Theory of activity in domestic psychology. Basic concepts and provisions of the general psychological theory of activity (A.N. Leontiev)

The psychological theory of activity was created in Soviet psychology in the 1920s and early 1930s. of the last century and developed for about 50 years by Soviet psychologists: S.L. Rubinstein, A.N. Leontiev, A.R. Luria, A.V. Zaporozhets, P.Ya. Galperin.

The use of the category of activity is a distinctive feature of Russian psychology.

Activity- specifically human, consciousness-regulated activity, generated by needs and aimed at the knowledge and transformation of the external world and the person himself.

Human activity is social, transformative in nature and is not limited to the simple satisfaction of needs, largely determined by the goals and requirements of society.

The problem of activity is organically connected with the problem of personality and consciousness. These three categories in psychology act as the 3 main principles of psychology (see principles of psychology). Personality is both formed and manifested in activity. Activity is a process of human interaction with the world, but the process is not passive, but active and consciously regulated by the individual.

Human activity is manifested and continues in creations, it is productive, and not just consumer in nature.

The creative nature of human activity is manifested in the fact that, thanks to it, he goes beyond his natural limitations, i.e., surpasses his own genotypically conditioned capabilities. As a result of the productive, creative nature of human activity, man created sign systems, tools for influencing the world around him and himself, material and spiritual culture. The historical progress that has taken place over the past few tens of thousands of years owes its origin to the activity that improved the biological nature of people.

Having generated and continuing to improve consumer goods, a person, in addition to abilities, develops his needs. Once connected with the objects of material and spiritual culture, the needs of people acquire a cultural character.

Human activity is fundamentally different from animal activity.

1. The activity of animals is caused by natural needs, while human activity is mainly generated and supported by artificial needs that arise due to the appropriation of the achievements of the cultural and historical development of people of the present and previous generations. These are the needs for knowledge (scientific and artistic), creativity, moral self-improvement, and others.

2. Forms and methods of organizing human activity differ from animal activity, almost all of them are associated with complex motor skills and abilities acquired as a result of conscious purposeful organized learning, which animals do not have.

3. Animals consume what is given to them by nature. Man, on the other hand, creates more than he consumes.

So the main differences activities person from activity animals are as follows:

social conditioning. Human activity in its various forms and means of realization is a product of socio-historical development. The objective activity of people from birth is not given to them. It is "given" in the cultural purpose and way of using the surrounding objects. Such activity must be formed and developed in training and education. The activity of animals acts as a result of their biological evolution.

Purposefulness. Human activity, unlike the instincts of animals, is conscious. People are always guided by consciously set goals, which they achieve through carefully thought out and tested means or methods of action. Any activity consists of individual actions united by a unity of purpose and aimed at achieving the results programmed by this purpose.

Planned activity. Activity is not the sum of individual actions or movements. In any type of activity, all its components are subordinate to a certain system, are interconnected and are carried out according to a meaningful plan. Higher animals solve two-phase tasks to satisfy needs that are more or less stable in nature and are limited mainly by biological needs.

objectivity. Human activity is associated with objects of material and spiritual culture, which are used by him either as tools, or as objects for satisfying needs, or as means of his own development. For animals, human tools and means of satisfying needs do not exist as such.

Subjectivity. Activity is determined by the personal characteristics of a person and transforms him, his abilities, needs, living conditions. The activity of animals practically does not change anything either in themselves or in the external conditions of their life.

Creation. Human activity is productive, creative, constructive. A person in the process of performing an activity transforms himself. The activity of animals has a consumer basis; as a result, it does not produce or create anything new, in comparison with what is given by nature.

Activities differ not only from activity, but also from behavior.

- behavior is not always purposeful, and activity is always purposeful;

- behavior does not involve the creation of a specific product, and the activity is aimed at creating a certain product;

- behavior is often passive, activity is always active;

- behavior can be impulsive, activity is arbitrary;

- behavior can be spontaneous, activity is organized;

- behavior can be chaotic, activity is systematized.

There are two forms of activity: external (practical, objective, visible to other people) and internal (psychic: gnostic - perceptual, mnemonic, imaginative, mental; emotional and volitional). For a long time, psychology dealt exclusively with internal activities. It was believed that external activity only expressed internal (or "activity of consciousness"). It took a long time to come to the conclusion that both of these forms of activity represent a community through which a person interacts with the world around him. Both forms have a fundamentally identical structure, i.e., they are motivated by needs and motives, accompanied by experiences, and guided by goals. The only difference between internal activity and external activity is that it includes not real objects, but their mental images; the results of internal activities are also expressed in an ideal form (image), which may or may not become a real product.

The unity of these two forms of activity is also manifested in their mutual transitions through the processes interiorization and exteriorization.

Process interiorization expresses the ability of the psyche to operate with images of objects and phenomena that are currently absent in a person's field of vision.

exteriorization activity characterizes a person's ability to carry out external actions (operations) on the basis of the transformation of internal patterns that have developed due to internalization, due to the previously formed internal ideal plan of activity. exteriorization - the embodiment of previous experience in physical external actions.

