truism to say that psychology has a long past but a relatively short history, whichis all the more true for the past and history of emotions. The past of emotions has often seenthem as the main characters in the history and narratives of human passions, above all as theantagonists of human rationality and clear thinking. Although theories of emotion have been anintegral part of the works of classical philosophers, such as Aristotle, Plato, Spinoza, Hume, orHobbes, emotions seem to have lost this central place in modern philosophy. Only in the lastcentury has scientific research started to seriously focus on emotions, their inner structure, andtheir function within the overall context of human activity. Since then, emotions have advancedto become an essential subject of scientific research.

A pivotal reference point for cultural-historical approaches to emotion has been L. S.Vygotsky. In several moments of his work, Vygotsky himself showed a conceptual curiosityabout human emotions. He devoted one of his Lectures on Psychology (1932/1987) to the topicof emotions, the major theses of which were elaborated at length in The Teaching about Emotions(1931–1933). In these works, Vygotsky discussed in detail the major conceptual trends and ten-sions in the literature of his time, indirectly advancing his own position. Vygotsky called forthe realization of the “intimate connection and dependency that exists between the developmentof the emotions and the development of other aspects of mental life” (Lectures on Psychology,1932/1987, p. 332).

The approach of now-classical writings in cultural-historical theory, like those of Vygotsky,Leont’ev, and other writers, was devoted to overcoming a dualistic perspective on emotionsthat saw body and mind, emotion and cognition, as opposed and contradictory. In the cultural-historical tradition, emotions are taken to be those psychological functions that signal thepersonal meaning of one’s own and others’ actions, thereby making emotions constitutive foractivity regulation as a whole. In cultural-historical work and publication, emotions, however,have not received the same attention that has been given to other psychological functions.

Correspondence should be sent to Manfred Holodynski, Institute of Psychology in Education, University of Münster,Fliednerstrasse 21, D-48149 Münster, Germany. E-mail: manfred.holodynski@uni-muenster.de

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2 INTRODUCTION

But recently, an impressive series of inspiring work has come up that demonstrates the par-ticular advantage of a culture-historical view on the analysis of emotions and their empiricalinvestigation.

The response to our call for papers for a special issue on Psychology of Emotions and CulturalHistorical Activity Theory in this journal has been overwhelming: Even though not all submittedpapers could be included, we ended up with two special issues. We decided to include papers thathad a strong research or practical component and gave answers to issues of cultural-historicalprocesses of development and enculturation. In this way, we felt, the two issues could give anoverview not only of the status of theorizing but also of the range of empirical research work onemotion.

The present issue has five articles gathered around the question of the cultural-historicaldevelopment of emotions in early ontogenesis and their subsequent transformation to culturallyshaped psychological functions. These contributions have chosen primarily Vygotsky, Leont’ev,or Bakhtin as a point of departure. The common roots of their cultural-historical approach appearas they identify signs and the use of signs in the interaction of adult and child as the decisiveinterface for culturally shaping emotions. The contributions differ in their focus on different signsystems. The second special issue, following in 2013, will collect articles focusing on middlechildhood.

The current issue starts with an introductory article by Manfred Holodynski that has a twofoldaim. On one hand, it presents an overview of theoretical approaches to emotion from an activity-oriented stance. It elucidates the methodological principles that discriminate a cultural-historicalapproach to psychological functions from other paradigms. These are the principle of develop-ment, of sign-mediation, and of internalization. On the other hand, using these principles, emotionexpression is identified as the mediating sign system whose appropriation and use in ontogeneticdevelopment lends emotions their cultural shaping in the first place.

Carolin Demuth tackles the question of how development and enculturation of infants’ emo-tions can be understood in terms of Bakhtin’s discursive approach. Her cross-cultural studyexhibits how culturally specific patterns of interpreting a baby’s expression of emotion leadto the establishment of communicative genres in mother–child interaction, which facilitates thedevelopment of culturally specific forms of emotion.

Elizabeth Jayne White also applies Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogue and genre encouraginga renewed appreciation of infant emotion as a potential source for understanding very youngchildren as strategically acting upon, as well as responding to, the environment that surroundsthem. Drawing on a case study of a toddler, the author reconstructs how very young chil-dren have learned how to strategically use polyphone expressions as they grapple with variouscaretakers.

Joscha Kärtner, Manfred Holodynski, and Viktoriya Wörmann demonstrate the cultural-historical shaping of emotion using as an example the expression of the social smile as themediating sign and joy as the socialized result of this mediation. Drawing on cross-culturalstudies, the connection between parental ethnotheories on emotion, the resulting practiceof parent–child interaction, and the culturally specific development of the social smile areillustrated.

Lavínia L. S. Magiolino and Ana Luiza B. Smolka’s article also adopts a semiotically inspiredstance on the development of emotion, personality, and sense making. As the decisive sign sys-tem, however, they identified the acquisition and use of verbal language and its meanings in the

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INTRODUCTION 3

emotional encounters between the growing child and his or her caregivers. They propose dramaand the narrative negotiation between child and caregivers as the keys to reconstruct how socialrelationship and emotional experience coevolve.

Manfred HolodynskiUniversity of Münster

Falk SeegerBielefeld University

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