Zhdan, Antonina N.

Background. Lyudmila Filippovna Obukhova (July 22, 1938 - July 20, 2016) made a great contribution to the study of the developmental psychology.

The Objective is to recreate the portrait of L.F. Obukhova retrieved from her personal memories, to identify some features of her personality, to present the most important areas of her research and teaching job in the field of developmental and general psychology, to show her grateful attitude towards parents, teachers, colleagues.

Design.The paper shows that L.F. Obukhova, after graduating from the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow Lomonosov State University, worked in the field of child psychology. She carried out a comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis of the Geneva School of Genetic Psychology, established by the eminent Swiss psychologist J.Piaget and his followers. Being a student of P.Ya. Galperin, she worked in the wake of her teacher’s ideas, was a part of his scientific school, conducted lectures on Galperin’s theory and carried out her own research that made a significant contribution to the development of Galperin’s theory. L.F. Obukhova showed that in the stream of all psychological theories of child development, the concepts of Piaget and Galperin are the main approaches to the issue of ontogenetic development. Both of them are fruitful, but Vygotsky cultural-historical school is the most distinguished.

Results. Fruitful activities in the field of developmental psychology, the practical value of textbooks for psychology students allow us to classify L.F. Obukhov as classical Russian psychologist.

The paper is dedicated to the 115th birthday of P.Ya.Galperin, the classic of national psychology (1902-2017). The purpose of the paper is to showP.Ya.Galperin’s contribution to fundamental and practiceoriented science, and alsoto revealthe link between these two approaches sides in his scientific heritage. The gist of his innovative psychological theory is disclosed. The key methodological principlesare highlighted: understanding of the scope and method of psychological science; psychophysical issue, i.e. the nature of psyche and the mental world; a psychophysiological problem, the issue of the relationship between psychology and physiology; the issue of human instincts in connection with historical social nature of consciousness; the notion of linguistic consciousness and the relation of language and thought; the principle of unity of history and theory in scientific knowledge. Terminological work carried out by P. Ya.Galperin is analyzed. The introduction of new concepts enriches and makes the conceptual apparatus of psychological sciencemore precise. The necessity to reveal each methodological provision to solve practical problemsis mentioned. The unity of theoretical and practical aspects in psychological theory developed by P. Ya. Galperin, its authentic nature and relation to the culturalhistorical psychology of L.S.Vygotsky, activity concepts of S.L. Rubinstein and A.N. Leontiev are shown. There are several directions in which the method of gradual development of mental functions and concepts organizes the process of teaching and learning, the mechanisms of perceptionand simultaneous mental processes, the phenomena of Jean Piaget are explained. To sum up, the inexhaustible possibilities of the practical use of the theory of P.Ya. Galperin in all areas of individual experience.

Stages and the historical lessons of the Psychological Society work, based at the Imperial Moscow University in 1885 are marked out. Activity of Society is seen as significant milestone in the development of science and education at Moscow University, as well as across national psychological thought in general.

The main stages of the life and work of M. Lomonosov, the outstanding national scholar, are presented. The features of his personality and outlook are shown. M. Lomonosov’s contribution to the development of scientific psychological thought in Russia is disclosed.

The work of the outstanding scientist P.Y. Galperin as a methodologist of psychological science is analyzed. The methodological principles he developed are presented in a systematic way, their role in building general psychological conception created by him is disclosed, their importance for the production and study of psychological problems in the modern scientific situation is shown.