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Competence Centre of Cultural Psychology

The aim of the Centre of Competence is to create a fundamental internationally integrated knowledge base about cultural psychology as the most rapidly growing field in psychology and  in society in general. We intend to provide basic research education at a higher level of academic excellence, as well as information about cultural psychology to people from different educational and interdisciplinary backgrounds in the field of social, educational, and health sciences. The Centre is an integral part of Tallinn University’s psychology and behavioural science stream of investigations within the School of Natural Sciences and Health.

What is cultural psychology? It can be expressed in eight statements:

  • Cultural psychology is a new synthesis of knowledge at the borders of developmental and social psychology, semiotics, cultural history, and philosophy. 
  • It is based on the European tradition of Naturphilosophie, Völkerpsychologie, and phenomenology. 
  • Cultural Psychology in its contemporary version has emerged since the 1990s. 
  • Cultural psychology looks at human psyche starting from the highest forms of cultural inventions—art, music, literature. 
  • Its methodology is qualitative in its nature, with focus on introspection, autoethnography, and microgenesis. 
  • Cultural psychology is axiomatically based on the framework of open systems that focus on exchange relations of organism with environment. 
  • Methodological basis of cultural psychology is structural-systemic epistemological approach. 
  • It derives general knowledge from systemically analyzed single cases In its Estonian academic history it derives from the work of Juri Lotman and Peeter Tulviste.

Contacts

General Leadership

  • Jaan Valsiner, president of the CCP, Aalborg University (Denmark), Sigmund Freud PrivatUniversität (Ljubljana-Wien), Universidade Federal do Bahia, Brazil, and Tallinn University
  • Katrin Kullasepp, vice-president of the CCP, School of natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University

Topical Leadership

​Tallinn University, ​​​​​​Academic staff

  • Kristiina Uriko, School of natural Sciences and Health
  • Aaro Toomela, School of natural Sciences and Health
  • Aleksander Pulver, School of natural Sciences and Health
  • Mariann Märtsin, School of Governance, Law and Society
  • Maaris Raudsepp, School of Governance, Law and Society
  • Katrin Kullasepp, School of natural Sciences and Health

(will be updated)

Affiliated Partners and Institutions 

  • Ana Cecília de Sousa Bastos. Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
  • European Hub for Cultural Psychology - 
  • Giuseppina Marsico Department of Human, Philosophical and Educational Sciences. University of Salerno  

  • Luca Tateo University of Oslo (Norway) 

  • Maria Virginia Machado Dazzani Universidade Federal da Bahia (Federal University of Bahia), Brazil  ORCID 
  • Mónica Roncancio Moreno, Universidad del Valle, Colombia
  • Sergio Salvatore  University of Salento, Italy
  • Tatsuya Sato, the Faculty of Comprehensive Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Japan 
  • Vladimer Lado Gamsakhurdia, Tbilisi State University, Georgia  

 

 

(will be updated)

PhD students and Collaborators

  • Julia Bo Christensen Lindgren), PhD student
  • Simone Indius, PhD student

  • Annela Samuel, PhD student

  • Arno Baltin

Research Directions

  • Identity construction, professional identity of psychologist and teachers (Katrin Kullasepp)
  • Artists as creators of culture (Katrin Kullasepp)  
  • “From university to life: development of the professional self in practice” (Julia Bo Christensen Lindgren)
  • “Meta-Intentionality in Psychotherapy: Understanding Therapist Intentions, Professional Growth, and the Therapeutic Alliance” (Simone Indius)

  • Psychosocial development in adulthood, particularly in relation to life-course transitions, work-life balance, and migration (Mariann Märtsin)

  • Post-Soviet Transition Beyond Liminality: Opportunities for Social Work (Annela Samuel)

(will be updated)

Publications

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Coming Soon

In planning - Autumn Seminar (October, 2025)

News

  • Doctoral candidate Raffaele Modugno (Salerno University, Italy) is visiting the School of Natural Sciences and Health (Psychology and Behavioural Sciences)  from May until October 2025 -
  • Blended Intensive Program: Culture, Migration, and Identity: Supporting People on the Move

This Blended Intensive Program, organized by Tallinn University in partnership with the University of Oslo and the University of Seville, provides an in-depth exploration of migration, culture, and identity. Grounded in cultural psychology and Dialogical Self Theory, the course examines how migration shapes identities, relationships, and integration processes in diverse sociocultural contexts. The program consists of two components: Virtual Component (March 2025): Online sessions introducing key theories and real migration stories. On-Site Intensive in Tallinn, Estonia (April 7–11, 2025): Five days of immersive learning, including site visits to NGOs, interactive lectures, self-reflective and arts-based exercises, cultural events, and a field trip to Narva to examine migration-related challenges in a border-town context. The program is taught by experts in cultural psychology and migration studies: Mariann Märtsin and Annela Samuel (Tallinn University, Estonia), Guro Brokke Omland (University of Oslo, Norway), and Alicia Español Nogueiro (University of Seville, Spain).For more information: martsin@tlu.ee

  • European Hub for Cultural Psychology established

Cultural Psycholgists across Europe have now a joint online platform for international exchange: The European Hub for Cultural Psychology (). The hub is a collaborating conglomerate consisting of universities in different European countries carrying out specific emphases within the approach of Cultural Psychology established by Jaan Valsiner. The Centre for Cultural Psychology at AAU is one of the collaborating partners of the hub.Cultural psychologists from 15 countries and 19 universities across Europe are represented in this network. Carolin Demuth is science ambassador for Cultural Psychology in Aalborg. Brady Wagoner is science ambassador for Cultural Psychology in Copenhagen. Jaan Valsiner is science ambassador for Cultural Psychology in Ljubliana. It has worldwide collaboration with a number of universities and associations including division 52 of the American Psychological Association, Ritsumeikan University (Japan), the Association of European Qualitative Researchers in Psychology (EQuiP) and the Jaan Valsiner foundation Psychology Beyond Borders.