Margarita Gavrilova
Dmitry Kornienko- Federal Scientific Center of Psychological and Multidisciplinary Research, Moscow, Russia
Recent theoretical ideas emphasise the non-direct environmental influences on child development. Environmental factors affect child development by the principle of refraction rather than by the principle of reflection: any environmental condition is refracted in a child’s mind in unique ways depending on his or her actual abilities and personal attitude to the situation. Complexity and multidimensionality of the relationship between environment and psychological prosseses poses a great challenge to the researchers. This paper provides a theoretical analysis and justification of the prospective use of the concept of ‘perezhivanie’, as a tool for theoretical analyses of child development and a practical phenomenon that allows to explore how a child interprets and emotionally relates to certain events or moments in the environment. Perezhivanie is considered as the unit of analysis of consciousness in cultural-historical theory. A case study of an intervention in emotional development through visual arts is presented as an illustration of using the concept of ‘perezhivanie’ to design practical sessions with children and to analyse the way in which their minds work in learning processes. The findings suggest that the study of perezhivanie for theoretical and practical purposes is promising, as this phenomenon can provide rich data on how a child interprets and relates to a particular event or moment in the environment.
1 Introduction
The most effective results in and development can be achieved when the cognitive, emotional and personal potential of the learner is engaged simultaneously (Burger, 2015; Habgood and Ainsworth, 2011). Interventions in education in which this principle can be realized are characterized by the special involvement of learners, relying on their individual experience, interests and motivation (Burger, 2015; Veraksa et al., 2022). However, they do not lend themselves well to scientific study because empirical research requires strict separation of the constructs under study and transparent experiments. The results of ‘discrete’ studies are important for refining scientific understanding in each individual field, but they cannot yet be combined to create a holistic approach to child development. All processes occurring in consciousness are not only closely intertwined with each other but are also uniquely embedded in the context of the child’s life, culture, and time. This complexity and multidimensionality of the relationship between environment and development poses a great challenge to researchers. Studying developmental processes in the context of these and other aspects of child-environment interactions is important, even while recognizing that it is rather impossible to develop such a coherent scientific methodology in the foreseeable future. This paper describes an attempt to use one conceptual framework that may bring us closer to solving the above problem. The concept of ‘perezhivanie’ proposed by Vygotsky (2019) as the unit of analysis of consciousness, was applied in a case-study in an intervention focused on emotional development.
1.1 Perezhivanie
Cultural-historical theory considers child development as a process of mastering the cultural experience of mankind. According to this approach, as the child grows up, there is a transition from the natural form of consciousness work to the use of cultural means (Bodrova and Leong, 2018). And they are used not as ordinary tools but are interiorized and determine the work of consciousness (Vygotsky, 1998). Perception, memory, thinking and other mental processes are transformed because of the child’s acquisition of cultural values and social experience that existed long before his birth. But it is fundamentally important to note Vygotsky’s particular understanding of the relationship between environment and child development. Vygotsky emphasizes that the environment does not influence the child in a direct way (Vygotsky, 2019):
The whole point is that in this or that situation, the influence depends not only on the content of the situation itself but also upon how the child understands or makes sense of the situation (Vygotsky, 2019, p. 73).
According to Vygotsky the influence of the environment on child should be seen by the principle of refraction rather than by the principle of reflection. The concept ‘perezhivanie’ was suggested by Vygotsky to analyse the refraction of environmental conditions in the mind (Vygotsky, 2019, 2021). Perezhivanie’ was understood as a unity of mental processes aimed at understanding, interpreting and comprehending by the child moments of reality and developing an attitude to them. Thus, perezhivanie is a concept that allows us to establish the role and influence of the social environment on child development. The concept of perezhivanie can be used to explain why children react differently to the same environmental conditions; why each child has unique impressions and experiences when participating in the same activity; why educational posters hanging on the wall do not work even though the child sees them every day; and finally, why a child can develop independently of or in spite of unfavorable conditions. When using perezhivanie as a theoretical tool for analyzing child development, the answer to these questions could be as follows: the environment is a potential source of development that works if the child experiences perezhivanie (Vygotsky, 2019, 2021; Veresov, 2019). Thus, a poster on the wall will remain a colored spot until it becomes the focus of the child’s attention, is explored and comprehended (Vysotskaya et al., 2024). Moreover, even the simplest aspects of the environment are refracted in the consciousness in an individual way. And how a child ‘sees’ a moment of the environment depends on his/her abilities, experience, interests, motivation and personality.
