A Dialectical Paradigm for Psychological Research: Implications Drawn from the History of Psychology in the Soviet Union

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Abstract
The recent return within Western experimental psychology to the study of cognitive process is viewed as implying a basic psycho-philosophical reorientation. One aspect of this reorientation is a renewal of interest in the dialectic as a metatheoretical analytic tool for psychology. It is suggested that a study of the intellectual history of the somewhat parallel shift to a dialectical-cognitive perspective in the Soviet psychology of the 1930’s might help to clarify the implications of the dialectical method for contemporary Western cognitive psychology. In this light, the psycho-philosophical issues involved in the shift to a dialectical perspective in early Soviet psychology are reviewed.