Psychology as a Dialogical Science: Self and Culture Mutual Development

This book intends to translate into theoretical, methodological and practical language the principles of dialogical psychology. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, theoretical models in psychology have approached human mind and behavior from a monological point of view, a generalizing perspective which ignored the core role of social transactions in the construction of the person and sought to explain psychological functioning only looking inside individuals’ minds and brains, or in mechanist sets of reinforcement contingencies.  However, for the last 40 years, critical perspectives within the fields of psychological and sociological theoretical thinking have produced an important epistemological shift towards a new dialogical paradigm within the behavioral and social sciences. The contributions in this volume intend to present both the theoretical framework and possible applications of dialogical psychology in different fields of research and practice, such as: Developmental psychology School and educational psychology Social and personality psychology Education Social work Anthropology Art  Psychology as a Dialogical Science - Self and Culture Mutual Development will be an invaluable resource to both researchers and practitioners working in the different areas involved in the study and promotion of healthy human development by providing an alternative scientific framework to help overcome the traditional, reductionist, monological explanations of psychological phenomena. 

Table of Contents:
1. A Theoretical Approach to the Ontology of Identity in Dialogical Psychology.- 2. Dialogic Analysis of a Lesson on the Educational Controversies of Religious Holidays in a Dialogic Multi-regime College Classroom.- 3. The Development of the Dialogical Self System: Coconstruction of Dynamic Self Positionings from a Cultural Psychology Perspective.- 4. Self-imaging in the Transition to Adolescence: Exploring a Semiotic-cultural Approach to Self Development.- 5. The Fertility of the Affective-Semiotic Fields for the Dialogical Analysis of Values and Intersubjective Relationships in the Context of a Socio-Educational System.- 6. Social Identities, Prejudices, and Exclusion: The Reproduction of the (In)visibility of Different Groups in School Contexts.- 7. A Semiotic Approach to Developmental Transitions: A Young Woman’s Dedication to Religious Consecrated Life.- 8.The Semiotic Cultural Foundation of an Aesthetic Creative Analysis of Vik Muniz.- 9.Co-Authorship inInterethnic Dialogues: Reflections on the Amerindian Support Network.

About the Author :
​Maria Cláudia Santos Lopes-de-Oliveira is Professor at the Department of Developmental and School Psychology and at the Developmental and School Psychology Graduate Program at the University of Brasília, Brazil. She coordinates the Laboratory of Cultural Psychology (LABMIS/University of Brasilia) and coordinated the Dialogical Psychology working group at the Brazilian National Association of Psychological Research-ANPEPP. She also leads GAIA research group, concerned about youth development in conditions of poverty and social vulnerability, and the development of critical methodologies for professionals working in Justice and Social Assistance institutional contexts. She coedited with Angela Branco the book Diversidade e Cultura da Paz na escola: uma abordagem sociocultural [Diversity and Culture for Peace: a sociocultural approach] (2012) and Alterity, Values, and Socialization. Human Development within Educational Contexts (2018), and edited the book A Adolescência, direitos humanos e socioeducação: perspectivas interdisciplinares [Adolescence, Human Rights and socio-education: interdisciplinary perspectives].  She has been a consultant to governmental projects on social policies and human rights, especially those aiming at benefiting the developmental perspectives of adolescents in conflict with the law.  Angela Uchoa Branco is Professor Emeritus of the University of Brasilia, and teaches at Developmental and School Psychology Graduate Program, Institute of Psychology, University of Brasilia, Brazil. She was a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina, at Duke University and at Clark University (USA), and at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. Her research interests and publications include the development of human values, ethics and moral development, cooperation, competition and individualism, and the development of the dialogical self. Among her publications are the books Communication and Metacommunication in Human Development (Branco & Valsiner, 2004), Cultural Psychology of Human Values (Branco & Valsiner, 2012), Diversidade e Cultura de Paz na Escola (Branco & Lopes-de-Oliveira, 2012), Cooperação na Educação Infantil [Cooperation and Early Childhood Education] (Palmieri & Branco, 2015), and Bullying: Família e Escola Enfrentando a Questão [Bullying: Family and School Targeting the Issue] (Manzini & Branco, 2017). Sandra Ferraz Dourado Castillo Freire is author and professor of Human Development and Psychology of Education at the University of Brasilia, Brazil. She supervises pre-service teachers in K-5 public schools and graduate research projects. She coordinates the Psychology of Education unit in her department, is affiliated to the Developmental and School Psychology Graduate Program, is a vice-coordinator of the Graduate Program in Education and directs the “Dialogue –Dialogical practices in Education Laboratory”, which is committed to develop dialogical research practices within dialogical learning contexts, and to design innovative projects to achieve high-quality education for all based on sociocultural and dialogical perspectives. She has a B.A. in Pedagogy from the University of Brasilia, an M.A. in Education from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Brasília.