The concept of perezhivanie is one of the key analytical tools needed to fully apply cultural-historical theory to analyze child development (Vygotsky, 1998; Veresov, 2019). Today, the construct of perezhivanie is being conceptualized at the theoretical level to develop a single most complete understanding of it in the context of cultural-historical theory, operationalization and development of diagnostic tools (Cong-Lem, 2022; Fleer et al., 2017; González Rey, 2016; Veresov and Fleer, 2016; Veresov, 2016a,b; Sukhikh et al., 2022). A slow development of the concept of perezhivanie is caused by various reasons, from the incompleteness of cultural-historical theory to inaccuracies in translating the original texts into other languages. Having no equivalent, perezhivanie was translated into English as ‘experience’, which led to conceptual confusion (Veresov, 2017). However, experience, as understood by Vygotsky, is a mirror-like reflection of the environment, whereas perezhivanie involves refracting it through a unique prism of understanding and individual meaning (Smagorinsky, 2011).
There are concerns about the use of the category perezhivanie in empirical research. It is noted that it is a complex and comprehensive construct that requires deep interpretation (Smagorinsky, 2011; Roth and Jornet, 2016). The variability and subjectivity of such interpretations leads to the fact that it can hardly be operationalized at the level of objective indicators (Roth and Jornet, 2016). On the one hand, the concept of perezhivanie does not yet have a clear meaning to rely on, as pointed out by Smagorinsky (2011). But on the other hand, it is recognized as a useful theoretical construct also for empirically working scholars. Roth & Alfredo note that for the first time this category does not oppose person and environment, but ‘captures the identity of person and environment’ (2016, p. 3).
For more than a decade there has been extensive work on integrating the construct of perezhivanie into research activities and important attempts to apply corpus analysis to achieve a common and most correct understanding of perezhivanie in contemporary English-language work (Cong-Lem, 2022). The most detailed treatment of the concept of perezhivanie is presented in a series of papers by Professor Veresov, a bilingual expert in сultural-historical theory (Filipi et al., 2023; Veresov, 2016a, 2016b, 2017). Working with primary sources (including Vygotsky’s unpublished manuscripts), Veresov endeavors to reconstruct an understanding of perezhivanie based on the place, role and connections of this concept with other concepts, principles and laws of theory (Veresov, 2020). As a result of his extensive theoretical work, he defines perezhivanie in his latest works as follows:
Perezhivanie is a complex nexus, an alloy of different processes and even personal characteristics of a human being, which includes representation, perception, understanding, subjective interpretations, and conscious awareness (Veresov, 2020).
This paper offers an example of generating and analyzing perezhivanie in practical work with children, relying on its understanding as a source of development in line with Veresov (2021). An intervention session on emotional learning was developed and conducted with using of visual arts as substrate for generating perezhivanie in children. The following sections present the justification regarding the choice of emotional development and visual arts as a goal and means of intervention, together with an outline and analysis of the case study.
1.2 Emotional development as a target of intervention
Between the ages of 3 and 11, children actively learn to recognize, name, and regulate emotions and understand the reasons causes them (Pons and Harris, 2005). Emotional development occurs in social interaction because of children’s direct experience of emotions and observation of others’ emotions (Colliver and Veraksa, 2022; Darling-Churchill and Lippman, 2016; Johnstone et al., 2022). There are also targeted emotional learning interventions (Murano et al., 2020). But most often they combine social and emotional target skills with a predominant focus on the former. In a recent systematic review of 19 social and emotional learning interventions, none of the post intervention findings directly relate to emotional development (Murano et al., 2020). Almost all the improvements are related to positive social interaction and reduced behavioral problems, which are not directly related to emotional development. One likely reason for this bias towards children acquiring social skills and improving behavior may be the lack of real-life experience of living and observing emotions in situations close to everyday life in these interventions. The importance of children’s direct experience is also indicated by the results of training sessions where parents were able to change their behavior after participating in the training and significant changes in children’s ability to understand emotions were recorded (Bjørk et al., 2022). In addition, numerous studies showing the important role of intelligence in emotion understanding provide evidence of the need for internal cognitive work to make sense of and analyze emotional experience (Albanese et al., 2010; De Stasio et al., 2014). The significant role of other mental processes in emotional development has also been documented, including memory, cognitive regulation, imagination, and speech (Veraksa and Veraksa, 2023).