Activity structure

Activity - active interaction of the subject with the environment, in which he achieves a consciously set goal that arose as a result of the appearance of a certain need in him.

S.L. Rubinstein included in the psychological structure: motive–goal – way(actions and operations), result.

The main function of activity is the development of personality, which is reflected in the principle of personality development in activity.

Psychological analysis of activity, including mental activity, makes it possible to characterize its structural elements:

– need - a reflection of the needs of the body or personality in something and the source of the activity of the personality;

– motive - reflection of needs, motivation of the subject to activity;

– goal - the predicted result of the activity. Activity begins with the realization of an objective goal as a reflected one, because the goal of activity as a mental phenomenon is not mirrored, but personally processed on the basis of the determining role and needs of a particular person;

– way of doing the activity - actions and operations with the help of which the activity is implemented;

– result - an ideal product or a “reified” (A.N. Leontiev) materialized goal.

The process of activity begins with setting goals based needs and motives (or a person's awareness of the task assigned to him). The main component of the activity is action, which has its own: goal , motive , method (operation) and result .

The need is not experienced as such - it is presented as an experience of the discomfort of dissatisfaction and manifests itself in search activity. In the course of the search, the need meets its object, fixation on the object that can satisfy it. From the moment of the “meeting”, activity becomes directed, the need is objectified - as a need for something specific, and not “in general” - and becomes a motive, it is now possible to talk about activity. It correlates with the motive: the motive is that for which the activity is performed, and the activity is the set of actions that are caused by the motive. As a result of motivation, a goal is determined, which will act as a regulator of activity. Target - This is an image of the desired result that should be achieved in the course of the activity.

Activity consists of action, a actions - from operations. If a person does not own operations, characteristic of a particular type of activity, he cannot successfully perform it.

Action - an element of activity in the process of which a specific, not decomposable into simpler, conscious goal is achieved.

The goal sets the action. The sequence of actions ensures the realization of the purpose of the activity. Action - unit of activity analysis . Action is one of the defining components of human activity, which is formed under the influence of its goal.

Each action has its own psychological structure: the purpose of the action, motives, operations and the end result .

Operation- a specific way to perform an action . Each action can be performed by several operations. The choice of this or that operation is determined by the specific situation and the individual characteristics of the subject of activity (see Individual style of activity). For example, the female way of threading a needle is that the thread is pushed into the eye of the needle, and men, on the contrary, pull the eye onto the thread.

Operations characterize the technical side of the action. The nature of the operations used depends on the conditions in which the action is performed. If the action meets its own goal, then the operation meets the conditions in which this goal is set. In this case, the conditions are understood as external and internal circumstances. A goal set under certain conditions is called a task.

Operations are fundamentally different from actions that involve both a conscious goal and conscious control over the course; that they are little or not realized at all.

Any complex action consists of a layer of actions and a layer of operations “underlying” them. The boundary between actions and operations is fluid. Moving it up means turning some actions (mostly the most elementary) into operations. In such cases, it happens consolidation of units of activity . The downward movement of the border means the transformation of operations into actions, or breaking down activities into smaller units.

Definition of "skill",
"skill", stages of their formation

Operational structure of activity: knowledge, skills and skills.

Knowledge- facts learned and summarized in a system, their generalizations in the form of concepts, terms, conclusions, scientific theories. Knowledge contains a generalized experience that reflects the laws of the objective world. Knowledge must have inextricable links with life practice, with constant readiness to perform the desired activity.

Skills - the ability to perform arbitrary automated actions performed with great precision, economically and with optimal speed. In the process of learning, sensory-perceptual, attentional, mnemonic, gnostic, imaginative, communicative, professionally significant and other skills are formed. Professionally significant skills characterize the ability to successfully perform professionally necessary actions related to psychomotor acts in various types of professional activities.

Types of human activity.

A person becomes a person in the process of socialization. Socialization in a broad sense refers to the appropriation of experience accumulated by mankind in the process of education and upbringing. In domestic psychology, it is customary to distinguish four types of activity: communication, play, teaching and work, each of which at a certain stage of ontogenesis plays a leading role in the development of a person, personality and subject of activity.

Leading activity- the type of activity, the implementation of which determines the formation of the main psychological neoplasms; the direction of the mental development of a person of his personality in a specific age period of life.

6. Describe attention. Types and properties of attention.

Attention- this is a selective concentration of consciousness on some object, the focus of the psyche on a certain activity while being distracted from everything else. With the help of attention, the selection of the necessary stimuli entering the zone of consciousness is performed.

The physiological basis of attention is the stimulation of some optimal focus of excitation in the cerebral cortex, enhanced by subcortical structures, and, according to a number of physiologists, by the reticular formation located in the brain stem. In this case, the mechanism of formation of the dominant focus of excitation (dominants according to A.A. Ukhtomsky) is of great importance.

Not being a proper mental cognitive process, attention determines the possibility of the other mental processes, reflecting them.

