My work seeks to deepen our understanding of the cultural aspects of human psychology. These are aspects of psychology which originate in, are formed by, reflect, perpetuate, and modify social processes and factors outside the individual mind. My motivation in pursuing cultural psychology is both scientific and political.
I believe that construing psychology as a cultural phenomenon is the scientifically correct way to understand psychology; a cultural analysis of psychology can also provide crucial insights for political action to improve human life.
traffic lights, advertisements, and textbooks.
Macro factors comprise the essential factors of society. Since individual psychology and behavior must be congruent with macro social forms in order for society to persist, macro cultural factors are crucial organizers of human psychology. Macro cultural factors are therefore key to scientifically understanding important facets of human psychology. They are also key to reforming society – reforming society requires transforming its essential components and these are macro factors.
competitive, aggressive, lonely, insecure, depressed, mystified, and irrational.
theories and methods are not necessarily applicable because they are informed by a vision of psychology as individual, biological, or universal.
psychology can help to overcome such errors. My work develops a scientific, politically useful theory and methodology that can investigate the cultural origins, formation, characteristics, and functions of psychological phenomena.
organize and are embedded within psychological phenomena.
Carl Ratner is director of the Institute for Cultural Reserch and Education.
He is the author of Vygotsky's Sociohistorical Psychology & Its Contemporary Applications (Plenum, 1991) and Cultural Psychology: Theory and Method (Plenum, 2002 ), among other books and papers on Cultural Psychology, Activity Theory, Psychological Anthropology, Education and related subjects.