Unity of Affect and Intellect in Socio-Dramatic Play

Abstract

The article presents the interpretation of the unity of affect and intellect (L.S. Vygotsky) as exemplified in a socio-dramatic play. Emotions (e.g. unwillingness to submit to the rule), and understanding of the reasons for the rules by a child are studied separately from each other, since their interconnection is implied, but not experimentally proven. This paper makes an attempt to “catch” the unity of affect and intellect as part of developmental psychology based on the idea of the connection of the semantic and technical aspect of the action (D.B. Elkonin et al.), of the intelligent emotions (A.V. Zaporozhets) and the act of development (B.D. Elkonin). It describes a qualitative shift in socio-dramatic play related to the cultural shaping of emotions; it shows the child’s feeling of its action in the play. It shows how the child’s steps in the playing space aimed at achieving the culmination of the story are related to the unity of affect and intellect.

Keywords

• socio-dramatic play