Thus, the main attention functions are:

– selection of significant (sensory, mnemonic, mental) influences in the performed activity and rejection of insignificant ones - selectivity of attention;

– retention the activity performed (preservation in the mind of the images necessary to complete the activity, achieve the goal);

– regulation and the control implementation of activities.

Attention is classified according to a number of parameters.

Attention as a manifestation selective focus and intensity mental activity (consciousness) is divided into kinds:

– external attention (external) is determined by focusing the attention of the subject on external objects

– inner attention (internally directed), the object of which is the subject's own thoughts, experiences, mental (mnemonic, logical) activity.

depending on participation volitional process consider voluntary, involuntary and post-voluntary attention:

- arbitrary attention motivated, consciously regulated by the requirements of the activity performed, mediated and directed by appropriate volitional efforts. Achieving the goal of the activity determines the active, but requiring significant energy expenditure, the nature of voluntary attention;

- involuntary attention arises without a consciously set goal and is retained on the object without volitional efforts, is determined by the characteristics of the stimulus. Of several stimuli, the strongest acts, for example, the coloring of the object, its novelty, expressiveness, unusualness, appealing to the internal state of the subject, etc. It is based on an orienting reflex;

- post-voluntary attention is retained on the object after the termination of the stimulus due to its significance for a person: failure in solving any task that aroused emotional interest, even when switching to another activity, leads to its preservation in consciousness, contributing to the subsequent solution. Post-voluntary attention does not require the application of volitional efforts, it is no less stable than voluntary, but does not require high energy expenditure, since, in fact, it is involuntary, arising from voluntary, due to interest in the activity being performed. This is the most productive type of attention, characterized by stability, complexity of switching and accompanying the intellectual activity of the subject.

Basic properties of attention

attention span- the number of objects or elements of the stimulus perceived by the subject per unit of time. The average indicator, according to the NRL VIFK, is the image of 5 ± 2 simple geometric shapes (circle, cross, square, etc.) with an exposure of 1 s (there are recommendations to use an exposure equal to 1/10 s).

Concentration of attention is determined by the ability to focus as much as possible on one of the selected objects, arbitrarily distracted from the rest (for example, when aiming). An indicator of concentration of attention is its noise immunity, determined by the strength of an extraneous stimulus that can distract the subject from the object of activity.

Sustainability of attention- the ability to hold attention for a long time on a chosen object. Let us repeat, the higher the subject's interest in the activity being performed, the longer he is able to keep his attention on the object of activity.

The intensity of attention is its stable concentration on the object, characterized by the ability to resist fluctuations (fluctuations).

Switching attention is characterized by a rapid arbitrary transfer of attention from one object to another, a rapid transition from one activity to another (for example, from defense to attack in boxing and other martial arts).

Distribution of attention- holding several objects in the field of consciousness at the same time (one of them is brighter than the others). With additional stimulation, it is possible to quickly switch attention to any other object. The distribution and switching of attention have some common psychophysiological mechanisms.

fluctuations in attention- the property of attention to involuntarily move from object to object, usually at least 1 time every 5 s, so the intensity of attention does not remain unchanged, especially with a dual image of figures (for example, in a special drawing, silhouettes of two faces are perceived - two profiles, then a flower vase located between them.

Distractibility- a property opposite to stability and not distinguished by all researchers, it is characterized by involuntary, which determines the inability to concentrate when exposed to extraneous stimuli.

INTRODUCTION

1. Views on activities in schools L.S. Vygotsky and S.L. Rubinstein

2. Subject-activity approach (K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, A.V. Brushlinsky)

3. Activity approach in foreign psychology

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

The dictionary gives the following definitions of the concept of "activity theory":

1. Activity theory developed by S.L. Rubinshtein - the implementation of the activity approach to the analysis of psychological phenomena. The subject of analysis here is the psyche through the disclosure of its essential objective connections and mediations, in particular through activity. In deciding the question of the relationship between external practical activity and consciousness, he proceeded from the position that one cannot consider "internal" mental activity as being formed as a result of the curtailment of "external" practical activity.

2. The theory of activity developed by A.N. Leontiev - the implementation of the activity approach to the analysis of psychological phenomena. Activity is considered here as the subject of analysis, since the psyche itself cannot be separated from the moments of activity that generate and mediate it, and the psyche itself is a form of objective activity. When solving the question of the relationship between external practical activity and consciousness, he proceeded from the position that the internal plan of consciousness is formed in the process of curtailing initially practical actions.

Time of creation of the "theory of activity" - 1920-1930. It was developed by two scientists in parallel and independently of each other. Rubinstein and Leontiev rely on the works of Vygotsky and on the philosophical theory of K. Marx, so their works have much in common, but there are also distinctive points.

The theory of activity formulated by A.N. Leontiev in the early 70s of the 20th century, attracted the attention of the entire community of domestic psychologists as a new “vision” of the problem of activity from the standpoint of psychological science. At the same time, it gave rise to many different points of view on the possibility and prospects of its application in practice.

