Humans are from nature biological organisms who become cultural individuals. An essential task for psychology is to clarify the inter-functionality between biology and culture and how higher psychological functions are created when culture “creeps inside” and establishes new human nature in the mind and the brain. Knowledge of the ways in which genes and the environment interact to affect maturation of the brain has changed our understanding of the relationship between nature and nurture, between biology and culture. Hereditary or genetic outfitting unfolds in concert with the environment from the time of conception and during pregnancy. The dynamic interplay between gene action and the environment continues through life. The human mind is a conscious mind developed with cultural tools like language and able to subjugate the non-conscious instinctive and lower psychological “ mind ” functions. These lower functions are part of the non-volatile mind developing to something else when combined with the higher and cultural mind functions. The psyche is a functional system which acquires a socio-historical character in the transition from the animal organism to the human organism for each individual during the ontogenesis.
Aron, A., Ketay, S., Hedden, T., Aron, E. N., Markus, H. R., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2010). Temperament trait of sensory processing sensitivity moderates cultural differences in neural response. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5, 219-226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq028
Black, I. (1991). Information in the Brain: A molecular perspective. Cambridge: The MITPress.
Chiao, J. Y., & Blizinsky, K. D. (2009). Culture-gene coevolution of individualism-collectivism and the serotonin transporter gene. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biology, 277, 529-537.
Doidge, N. (2007). The brain that changes itself. NY: Viking Penguin.
Fiske, A. P., Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., & Nisbett, R. E. (1998). The cultural matrix of social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 915-981). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Greenfield, P. M. (2002). The mutual definition of culture and biology in development. In H. Keller, Y. H. Poortinga, & A. Schölmerich (Eds.), Between culture and biology. Perspectives on ontogenetic development (pp. 57-76). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489853.004
Gunnar, M. R., Morison, S. J., Chisholm, K., & Schuder, M. (2001). Salivary cortisol levels in children adopted from romanian orphanages. Developmental Psychopathology, 13, 611-628. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S095457940100311X
Jahoda, G. (2002). Culture, biology and development across history. In H. Keller, Y. H. Poortinga, & A. Schölmerich (Eds.), Between culture and biology. Perspectives on ontogenetic development (pp. 1329). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489853.002
Keller, H. (2002). Development as the interface between biology and culture: A conceptualization of early ontogenetic experiences. In H. Keller, Y. H. Poortinga, & A. Schölmerich (Eds.), Between culture and biology. Perspectives on ontogenetic development (pp. 215-240). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489853
Kim, H., & Drolet, A. (2009). Express your social self: Cultural differences in choice of brand-name versus generic products. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1555-1566. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167209348641
Kitayama, S., & Park, J. (2010). Cultural neuroscience of the self: Understanding the social grounding of the brain. SCAN, 5, 111-129.
Kolstad, A. (2012). Inter-functionality between mind, biology and culture: Some epistemological issues concerning human psychologycal development. In M. L. Seidl-de-Moura (Ed.), Human development—Different perspectives (Ch. 2, pp. 19-41). InTech. http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/37595
Kolstad, A. (2013). Epistemology of psychology—A new paradigm: The dialectics of culture and biology. Hauppauge New York: Nova Science Publishers.
Kornadt, H.-J. (2002). Biology, culture and child rearing: The development of social motives. In H. Keller, Y. H. Poortinga, & A. Schölmerich (Eds.), Between culture and biology. Perspectives on ontogenetic development (pp. 191-211). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lee, T. I., Jenner, R. G., Boyer, L. A. et al. (2006). Control of developmental regulators by Polycomb in human embryonic stem cells. Cell, 125, 301-313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2006.02.043
Luria, A. R. (1966). The human brain and psychological processes. Ney York: Harper & Row.
Meaney, M. K., & Syzf, M. (2005). Maternal care as a model for experience-dependent chromatin plasticity? Trends in Neuroscience, 28, 456-462. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2005.07.006
Miller, J. G. (2002). Integrating cultural, psychological and biological perspectives in understanding child development. In H. Keller, Y. H. Poortinga, & A. Schölmerich (Eds.), Between culture and biology. Perspectives on ontogenetic development (pp. 215-240). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489853.008
Nikolaidis, A., & Gray, J. R. (2010). ADHD and the DRD4 exon III 7-repeat polymorphism: An international meta-analysis. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5, 188-193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsp049
Ratner, C. (2011). Macro-cultural psychology. In J. Valsiner (Ed.), Oxford handbook of culture and psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Suomi, S.J. (1999). Developmental trajectories, early experiences, and community consequences: Lessons from studies with rhesus monkeys. In D. Keating, & C. Hertzman (Eds.), Developmental health and the wealth of nations (pp. 185-200). New York: Guilford Press.
Toomela, A. (2008). Afferent synthesis and theory of functional systems. Presentation at the Conference on Cultural and Social Psychology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), November 2008, Trondheim.
van der Veer, R., & Valsiner, J. (1991). Understanding Vygotsky: A quest for synthesis. Cambridge: Blackwell.
van der Veer, R., & Valsiner, J. (1994). The Vygotsky reader. Cambridge: Blackwell.
van der Veer, R., & van Uzendoorn, M. H. (1985). Vygotsky’s theory of the higher psychological processes: Some criticisms. Human Development, 28, 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000272931
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Collected works (Vol. 1). New York: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). Collected works (Vol. 5). New York: Plenum.
Vygotsky, L. S., & Luria, A. (1930/1993). Studies on the history of behavior. Ape, primitive, and child. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Yaroshevsky, M. (1989). Lev Vygotsky. Moscow: Progress Publisher.