Psychology as a Dialogical Science: Self and Culture Mutual Development

This book intends to translate into theoretical, methodological and practical language the principles of dialogical psychology. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, theoretical models in psychology have approached human mind and behavior from a monological point of view, a generalizing perspective which ignored the core role of social transactions in the construction of the person and sought to explain psychological functioning only looking inside individuals’ minds and brains, or in mechanist sets of reinforcement contingencies. 

​Maria Cláudia Santos Lopes-de-Oliveira is Professor at the Department of Developmental and School Psychology and at the Developmental and School Psychology Graduate Program at the University of Brasília, Brazil. She coordinates the Laboratory of Cultural Psychology (LABMIS/University of Brasilia) and coordinated the Dialogical Psychology working group at the Brazilian National Association of Psychological Research-ANPEPP. She also leads GAIA research group, concerned about youth development in conditions of poverty and social vulnerability, and the development of critical methodologies for professionals working in Justice and Social Assistance institutional contexts. She coedited with Angela Branco the book Diversidade e Cultura da Paz na escola: uma abordagem sociocultural [Diversity and Culture for Peace: a sociocultural approach] (2012) and Alterity, Values, and Socialization. Human Development within Educational Contexts (2018), and edited the book A Adolescência, direitos humanos e socioeducação: perspectivas interdisciplinares [Adolescence, Human Rights and socio-education: interdisciplinary perspectives].  She has been a consultant to governmental projects on social policies and human rights, especially those aiming at benefiting the developmental perspectives of adolescents in conflict with the law.