Thus, the results of research in the field of emotional development indicate that it is largely a natural process that occurs as a result of a child’s personal emotional experience and observation of others. But this experience does not directly influence the ability to understand the nature and causes of emotions but are individually refracted in the child’s mind. These findings may suggest that a reliance on perezhivanie might be valuable in enhancing the effectiveness of developmental interventions through encouraging reflection on the child’s experience, involving elements of memory, speech, thinking and imagination.
1.3 Visual arts as a substance for perezhivanie
Visual arts, like art in general, is a way of (re)constructing life (Larrain and Haye, 2020; Rosin, 2023). Vygotsky proposes to consider art as a set of aesthetic signs aimed at arousing emotions in people. The mission of art is to evoke subjective emotional and cognitive experiences in people, leading to inner transformation and release. Therefore, Vygotsky suggests that perezhivanie should be considered as the unit of art’s influence on consciousness. This means that a work of art ‘works’ for an individual only if he or she experiences a perezhivanie. The issue here is not the hedonistic value of sensory stimuli (aesthetic pleasure), but the work of all mental functions and the state of special emotional sensitivity aimed at perception, understanding, interpretation, emotional response and reflection. Because of its potential to influence consciousness, art has been widely used as a medium of education and psychotherapy for children, adolescents and adults in practice and research (Murano et al., 2020; Varnell, 2022; Wethington et al., 2008; Dolgikh et al., 2022).
Visual arts, among various art forms, occupy a special place in psychological and educational practice. There are isolated examples of using visual arts to promote speech [e.g., facilitating oral language (Chang and Cress, 2014) or thinking (Winner et al., 2006)]. But mostly this art form is effectively used to develop emotional competence (Fancourt et al., 2019; Ebert et al., 2015; Kastner et al., 2021) and reduce stress (Lopes-Júnior et al., 2016; Rew et al., 2014). According to these studies, visual arts is an effective way to develop children’s recognition of emotions, emotional expressions, and empathic understanding of other people’s actions. The following case study presents an attempt to utilize the potential of visual arts for children’s emotional development by drawing on the concept of perezhivanie.
2 Case of emotional development intervention through visual arts
2.1 Participants
Two siblings participated in the case study: a girl M. (5.3 y.o.) and a boy U. (7.11 y.o.). The children have lived in the same family since birth and are immersed in a common cultural context, residing in Kabardino-Balkaria (Caucasian republic in Russia). Parenting practices in this region are specific compared to the central part of Russia (Bukhalenkova et al., 2021). The most striking features of upbringing relate to the emotional socialization of children, which is reflected in the expectation of more masculine behavior from boys since childhood. Another peculiarity of family upbringing is encouraging children if they help with household chores. Yet in the interview, parents reported that they strive for a secular upbringing, explaining to children that they do not necessarily have to rigidly follow traditional cultural attitudes.
2.2 Procedure
The described case study is a fragment from the experience of practical work with children aimed at emotional development through viewing, discussing and comprehending visual arts. The case explores the feeling of offence with reference to the painting ‘Not taken fishing’ (Uspenskaya-Kologrivova, 1955) (Figure 1). The full session scenario is presented on OSF platform (https://osf.io/tzdfn/?view_only=7d7d66ed80aa4d02ba79cfc27c210a2f, assessed 06.08.2024).
Figure 1. ‘Not taken fishing’ (Uspenskaya-Kologrivova, 1955). From the collection of the Tretyakov State Art Gallery.
The sessions were conducted individually with each child in two phases, 1 day apart. At the first meeting, the session itself was conducted with the child, during which the picture was reviewed and discussed. The session was videotaped in order to conduct a detailed analysis of the children’s cues and behavioral displays afterwards. The next day, the child was asked to draw and describe what he/she remembered from the painting and to answer some factual questions (e.g., name the painting).
2.3 Key points in the discussion of the painting
The following are the key moments of the teacher’s dialogue with the children. The sessions were one-on-one, but the responses of the two children are presented together for clarity. For ease of analyzing the case study, the eight meaningful blocks of the session are numbered and italicized.