According to Russian scientists, the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity presupposes the inclusion of consciousness in the context of a person's vital connections with the objective world, and the basis of these connections is formed by activity through which a person, changing the world, changes himself. Thus, a new productive method of psychological cognition was proposed, called "the unity of influence and study."

Psychology reveals its secrets not in the contemplation of phenomena open to direct internal or external observation, but in the process of transforming the objects under study through practical actions (including the practice of research work).

1. VIEWS ON ACTIVITIES IN SCHOOLS L.S. VYGOTSKY and S.L. RUBINSTEIN

An outstanding psychologist and philosopher S.L. Rubinstein (1889 - 1960) is best known as the author of the original subject-activity concept, which he generalized at the end of his life as an innovative philosophical anthropology. The initial stage in the creation of this concept is reflected in his manuscripts and articles of 1916-1922. Various other variants of the psychological theory of activity were also developed by M.Ya. Basov, A.N. Leontiev, B.M. Teplov, A.A. Smirnov, B.G. Ananiev, P.Ya. Galperin, V.V. Davydov and many other psychologists. The psychological thesis of the psychological theory of activity is being formed: it is not consciousness that determines activity, but activity that determines consciousness.

On the basis of this provision, in the 1930s, Rubinstein formed the basic principle: “the unity of consciousness and activity.” Being formed in activity, the psyche and consciousness manifest themselves in activity. Activity and consciousness are not two different sides of inverted aspects, they form an organic unity, but not an identity. Activity is not a set of reflex reactions to an external stimulus, as it is regulated by consciousness. Consciousness is considered as a reality that is not given to the subject directly for his self-observation: consciousness can be known only through a system of subjective relations, including through the activity of the subject, in the process of which the subject develops. Leontiev clarifies Rubinstein's position: thus, according to him, consciousness does not simply manifest itself as a separate reality, consciousness is built-in and inextricably linked with it. Definition of activity according to Rubinstein: this is a set of actions, for example, to achieve goals. According to Leontiev: this is a set of actions united by a certain motive.

According to Rubinstein, activity is determined by its object, but not directly, but through its "internal" patterns. External causes act through internal conditions. Activity should be distinguished from behavior. The success of the activity depends on three conditions: knowledge, skills, motivation.

In the psychological theory of activity, all mental processes, including personality, have an object-activity nature. Its advocates have used experimental methods to study sensory, perceptual, executive, memory-related, cognitive, and affective actions. Action, both in concept and in essence, is not only an object of study, but also a unit of analysis of mental processes. The focus was on action, not meaning. Action as a unit of analysis appears in Zaporozhets' studies of sensation, perception, intellect, and emotions; in the study of P. Zinchenko's memory; in the study of the will of K. Gurevich; and in the analysis of the formation of concepts and thinking of Peter Galperin. It was also used by Vasily Davydov in his analysis of the formation of generalizations. In the psychological theory of activity, it has been shown that the motive is the object, and that necessity (after encountering the object) also becomes object-oriented. The result is an approach that is in some respects the opposite of Vygotsky's. The psychological theory of activity, according to some of the American cultural psychologists, simplifies the spiritual world of people, reducing it to object-oriented activity and thus representing it as mechanistic, does not take into account its spiritual dimension. In the three-level scheme that Leontiev used to describe activity (activity-motive, action-goal, action-condition), there was no direct indication of the place of meaning, feeling, mediators, consciousness, personality, etc.

In Vygotsky's writings, the construct of mediation - especially semiotic mediation - plays a central theoretical role, gradually gaining more and more importance in the last years of his life and work. A year before his death, he wrote that "the central point of our psychology is the fact of mediation."

As the main principles of the theory of activity, the principles of objectivity, activity, the non-adaptive nature of human activity, analysis of activity “by units”, internalization and exteriorization, mediation, as well as the principles of the dependence of mental reflection on the place of the reflected object in the structure of activity and historicism can be singled out.

In the book "Activity. Consciousness. Personality” Leontiev A.N., developing the views and ideas of L.S. Vygotsky and S.L. Rubinshtein, first of all emphasizes the indivisible, molar nature of activity, since it is “a system that has its own structure, its own internal transitions and transformations, its own development”, “included in the system of social relations”. In society, a person falls not just under external conditions to which he adjusts his activity, the social conditions themselves carry the motives and goals of his activity, thus society creates the activity of the individuals that form it. Primarily, the activity is controlled by the object itself (objective world), and secondarily by its image, as a subjective product of activity that carries the subject content. The conscious image is understood in this case as an ideal measure materialized in activity; it, human consciousness, essentially participates in the movement of activity. So, Leontiev considered "the study of the process of generation and transformation of a person's personality in his activity, taking place in specific social conditions" (4; 173). Along with the “consciousness-image”, the concept of “consciousness-activity” is introduced, and in general, consciousness is defined as the internal movement of its constituents, included in the general movement of activity. Attention is focused on the fact that actions are not special “separations” within the activity; human activity does not exist except in the form of an action or a chain of actions. One and the same process appears as an activity in its relation to a motive, as an action or a chain of actions in its subordination to a goal. Thus, the action is not a component and not a unit of activity: it is precisely its "formative", its moment.

