The present paper discusses issues related to development as embedded in its sociocultural context, using the notion of mediated activity as an unit of analysis of psychological processes which does not dissociate the individual and the social levels. The tendency of not fully analyzing the theoretical implications of a growing set of empirical evidences in the study of early mother-infant interactions is questioned. A sociocultural perspective and a model of sociocultural context of development are presented as alternatives for the interpretation of mother-infant interactions data. We argue that such interactions are the matrix of mediated activity and the genesis of psychological processes. The data from an observational study of 30 mother-infant dyads are interpreted using the proposed theoretical perspective. We believe that the attempt to relate a theoretical perspective and the interpretation of observational data can contribute to the comprehension of early child development.
Mother-infant interaction; genesis; mediated activity