2.4 What were the children’s impressions of the painting the next day?
The next day, the teacher asked each child to draw and tell what they remembered from the picture and answer a few questions. The instructions for the drawing were as follows: ‘Remember yesterday we watched and discussed the painting? Can you please draw what you remember from it?’. The children’s drawings are presented below (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Drawings of children made from memory the day after the session on the picture ‘Not taken fishing’ (Uspenskaya-Kologrivova, 1955). (A) Picture by girl M. (5.3 y.o) (Girl M.’s verbal explanation of what is depicted in the drawing: ‘There is a bicycle and a person drawn here. The person is smiling). (B) Picture by boy U. (7.11 y.o) (Boy U.’s verbal explanation of what is depicted in the drawing: ‘There is a boy and a hen drawn here. And a bucket. The red one is a worm’).
The following are children’s verbal comments on what and why they depicted in their drawings, as well as answers to questions about the content of the picture information and whether they have personal experience of perezhivanie of an emotional state similar to that experienced by the boy in the picture.
3 Discussion
The present study provides a theoretical rationale and analyzes the application of perezhivanie as a source of development within a session on children’s emotional development through visual arts. Through a case study aimed at emotional development through the visual arts, empirical observations are obtained on how children interpret and relate to situations in different ways. It was expected that through the analysis of children’s remarks, behavior, drawings and narratives we would be able to observe how information about the studied emotion and its manifestations is individually refracted in children’s minds. Also, based on the understanding of perezhivanie accumulated by Veresov (2021), it was expected that the attempt to generate children’s perezhivanie towards new information may contribute to higher learning efficiency.
Emotional development has been chosen as a target of intervention for several reasons. Firstly, it is one of the areas of child development. A great place in the formation of emotional development is taken by the naturally acquired experience of one’s own emotional perezhivanie, observation of others, and gradual assimilation of culturally accepted ways of expressing and regulating emotions. Secondly, this area yields to purposeful development weaker in comparison with such closest areas as acquisition of social skills or positive behavior. Thirdly, there is theoretical evidence and indirect empirical evidence that emotional development inherently involves perezhivanie. For example, the relationship of emotion understanding, a major component of emotional development, to nonverbal intelligence and other mental abilities (De Stasio et al., 2014) indicates that internal work is required to make sense of emotional experience by engaging an arsenal of mental processes. That is, the experience received by the child does not directly influence emotional development but is refracted in his consciousness depending on the actual abilities. That is why we considered the perezhivanie-based intervention to be the most illustrative and potentially effective in the field of children’s emotional development. Visual arts have been used as a substance for perezhivanie, because a picture selected according to certain criteria not only provides an example of a realistic depiction of an emotional state, but also reflects the complex and always unique context of life, culture and time. It is also important that the purpose of art is to evoke emotions and the experience of inner emotional and cognitive work. It may seem that any depiction of emotion could be used for this purpose, including cartoons, which are more modern and appealing to children. But following Vygotsky’s idea, artistic work, including visual art, is aimed at creating a perezhivanie, which is achieved largely through the combination of cognitive and emotional components and talented artistic execution (Vygotsky, 2019). For these and other reasons, visual arts are widely used as a teaching and psychotherapy tool in practice and research (Murano et al., 2020; Varnell, 2022; Wethington et al., 2008).
The case study explored feelings of offence through viewing, discussing and comprehending the picture ‘Not taken fishing’ (Uspenskaya-Kologrivova, 1955). The session was conducted with two children individually, in two phases with a break on 1 day. On the first day the activity itself was conducted, and on the second day children were asked to draw and tell what they remembered from the picture and answer some factual questions. Two children participated in the case study: girl M. (5.3 y.o) and boy U (7.11 y.o). The children are siblings living in a region with rather vivid cultural specifics. Thus, they are bilinguals growing up in a bicultural environment (more details in the Participants background section). The decision to consider the case of siblings here was made to control for family and wider social environment factors. In doing so, the different ages and genders, along with all the individual characteristics of the children, can have a potential impact on the emergent of perezhivanie in relation to the picture and the session as a whole. A discussion of each case is presented below.
