Psychology is one of the newest sciences. Because it is the science of mind and behavior, it is also less concrete than some other sciences. Over the years, social scientists have developed theories or perspectives based on their observations, research, and the perspectives of other scientists. Although there is some overlap, each of psychology's major perspectives is unique. As a result, each of them has strengths and weaknesses and explains psychology differently. One theory, the sociocultural perspective, is exactly what the name suggests. It is the idea that society and the groups to which an individual belongs are what influence development, thoughts, and behavior. The sociocultural perspective was introduced by a Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, in the 1920s (John-Steiner, 1998). Vygotsky emphasized the idea that children learn through what he called guided participation (Sigelman, 2009). His theory was that children develop through interactions with parents, teachers, and other knowledgeable members of the culture and are given the tools to adopt the group's way of thinking. One of the strengths of this perspective is that it recognizes the relationship between cognitive development and cognitive development. social, cultural and historical context of which an individual is part (Sigelman, 2009). This explains the differences between cultures throughout history. This is an important concept because we all notice the differences between each person's ways of thinking. While we can attribute this to other factors, we can recognize more similarities in people with similar social and cultural backgrounds and more differences in those with drastically different backgrounds. Vygotsky points out that one of the… halves of the paper… perspectives will have strengths and weaknesses. Until we gain greater knowledge of the mind and behavior, we will not be able to draw accurate conclusions that everyone can agree on. For now, psychologists continue to do research, propose new perspectives, and use relevant information from current perspectives. In the field of psychology, opinions will always differ. Works Cited John-Steiner, V., & Mahn, H. (1998). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskian framework. University of New Mexico. http://webpages.charter.net/schmolze1/vygotsky/johnsteiner.html Mcleod, S. (2010). Zone of proximal development. http://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-Proximal-Development.htmlSigelman, C.K., & Rider, E.A. (6th ed.). (2009). Human development across the lifespan (pp. 210-214). Belmont, California: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.