According to Leontiev, activity is a form of activity. Activity, in turn, is motivated by need, i.e. a state of need under normal operating conditions.

Summing up the above, Leontiev's theory of activity, as well as the works of Vygotsky and Rubinstein, certainly attract considerable attention from representatives of cultural psychology and the sociocultural approach. Perhaps they will also play a role in ethnopsychology.

2. SUBJECT AND ACTIVITY APPROACH (K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, A.V. Brushlinsky)

Socio-psychological ideas about personality from the standpoint of the subject-activity approach are contained in the works of S. L. Rubinshtein. As K.A. Abulkhanova points out, the single logical basis, the main idea, the main direction of the internal connections of his philosophical and psychological concept is the idea of ​​the subject.

Having expressed the cardinal proposition about the inclusion of a person in the composition of being, Rubinshtein considers subjectivity to be the most important mechanism of this inclusion. The relationship of a person with the world is carried out in different forms - cognitive, activity and relational. The latter is the relation of a person to another person. All these forms of relations that make up the essence of the subject are formed in activity: “The subject, both in his cognition, and in his action, and in his relation to another subject, destroys (each time in a specific way) the appearance, the outside of the object and the other subject, overcomes its isolation , reveals (by knowledge), transforms (by action), strengthens the essence of another person with his attitude towards him ”(1; 21). The principle of subjectness (subject) is inextricably linked in Rubinstein's concept with the activity principle. Activity acts as one of the types of activity of the subject, as a way of his attitude to reality. The activity of the subject is expressed, according to Rubinstein, in the forms of self-determination, self-causation, self-activity. These forms reflect the essential characteristics of the subject.

activity theory

Created in Soviet psychology. Significant contributions to it were made by L. S. Vygotsky, S. L. Rubinshtein, Leontiev, A. R. Luria, A. V. Zaporozhets, P. Ya. Galperin, and many others. Its basis is ideas about the structure of activity ( cm.), although they do not exhaust the theory completely.

One of the essential differences between the theory of activity and previous concepts is the recognition of the inseparable unity of consciousness and behavior. This unity is already contained in the main unit of analysis - action.

The main starting points, the principles of the theory of activity are as follows:

1 ) consciousness cannot be considered as closed in itself, it must be brought into the activity of the subject ("opening" the circle of consciousness);

2 ) behavior cannot be considered in isolation from consciousness: when considering behavior, consciousness must not only be preserved, but also defined in its fundamental function (the principle of the unity of consciousness and communication);

4 ) actions are objective, they realize social goals (the principle of objectivity of activity and the principle of social conditionality of activity).

The development of the theory of activity began with an analysis of external activity, but then turned to internal activity. With regard to these very important forms of activity, two main theses are put forward. ;

1. Internal activity has in principle the same structure as external activity, and differs only in the form of flow. This means that internal activity is also motivated by motives, accompanied by emotions (often even more acute), and has its own operational composition. The only difference is that actions are carried out not with real objects, but with their images, and the product is the image-result.

2. Internal activity originated from external activity through its internalization. So in order to successfully reproduce some action in the mind, it is necessary to master it realistically and get a real result. At the same time, during internalization, external activity, without changing its fundamental structure, is greatly transformed; this applies especially to its operational part: individual actions or operations are reduced, some of them drop out altogether, and the whole process goes much faster.

Through the concept of activity, the internal theory of activity has come very close to describing the stream of consciousness by its own means - however, this concept does not cover the entire content of the stream of consciousness. For a complete coverage, it is necessary to take one more step after the theory of activity - in the direction of such traditional objects of psychology as individual mental processes or functions - perception, attention, memory, etc. The development of psychology within the framework of the activity approach made it possible to describe these concepts within the framework of the theory of activity and by her means.

Thus, in order to describe perception, it is necessary to introduce the concept of a perceptual action, and first it should be clarified whether there are perceptual goals. They undoubtedly exist and appear, for example, in the task of distinguishing two similar stimuli - tastes, smells, sound tones, etc. To solve all such problems, perceptual actions are performed, which can be characterized as actions of discrimination, detection, measurement, identification, etc. Ideas about the structure of activity are also applicable to the analysis of all other mental processes. The theory allows you to take a fresh look at these classical objects of psychology - they are comprehended as special forms of activity.

Dictionary of practical psychologist. - M.: AST, Harvest. S. Yu. Golovin. 1998 .

activity theory Etymology.

Comes from the Greek. theory - research.

Kraiker, 1980; Herzog, 1984.

West German psychological direction

It is based on criticism of behaviorism for refusing to recognize a person's responsibility for their behavior and the ability to choose between different forms of response. In contrast, it is postulated that human behavior is arbitrary, goal-oriented and conscious. It is believed that a person is an active being who behaves purposefully and intentionally, who chooses from alternatives, chooses his own goals and can decide on something, the actions taking place on this basis are thorough and rational. Due to the fact that the basis of this approach is operationalism, the criticism lies in the denial of the possibility of operationally describing the existential and transcendental components of human behavior, as well as the components of the unconscious.