Case with girl М. (5.3 y.o). During the whole session, girl M. kept a positive attitude, smiled and made jokes. For example, after the session, she laughingly said that her mother could have calmed the boy down by telling him: ‘Let them go fishing, and I’ll give you a phone.’ This statement indicates both the girl’s joking attitude and her sincere misunderstanding of the depth of the boy’s offence and confusion at not being taken fishing. In the girl’s picture of the world, fishing is only one alternative thing he could have done. Therefore, her own drawing shows a bicycle as the thing she remembers most from the painting. The bicycle is indeed present in the painting. Obviously, the artist included it in the composition in order to highlight the child’s depicted life drama. But in the girl’s perezhivanie, the bicycle completely removes the existing conflict, so the boy in her drawing is smiling. It is indicative that in her verbal retelling the girl quite accurately reproduces the content of the painting and understands the socio-emotional context of the situation. She independently notes and explains the gloating in the painting of the elder brother and sister, but remains emotionally indifferent to the situation. Interestingly, the teacher’s explanations did not significantly pay off in the girl’s progress of understanding the depth of the boy’s experience of confusion and offence. For example, during the session, the girl demonstrated full understanding of the teacher’s explanation that the boy was ‘so much upset that he does not see what is around him’. But according to the conversation the next day this was not learnt.
Case with boy U. (7.11 y.o). At the beginning of the session boy U. had a positive attitude and was calmly looking at the painting. But as he became immersed in the story, his appearance became concerned and serious. The turning point was the realization that the boy from the picture did not go fishing not because of his bad mood (as it seemed to the child initially), but because he was not taken. After that the child practically stopped smiling, began to look at the painting more often and more attentively. His voice became quieter, and his gaze turned inward. When asked why the boy was not taken fishing, he noted not only his age (like his sister), but also the fact that the boy ‘does not know how to fish yet’. Unlike his sister, he correctly stated the reason why the boy does not look at his father and brother leaving. He noted with particular thoughtfulness that the boy in the painting ‘does not care anymore’ that the hen is pulling out the worm prepared for fishing. Illustratively, this very fragment appears in the boy’s own drawing, which he comments on as follows: ‘If that moment had not happened, the picture would not have matched. This fragment is the most memorable’. In his picture, the worm is a symbol of the unfulfilled desire and intentions of the boy-fisherman, it is one of the key semantic elements of the painting. Thus, in many ways the drama of the painting lies in the fact that, while the boy may not know how to fish, but he himself dug up the worms. At the same time, boy U. does not pay attention to the interpersonal relations reflected in the painting. They diminish for him against the background of the drama of the child-fisherman. Both in the picture and in the verbal story the boy emphasizes the hero’s indifference to what happens around the boy-fisherman after he was not taken, ‘he did not care’. The boy mentioned that he was familiar with the feeling that the boy in the painting was experiencing and recounted a similar situation from his own life. But mentioned that he had experienced similar emotions ‘not as much strong’.
In the session, both children were given explanations about emotions and the relationships between the depicted characters, which could improve the ability to understand emotions and theory of mind. We believe that the effectiveness of these explanations could be related to whether it becomes the child’s perezhivanie: how relevant are the explanations and new information in the context of the child’s personal experience, motivation, emotions? Replicas and behavioral displays during the session, as well as verbal and pictorial representations, indicate that the boy rather than the girl did experience perezhivanie towards the key emotional drama conveyed in the painting. Of the two children, the boy relied on the teacher’s explanations in his drawing and story the next day. It cannot be argued that it is the presence of perezhivanie that could account for the progress in emotion understanding and emotion words as a result of targeted instruction. Perhaps the boy is able to perceive, analyze and remember information better during the learning process due to his older age. Nevertheless, being indifferent to the drama unfolding in the picture, the girl seemed less interested in understanding the teacher’s explanations. Another point worthy of attention in analyzing the cases is the children’s personal experiences and the cultural expectations transmitted to them by their environment. In this context, the situation depicted in the painting will relate differently to the children’s experience. For a girl, going fishing is not a meaningful event and perezhivanie of offence is quite normal. For a boy, the opposite is true. Fishing in the company of other adult men is a welcome event that will emphasize his maturity and masculinity. And offence is an indication of weakness and may be condemned in the existing cultural context.
Based on the analysis of the case study, several theoretical conclusions can be drawn about perezhivanie as a source of emotional development through viewing, discussing and making sense of visual arts. The first, a conversation based on a painting as an art form can be effective in generating a perezhivanie, because, as Vygotsky wrote, the mechanism of building a perezhivanie is at the heart of the aesthetic response. At the same time, of course, the emergence of perezhivanie is not guaranteed. The second, combination of verbal and non-verbal expression of the child’s understanding of the painting is effective because developmental heterochrony may be present at this age. The two forms of representation complement each other and allow a more accurate reconstruction of the child’s perezhivanie. The third, child’s reference to the main symbol of the painting in his or her retelling or drawing may indicate the presence of perezhivanie with the main drama of the painting. Since the symbol most often accumulates the main meaning and emotional content of the work. The fourth, personal experience and cultural expectations transmitted to the child determine the occurrence of perezhivanie in relation to a situation.
