L.I. Bozhovich's Concept of Personality Structure and Formaition (Cultural-Historical Approach)

The paper is devoted to analysis of the scientific work of Lydia Ilyinichna Bozhovich, a renowned Soviet academic psychologist who belonged to the cultural-historical school of thought and began a student of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. Bozhovich’s research implemented cultural-historical methodology for study of the human mind and was focused on the problems of the structure and formation of child’s personality in ontogeny. The present paper links together theoretical statements that were proposed by Bozhovich in different periods of her work but nevertheless form an integral understanding of the personality formation in the childhood. The paper includes analyses of several Bozhovich’s concepts: the concept of personality; the hypothesis of the new personality formations in ontogenesis; her understanding of the affective (based on needs) sphere as the foundation of the personality development; the developmental phases of personality formation; and central newly formed personality structures at each developmental phase. The review outlines the large scale character of the research conducted in Bozovich’s laboratory