Psychological Dictionary. THEM. Kondakov. 2000 .

activity theory

Another name for the theory of aging. According to this theory, being active and participating in society leads to greater life satisfaction and psychological health in old age. As a desirable measure, it is proposed to carry over many activities and interests from adulthood into later life. Since some of the main roles (and (for example, parents or employees) in society are lost with aging, it is proposed to replace them with new roles. The theory is often criticized for its simplistic approach, in the sense that continuing to be active and participating in mundane affairs is itself cannot provide himself with life satisfaction and good health.

Psychology. AND I. Dictionary-reference book / Per. from English. K. S. Tkachenko. - M.: FAIR-PRESS. Mike Cordwell. 2000 .

See what "activity theory" is in other dictionaries:

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Etymology. Comes from the Greek. theory research. Author. A.N. Leontiev. Category. Implementation of the activity approach to the analysis of psychological phenomena. Specificity. Activity is considered as the subject of analysis here. Insofar as… …

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The leading methodological basis for the study of the psyche in domestic science is the theory of activity.
Theory of activity.
Activity theory is a system of methodological and theoretical principles for the study of mental phenomena. The main subject of research is activity that mediates all mental processes. This approach began to take shape in Russian psychology in the 1920s. 20th century In the 1930s two interpretations of the activity approach in psychology were proposed - S.L. Rubinshtein (1889–1960), who formulated the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity, and A.N. Leontiev (1903–1979), who, together with other representatives of the Kharkov psychological school, developed the problem of the commonality of the structure of external and internal activities.
In the theory of activity of S.L. Rubinshtein, leading from his article “The Principle of Creative Amateur Activity”, written in 1922 and finalized in the 1930s, the subject of analysis here is the psyche through the disclosure of its essential objective connections and mediations, in particular through activity . When deciding on the relationship between external practical activity and consciousness, the position is taken that one cannot consider “internal” mental activity as being formed as a result of the curtailment of “external” practical activity. In his formulation of the principle of mental determinism, external causes act through internal conditions. With this interpretation, activity and consciousness are considered not as two forms of manifestation of something unified, differing in the means of empirical analysis, but as two instances that form an indissoluble unity.
In the theory of activity A.N. Leontiev, activity is considered here as the subject of analysis. Since the psyche itself cannot be separated from the moments of activity that generate and mediate it, the psyche itself is a form of objective activity. When deciding on the relationship between external practical activity and consciousness, the position is taken that the internal plan of consciousness is formed in the process of curtailing initially practical actions. With such an interpretation, consciousness and activity are distinguished as an image and the process of its formation, while the image is an “accumulated movement”, folded actions. This postulate has been implemented in many studies.
These methodological guidelines were formed by A.N. Leontiev back in the late 1920s, when he worked for L.S. Vygotsky within the cultural-historical concept. He studied the processes of memory, which he interpreted as an objective activity that takes place under certain conditions of socio-historical and ontogenetic development. In the early 30s. became the head of the Kharkov activity school and began the theoretical and experimental development of the problem of activity. In experiments conducted under his supervision in 1956-1963, it was shown that on the basis of adequate action, the formation of pitch hearing is possible even in people with poor musical hearing. He proposed to consider activity (correlated with motive) as consisting of actions (having their own goals) and operations (agreed with conditions). The basis of the personality, in norm and pathology, laid the hierarchy of its motives. He conducted research on a wide range of psychological problems: the emergence and development of the psyche in phylogenesis, the emergence of consciousness in anthropogenesis, mental development in ontogenesis, the structure of activity and consciousness, the motivational and semantic sphere of personality, the methodology and history of psychology.
The use of the theory of activity to explain the characteristics of the human psyche is based on the concept of higher mental functions developed by L.S. Vygotsky.
Higher mental functions.
Higher mental functions are complex mental processes, social in their formation, which are mediated and, due to this, arbitrary. According to Vygotsky, mental phenomena can be “natural”, determined mainly by a genetic factor, and “cultural”, built on top of the first, actually higher mental functions, which are completely formed under the influence of social influences. The main sign of higher mental functions is their mediation by certain “psychological tools”, signs that have arisen as a result of the long socio-historical development of mankind, which include, first of all, speech.
Sign and sign mediation
A sign is the basis of symbolic modeling of the phenomena of the objective world, which consists in substituting one object or phenomenon for another, which serves the purpose of facilitating the modeling of certain relations of the original object. It is developed in joint activities, therefore it has a conventional character. It exists in an abstract form, independent of the material carrier. The possibility of symbolic control of human behavior first appears in the process of using tools of labor, when the property of mediation of individual activity within the framework of collective activity is formed. In the process of further development, signs turn from a means of transmitting social experience into a means of changing oneself, used by the individual also to improve social experience. Signs can be natural language structures, diagrams, maps, formulas and drawings, symbolic images.