The study of perezhivanie as a phenomenon can provide valuable data on how a child interprets and emotionally relates to a particular event or moment in the environment. The observations and conclusions drawn from the case study of emotional development intervention through visual arts described in this paper indicate that practical research on perezhivanie for theoretical and practical purposes is promising, and the use of painting as an art form can be effective in generating perezhivanie.
Based on our theoretical and practical work, we would like to outline several directions for further research into the study of perezhivanie and its role in children’s learning and development. Firstly, according to the observations described above, it seems promising to investigate whether the fact that a child experiences perezhivanie towards the content or form of the picture in question can really influence the effectiveness of purposeful learning. Secondly, it is important to clarify whether the occurrence of the perezhivanie is related to the child’s correlation of new information with his or her own life experience. Thirdly, do the cultural expectations of the child determine what kind of perezhivanie the child will have with the situation at hand?
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Ethics statement
The studies involving humans were approved by the study and consent procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Federal Scientific Center of Psychological and Multidisciplinary Research (the approval No: 2023/72). The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardians/next of kin. Written informed consent was obtained from the minor(s)' legal guardian/next of kin for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.
Author contributions
MG: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. DK: Investigation, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study was supported by The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (the research project 075–15–2024-526).
Acknowledgments
Museum educator Rita Obshivalkina for her invaluable help in selecting paintings, jointly developing the session and generously sharing her experience in visual-arts education for children. Cultural-historical theory expert Professor Nikolai Veresov for his profound theoretical publications on the topic of perezhivanie and the opportunity to seek his advice. To child psychologist Malikat Mihitaeva for conducting practical sessions with children, some of which are described in this paper as case studies. To children, whose answers and drawings are presented in this paper.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
References
Albanese, O., De Stasio, S., Di Chiacchio, C., Fiorilli, C., and Pons, F. (2010). Emotion comprehension: the impact of nonverbal intelligence. J. Genet. Psychol. 171, 101–115. doi: 10.1080/00221320903548084
Bjørk, R. F., Bølstad, E., Pons, F., and Havighurst, S. S. (2022). Testing TIK (tuning in to kids) with TEC (test of emotion comprehension): does enhanced emotion socialization improve child emotion understanding? J. Appl. Dev. Psychol. 78:101368. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2021.101368
Bodrova, E., and Leong, D. J. (2018). “Tools of the mind: a Vygotskian early childhood curriculum” in International handbook of early childhood education, eds. M. Fleer and B. Oers Van (Dordrecht, NL: Springer Dordrecht), 1095–1111.
Bukhalenkova, D., Veraksa, A. N., Gavrilova, M., and Kartushina, N. (2021). The role of Russian parents’ education in the development of intuitive theories of parenting. Educ. Self Dev. 16, 82–92. doi: 10.26907/esd16.1.07
Burger, K. (2015). Effective early childhood care and education: successful approaches and didactic strategies for fostering child development. Eur. Early Child. Educ. Res. J. 23, 743–760. doi: 10.1080/1350293X.2014.882076
Chang, N., and Cress, S. (2014). Conversations about visual arts: facilitating oral language. Early Child. Educ. J. 42, 415–422. doi: 10.1007/s10643-013-0617-2
Colliver, Y., and Veraksa, N. (2022). “Vygotsky’s contributions to understandings of emotional development through early childhood play” in The influence of theorists and pioneers on early childhood education. eds. R. Evans and O. N. Saracho (London: Routledge), 38–52.
Cong-Lem, N. (2022). The relation between environment and psychological development: unpacking Vygotsky’s influential concept of Perezhivanie. Hu. Arenas. doi: 10.1007/s42087-022-00314-6
Darling-Churchill, K. E., and Lippman, L. (2016). Early childhood social and emotional development: advancing the field of measurement. J. Appl. Dev. Psychol. 45, 1–7. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2016.02.002
De Stasio, S., Fiorilli, C., and Di Chiacchio, C. (2014). Effects of verbal ability and fluid intelligence on children’s emotion understanding. Int. J. Psychol. 49, 409–414. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12032
Dolgikh, A. G., Bayanova, L. F., Shatskaya, A. N., and Yakushina, A. A. (2022). The relationship between teacher evaluation of children's musical abilities and executive functions indicators in children attending music classes. Russian Psychol. J. 19, 80–93. doi: 10.21702/rpj.2022.4.5
Ebert, M., Hoffmann, J. D., Ivcevic, Z., Phan, C., and Brackett, M. A. (2015). Teaching emotion and creativity skills through art: a workshop for children. Inter. J. Creat. Probl. Solv. 25, 23–35.
