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.

Background. The paper focuses upon L.F. Obukhova's ideas about creativity in children, the search for objective mechanisms for the development of child thinking in solving creative problems. The paper is prepared in connection with the conference “Scientific Readings in Memory of L.F. Obukhova (1938-2016), Professor of Moscow State Lomonosov University” on the occasion of her 80th birthday.

The Objective of the analytical and theoretical research is rethinking the basic ideas of L.F. Obukhova in the study of key aspects of child creativity and systematic study of thinking based on ‘open-end’ type problems that allow multiple solutions.    

Design. The psychological characteristics of creativity in children and its relationship with other mental processes are consistently considered. The mental processes are perception, emotions, intelligence, imagination; age peaks and declines in the development of creativity of preschoolers. The paper presents a critical analysis of measuring creativity, the impact of learning on the development of children on the basis of popular programs and trainings of creative thinking. The paper highlights the prospects of Obukhova's scientific approach to the vital issues in understanding mental development of the child, the ‘intersection of ideas’ of representatives of cultural-historical and natural-scientific paradigms.

Results. The heuristic possibilities of the analysis of the general and divergences of representatives of two main scientific paradigms in modern psychology are shown. According to L.F. Obukhova, the Torrence's Picture Construction Test shows the convergent strategies of solution, which contradicts Guilford's understanding of the phenomena of creativity. The cultural-historical paradigm highlights the artificial approach to the process of thinking though the prism of multiple factors.

Findings. The analysis showed that underestimating the role of adults in the teaching creativity brings about a partial solution to the problem articulated by E.P. Torrence: «Can we Teach Children To Think Creatively?» Building a comprehensive view of the mechanisms that induce creative processes brings closer to a deeper understanding of the issues of development and learning. 

As part of the Scientific Readings in memory of L.F. Obukhova, Professor of Moscow Lomonosov State University, on the occasion of her 80th anniversary, a memorial round table was held. The participants who knew Lyudmila Obukhova shared their memories of working and personal contact with her.

Background. Psychology Department of Moscow Lomonosov State University together with Russian Psychological Association has celebrated the 80th birth anniversary of Lyudmila Obukhova. She was an outstanding world known expert in developmental psychology, mental development, family and child matters, etc.
The Objective is to analyze fruitful scientific and personal achievements of Lyudmila Obukhova of the 15 last years of her life that are uncovered by her colleagues at the Psychology Department of Moscow Lomonosov State University.

Design. The paper describe sour collaboration with Lyudmila Obukhova in 2002-2016: lecturing trips, participation in international congresses and conferences, e.g.the 2nd Congress of the International Association of Cultural Research (ISCAR) in San Diego, USA; the first International Vygotsky memorial Conference in Lisbon, Portugal; the XX International Congress of gerontology in Seoul, South, Korea; the first International Congress on child psychology in Braga, Portugal; The 6th International Conference on Nutrition and Physical Activity in Taipei, Taiwan’; The 7th International Conference on Cognitive Sciences in Svetlogorsk, ethnographic expedition in Kamchatka and more. An integration of various research issues and their international value should be underlined as well as Obukhova’s exceptional personality and communication talent.

Conclusion. Obukhova’s array of interests is identified, her personality is revealed, her unusual gift of communication is shown. International recognition of her research is revealed.

Abstract of L.F. Obukhova at the 6th International Conference on Nutrition and Physical Activity (Taipei, Taiwan 22.10.2015)