The System, Object and Subject of Pedagogical Psychology and the Problems Involved

The author of this paper give a brief survey of the views and ideas concerning the system, the object and the subject of pedagogical psychology. He states that we have so far failed to work out a generally accepted system of this field of science, to reach a uniform conception of its object and subject, to arrive at a uniform interpretation of its role and social function. He sees the causes of these differences in views not only in the fact that different authors follow different philosophical trends and theoretical conceptions, but also in the authors’ different ideological bias, in the role and social function of pedagogical psychology being interpreted differently according to different class standpoints in the capitalist and in the socialist society. He points out that in a critical analysis of the present state of development of pedagogical psychology and of the degree to which the basic theoretical and methodological problems of this branch of science have been worked out it will therefore be necessary, first of all, to focus our attention on clarifying those key problems and on appraising them from Marxist viewpoints. A deeper analysis and formulation of the subject of pedagogical psychology, the delimitation of its typology, the determination of its internal structuration and systematization on a general theoretical and methodological basis of Marxist psychology as well as the delimitation of the general aims and the specific aims of this branch of science in the socialist society in the period of the Scientific and Technological Revolution and in the conditions of the class-divided world is a prospective task. A more comprehensive and planned cooperation of pedagogical psychologists from the socialist countries would be a significant contribution to the solution of this scientifically and socially important task, mainly because the basic theoretical and methodological problems of this branch of science are being worked out on the same philosophical basis, and because the general laws governing the socialist society inevitably result in the necessity of solving many identical problems.