Fancourt, D., Garnett, C., Spiro, N., West, R., and Müllensiefen, D. (2019). How do artistic creative activities regulate our emotions? Validation of the emotion regulation strategies for artistic creative activities scale (ERS-ACA). PLoS One 14:e0211362. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211362
Filipi, A., Davidson, C., and Veresov, N. (2023). “Cultural-historical theory and analysis” in conversation analysis and a cultural-historical approach. Cham, CH: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fleer, M., González Rey, F., and Veresov, N. (2017). “Perezhivanie, emotions and subjectivity: setting the stage” in Perezhivanie, emotions and subjectivity. Perspectives in cultural-historical research. eds. M. Fleer, F. G. Rey, and N. Veresov (Singapore: Springer Singapore), 1–15.
González Rey, F. (2016). Vygotsky’s concept of Perezhivanie in the psychology of art and at the final moment of his work: advancing his legacy. Mind Cult. Act. 23, 305–314. doi: 10.1080/10749039.2016.1186196
Habgood, M. P., and Ainsworth, S. E. (2011). Motivating children to learn effectively: exploring the value of intrinsic integration in educational games. J. Learn. Sci. 20:29. doi: 10.1080/10508406.2010.508029
Johnstone, A., Martin, A., Cordovil, R., Fjortoft, I., Iivonen, S., Jidovtseff, B., et al. (2022). Nature-based early childhood education and children’s social, emotional and cognitive development: a mixed-methods systematic review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 19:5967. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19105967
Kastner, L., Umbach, N., Jusyte, A., Cervera-Torres, S., Fernández, S. R., Nommensen, S., et al. (2021). Designing visual-arts education programs for transfer effects: development and experimental evaluation of (digital) drawing courses in the art Museum designed to promote adolescents’ socio-emotional skills. Front. Psychol. 11:603984. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.603984
Larrain, A., and Haye, A. (2020). The dialogical and political nature of emotions: a reading of Vygotsky's the psychology of art. Theory Psychol. 30, 800–812. doi: 10.1177/0959354320955235
Lopes-Júnior, L. C., Bomfim, E. O., Nascimento, L. C., Nunes, M. D. R., Pereira-da-Silva, G., and Lima, R. A. G. (2016). Non-pharmacological interventions to manage fatigue and psychological stress in children and adolescents with cancer: an integrative review. Eur. J. Cancer Care 25, 921–935. doi: 10.1111/ecc.12381
Murano, D., Sawyer, J. E., and Lipnevich, A. A. (2020). A meta-analytic review of preschool social and emotional learning interventions. Rev. Educ. Res. 90, 227–263. doi: 10.3102/0034654320914743
Pons, F., and Harris, P. L. (2005). Longitudinal change and longitudinal stability of individual differences in children’s emotion understanding. Cognit. Emot. 19, 1158–1174. doi: 10.1080/02699930500282108
Rew, L., Johnson, K., and Young, C. (2014). A systematic review of interventions to reduce stress in adolescence. Issues Ment. Health Nurs. 35, 851–863. doi: 10.3109/01612840.2014.924044
Rosin, V. M. (2023). Three concepts of the psychology of art (correlation of discourses in psychology, art criticism, and philosophy). Natl. Psychol. J. 51, 6–15. doi: 10.11621/npj.2023.0302
Roth, W.-M., and Jornet, A. (2016). Perezhivanie in the light of the later Vygotsky’s Spinozist turn. Mind Cult. Act. 23, 315–324. doi: 10.1080/10749039.2016.1186197
Smagorinsky, P. (2011). Vygotsky’s stage theory: the psychology of art and the actor under the direction of Perezhivanie. Mind Cult. Act. 18, 319–341. doi: 10.1080/10749039.2010.518300
Sukhikh, V. L., Veresov, N. N., and Veraksa, N. E. (2022). Dramatic Perezhivanie as a driver of executive functions development through role-play in early childhood: theoretical framework and experimental evidence. Front. Psychol. 13:1057209. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1057209
Varnell, S. (2022). Visual arts activities relate to cortisol and observed interest for preschool children. Available at: https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/all_theses/239 (Accessed July 28, 1993)
Veraksa, A. N., Sidneva, A. N., Aslanova, M. S., and Plotnikova, V. A. (2022). Effectiveness of different teaching resources for forming the concept of magnitude in older preschoolers with varied levels of executive functions. Psychol. Russia 15, 62–82. doi: 10.11621/pir.2022.0405
Veraksa, A. N., and Veraksa, N. E. (2023). The interconnection of metacognition and executive functions in childhood: a cultural-historical perspective. New Ideas Child Educ. Psychol. 3, 43–65. doi: 10.11621/nicep.2023.0503
Veresov, N. (2016a). Duality of categories or dialectical concepts? Integr. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 50, 244–256. doi: 10.1007/s12124-015-9327-1
Veresov, N. (2016b). Perezhivanie as a phenomenon and a concept: questions on clarification and methodological meditations. Cultural Histor. Psychol. 12, 129–148. doi: 10.17759/chp.2016120308
Veresov, N. (2017). “The concept of Perezhivanie in cultural-historical theory: content and contexts” in Perezhivanie, emotions and subjectivity. Perspectives in cultural-historical research. eds. M. Fleer, F. G. Rey, and N. Veresov (Singapore: Springer Singapore), 47–70.