Sign mediation is the main theoretical construct of the cultural-historical theory of L.S. Vygotsky, as a way of controlling behavior, carried out by the individual himself. In the theory of L.S. Vygotsky considers all mental development as a change in the structure of the mental process due to the inclusion of a sign in it, which leads to the transformation of natural, direct processes into cultural, mediated ones. Initially, in ontogenetic development, the sign as a psychological tool acts as an intermediary in the relationship between the child and the adult. In this process, the sign acquires a certain meaning, corresponding to the social standards of the organization of activities.
The psychophysiological correlate of the formation of higher mental functions are complex functional systems that have a vertical (cortical-subcortical) and horizontal (cortical-cortical) organization. But each higher mental function is not rigidly tied to any one brain center, but is the result of the systemic activity of the brain, in which various brain structures make a more or less specific contribution to the construction of this function.
The genesis of higher mental functions is carried out as follows. Initially, the highest mental function is realized as a form of interaction between people, between an adult and a child, as an interpsychic process, and only then - as an internal, intrapsychic one. At the same time, external means mediating this interaction pass into internal ones, i.e. they are internalized. If at the first stages of the formation of a higher mental function it is an expanded form of objective activity, based on relatively simple sensory and motor processes, then in the future actions are curtailed, becoming automated mental actions.
Formation of arbitrary movements.
The formation of voluntary movements, as the transfer of control in the construction of movements to conscious control, occurs as follows. According to I.M. Sechenov, involuntary movements are regulated on the basis of feedback by proprioceptive sensations, which provide information about the features of the movements performed, and by exteroceptive sensations, which allow analyzing the signs of a specific situation in which the movement is realized. The possibility of conscious control over the implementation of the movement arises only in connection with the emergence of social labor activity and language. In accordance with this, the control of human movements can be carried out on the basis of various verbal instructions and self-instructions. In ontogeny, according to L.S. Vygotsky, voluntary regulation is of a distributed nature: an adult sets a verbal instruction, which defines the reflexed goal of the movement, and the child fulfills it. In the future, the child has the possibility of self-regulation of movement with the help of his own speech, first external, then internal.
In the theory of activity A.N. Leontiev proposed a structural structure of activity, which involves the allocation of the actual activity, actions, operations.
Activity.
Activity is a form of active interaction, during which an animal or a person expediently influences the objects of the surrounding world and thereby satisfies its needs. Already at relatively early stages of phylogenesis, a psychic reality arises, represented in orienting-research activity, designed to serve such an interaction. Its task is to examine the surrounding world and form an image of the situation in order to regulate the animal's motor behavior in accordance with the conditions of the task facing it. If it is characteristic for animals that they are able to focus only on external, directly perceived aspects of the environment, then for human activity, due to the development of collective labor, it is characteristic that it can be based on symbolic forms of representation of objective relationships.
Among the components of the activity are:
- motives that induce the subject to activity;
- goals as the predicted results of this activity, achieved through actions;
- operations, with the help of the activity is implemented depending on the conditions of this implementation.
Actions - the process of interaction with any object, which is characterized by the fact that it achieves a predetermined goal. The following components of the action can be distinguished:
- decision-making;
— implementation;
— control and correction.
At the same time, in making a decision, the image of the situation, the mode of action, the integral and differential programs are linked. Implementation and control are carried out cyclically. In each of them, both learned and individually developed means and tools are used.
Kinds:
- managers,
- executive,
- utilitarian-adaptive,
- perceptual
- mnemonic,
- mental,
- communication activities.
Operation (lat. operatio - action) - the executive unit of human activity, correlated with the task and with the subject conditions for its implementation. The operations by which a person achieves his goals are the result of mastering socially developed methods of action. First of all, congenital or early formed perceptual, mnemonic and intellectual acts were considered as operations.
This or that activity can begin to play a decisive role in the psychological neoplasms that arise in the course of a person's ontogenetic development. This activity has been labeled “leading activity”.
Leading activity.
Leading activity is an activity, during the implementation of which the emergence and formation of the main psychological neoplasms of a person at one stage or another of his development occurs and the foundations are laid for the transition to a new leading activity.
Kinds:
- direct communication of the infant with adults;
- object-manipulative activity in early childhood;
- role-playing game of preschool age;
- educational activities of schoolchildren;
- professional and educational activities of youth.
Children's activity.
Children's activity is a form of activity that is an active interaction of the child with the outside world, during which the development of his psyche in ontogenesis takes place. During the implementation of the activity, by adjusting it to different, including socially modeled conditions, its enrichment occurs and the emergence of fundamentally new components of its structure.
Genesis. A change in the structure of a child's activity also determines the development of his psyche.
The most independent early activity is objective activity. It begins with the mastery of actions with objects, such as grasping, manipulation, actually object actions, involving the use of objects for their functional purpose and in a way that is assigned to them in human experience. Particularly intensive development of objective actions occurs in the second year of life, which is associated with the mastery of walking. Somewhat later, on the basis of objective activity, the formation of other types of activity, in particular gaming, takes place.
Within the framework of the role-playing game, which is the leading activity in preschool age, elements of adult activity and interpersonal relationships are mastered.
Educational activity.
Learning activity is the leading activity of primary school age, within the framework of which there is a controlled appropriation of the foundations of social experience, primarily in the form of basic intellectual operations and theoretical concepts.
A detailed analysis of educational activity is given in the works of D.B. Elkonin (1904–1984) and V.V. Davydov (1930–1998).
Developmental training. It was shown that the average statistical norms of the mental development of a schoolchild are generated by the existing system of education based on a naturalistic approach to development. He gave a logical-psychological substantiation of the theory of developmental education. In accordance with his idea that in the action of a person there is always consciousness of another person, the development of the child is considered by him as occurring in the context of two types of relations: child - object - adult (in this case, the relation child - adult is mediated by the object) and child - adult - the object (in this case the relation child - object is mediated by adults). The main feature of "reasonable thinking" is that it is based on theoretical concepts, the content of which - in contrast to worldly (empirical) concepts - is not actual existence, but mediated, reflected existence. These concepts act both as a form of reflection of a material object and as a means of its mental reproduction, i.e. as special mental actions. On the basis of the Hegelian-Marxian understanding of the relationship between logical and logical in the formation of individual consciousness, the principle of activity, the principle of universality of ideal being, the basic concepts of developing education (development of reflection and imagination, age-specific development, etc.) were defined and the main pedagogical technologies were designed, which found practical implementation , primarily on the basis of the Moscow experimental school N 91.
The theory of developmental education was further developed within the framework of the concept of social genetic psychology created by V.V. Rubtsov and his staff.
The concept of socio-genetic psychology was created within the framework of the cultural-historical school of L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev. Here, the mental development of the child is explained here through joint activities. The basis is the analysis of the general structure of activity, where a new mental function is interpreted as formed within the framework of cooperation of actions of participants in joint activity. The genesis of cognitive action is determined by the ways of interaction between participants in joint activities (distribution of initial actions and operations, exchange of actions, as well as mutual understanding, communication, planning and reflection).
Based on the material of the formation of thinking, it is shown that:
1. Cooperation and coordination of objective actions form the basis of the origin of the intellectual structures of the child's thinking, while the type of activity distribution performs the function of specific modeling of the content of the intellectual structure as part of the relations of participants in the activity;
2. The basis for the selection and further assimilation of the content of the intellectual structure by the child is the performance by him of a special action to replace objective transformations (redistribution of activity); performing this action, the child turns to the grounds for organizing the joint activity itself, reveals the nature of this or that objective transformation that is common to all participants in the joint work; at the same time, a reflexively meaningful analysis by the participants of the form of joint actions under construction and subsequent planning of new forms of organizing joint activities adequate to the subject content of the object is necessary;
3. The form of organization of joint action is a channel for the transmission of culture, since the interaction of participants in a joint situation mediates the historically established schemes of cognitive actions.
Literature in the section Theory of activity:
A.N. Leontiev and modern psychology / Ed. A.V. Zaporozhets and others. M. M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1983;
Abulkhanova–Slavskaya K.A., Brushlinsky A.V. Philosophical and psychological concept of S.L. Rubinstein. M.: Nauka, 1989;
Brushlinsky A.V. S.L. Rubinshtein - the founder of the activity approach in psychological science // Psychological journal. 1989, No. 3, vol. 10, 43–59;
Vygotsky L.S. Selected psychological works. M., 1956;
Vygotsky L.S. Development of higher mental functions. M., 1960;
Vygotsky L.S. Psychology of art. M., 1968;
Vygotsky L.S. Collected works. T. 1–6. M., 1982–84.

Leontiev A.N. Problems of the development of the psyche. M., 1972;
Leontiev A.N. Activity, consciousness, personality. Moscow: Politizdat, 1975, p. 304;
Scientific work of Vygotsky and modern psychology / Ed. V.V. Davydov. M., 1981;
Petrovsky A.V. History of Soviet psychology. 1967;
Rubinshtein S.L. Being and consciousness. M., 1957;
Rubinshtein S.L. About thinking and ways of its research. M., 1958;
Rubinshtein S.L. The principle of creative amateur performance // Uchenye zapiski vysshei shkoly g. Odessa. T. 2, Odessa, 1922;
Rubinshtein S.L. Principles and ways of development of psychology. M., 1959;
Rubinshtein S.L. Problems of general psychology. M., 1973;
Rubinshtein S.L. Problems of psychology in the writings of K. Marx // Soviet psychotechnics. 1934, vol. 7, no. 1;
Rubinshtein S.L. Man and the World // Questions of Philosophy. 1966, No. 7;
Elkonin D.B. The psychology of the game. M. 1978;
Yaroshevsky M.G. L. Vygotsky in search of a new psychology. SPb., 1993;
Yaroshevsky M.G. Behavioral science: the Russian way. M.-Voronezh, 1996.