O conceito de interesse na psicologia funcional de Edouard Claparède: a chave biológica à interpretação interacionista da vida mental

Abstract

The study of the relationships between emotion and cognition is presented by contemporary cognitive science as a novelty stemming from a cognitive revolution, disregarding facts and important characters of the history of Psychology and the history of Educational Psychology. With the purpose of demonstrating that the concern with the study of these relationships is not recent, the work of an important early 20th century theoretician is focused: Édouard Claparède (1873- 1940), a Swiss doctor and psychologist, known for his contribution to the establishment of the genetic-functional approach in Psychology and for his influence on the work of Jean Piaget. Claparèdes concept of interest is analyzed, with the hypothesis that this is a key concept to understand the relationship between emotion/affectivity and cognition in his work. The genealogy of the concept of interest is then traced, aiming at identifying other theoreticians who where also concerned with the theme along the history of Psychology and the history of Educational Psychology. The methodological approach of the research was internalist historiography or conceptual history. Primary theoretical sources on the subject, found in Claparèdes work, were submitted to content analysis. The relevance of this work lies in the fact that, when knowing more deeply the existing relations between cognition and emotion from a historical point of view, we can advance in the understanding of learning difficulties presented by children and adults. Cognitive psycotherapy processes may also benefit from this study, since our interests and feelings (emotions) seem to constitute the key for our world representation (cognition). This work can also contribute to provide to Psychology a new dimension on its own history as a scientific discipline, once we unveiled an important author, who - as everything indicates - offered theoretical bases for an important theory of knowledge, known as constructivism. We conclude that the study of these relations is an old-time concern among psychologists, and that the synthesis proposed by Claparède presents a different form of understanding the same question. Within the system developed by Claparède, the interest is the most relevant manifestation of the relationship between emotion and cognition, and can be understood as a dynamic bridge between the person and the environment, activated by the organisms need of adaptation. This need of adaptation, however, is not a passive one, but an active search for solutions to the problems posed by life in a changing environment. The study of the relationships between emotion and cognition is presented by contemporary cognitive science as a novelty stemming from a cognitive revolution, disregarding facts and important characters of the history of Psychology and the history of Educational Psychology. With the purpose of demonstrating that the concern with the study of these relationships is not recent, the work of an important early 20th century theoretician is focused: Édouard Claparède (1873- 1940), a Swiss doctor and psychologist, known for his contribution to the establishment of the genetic-functional approach in Psychology and for his influence on the work of Jean Piaget. Claparèdes concept of interest is analyzed, with the hypothesis that this is a key concept to understand the relationship between emotion/affectivity and cognition in his work. The genealogy of the concept of interest is then traced, aiming at identifying other theoreticians who where also concerned with the theme along the history of Psychology and the history of Educational Psychology. The methodological approach of the research was internalist historiography or conceptual history. Primary theoretical sources on the subject, found in Claparèdes work, were submitted to content analysis. The relevance of this work lies in the fact that, when knowing more deeply the existing relations between cognition and emotion from a historical point of view, we can advance in the understanding of learning difficulties presented by children and adults. Cognitive psycotherapy processes may also benefit from this study, since our interests and feelings (emotions) seem to constitute the key for our world representation (cognition). This work can also contribute to provide to Psychology a new dimension on its own history as a scientific discipline, once we unveiled an important author, who - as everything indicates - offered theoretical bases for an important theory of knowledge, known as constructivism. We conclude that the study of these relations is an old-time concern among psychologists, and that the synthesis proposed by Claparède presents a different form of understanding the same question. Within the system developed by Claparède, the interest is the most relevant manifestation of the relationship between emotion and cognition, and can be understood as a dynamic bridge between the person and the environment, activated by the organisms need of adaptation. This need of adaptation, however, is not a passive one, but an active search for solutions to the problems posed by life in a changing environment.