Veresov, N. (2019). “Subjectivity and Perezhivanie: empirical and methodological challenges and opportunities” in Subjectivity within cultural-historical approach. Perspectives in cultural-historical research. eds. F. González Rey, A. Mitjáns Martínez, and D. Magalhães Goulart (Singapore: Springer Singapore), 61–83.
Veresov, N. (2020). Discovering the great royal seal: new reality of Vygotsky’s legacy. Cultural Histor. Psychol. 16, 107–117. doi: 10.17759/chp.2020160212
Veresov, N. (2021). ““Advancing Vygotsky’s legacy: interrupted argument with Fernando González Rey” in theory of subjectivity from a cultural-historical standpoint” in Perspectives in cultural-historical research. eds. D. M. Goulart, A. M. Martínez, and M. Adams (Singapore: Springer Singapore), 119–135.
Veresov, N., and Fleer, M. (2016). Perezhivanie as a theoretical concept for researching young children’s development. Mind Cult. Act. 23, 325–335. doi: 10.1080/10749039.2016.1186198
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). “The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky” in Child psychology. ed. R. W. Rieber (New York, NY: Plenum Press).
Vygotsky, L. S. (2019). “L. S. Vygotsky’s pedological works: Vol. 1” in Foundations of pedology, trans. eds. D. Kellogg and N. Veresov (Singapore: Springer Singapore).
Vygotsky, L. S. (2021). “L. S. Vygotsky’s pedological works: Vol. 2” in The problem of age, trans. eds. D. Kellogg and N. Veresov (Singapore: Springer Singapore).
Vysotskaya, E. V., Lobanova, A. D., and Sidneva, A. N. (2024). Transition from letters to words: meaningfulness in preschoolers’ and first graders’ initial Reading. Lomonosov Psychol. J. 47, 207–226. doi: 10.11621/LPJ-24-09
Wethington, H. R., Hahn, R. A., Fuqua-Whitley, D. S., Sipe, T. A., Crosby, A. E., Johnson, R. L., et al. (2008). The effectiveness of interventions to reduce psychological harm from traumatic events among children and adolescents. A systematic review. Am. J. Prev. Med. 35, 287–313. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2008.06.024
Winner, E., Hetland, L., Veenema, S., Sheridan, K., and Palmer, P. (2006). “Studio thinking: how visual arts teaching can promote disciplined habits of mind” in New directions in aesthetics, creativity, and the arts. eds. P. Locher, C. Martindale, L. Dorfman, and D. Leontiev (Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing Company), 189–205.
Keywords: cultural-historical theory, perezhivanie, children development, case study, visual arts
Citation: Gavrilova M and Kornienko D (2025) Perezhivanie as a source of children’s development: case of emotional development intervention through visual arts. Front. Psychol. 15:1476973. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1476973
Edited by:
Agnes Szokolszky, University of Szeged, HungaryReviewed by:
Theresa S. S. Schilhab, Aarhus University, DenmarkPeter Eland Jones, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2025 Gavrilova and Kornienko. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Margarita Gavrilova, Z2F2cmlsb3ZhbXJnQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ==