Every living creature somehow interacts with the outside world. In the process of interaction, two elements appear: the subject, which purposefully affects the environment, and the object, which becomes the subject of the needs of the subject. If we talk about the activities of people, then it can be defined as a consciously directed activity to achieve one goal or many goals. As usual, the goal, on the one hand, is associated with interests and needs that require satisfaction, and on the other, with the requirements of society for a person.
General concept of activity
Human activity has a number of its own characteristics. First, as already mentioned, consciousness is characteristic of people's activities (people are aware of goals, methods and means to achieve them, and predict results). Scientific psychology states that without a person’s awareness of the goal, one cannot talk about activity, because it will simply be activity. Impulsive behavior is prone to emotions and needs and is characteristic of animals. Secondly, it is difficult to imagine human activities without the manufacture, use and subsequent storage of tools. Thirdly, questions of the psychology of activity also concern a social character, because it is a society or group that educates, shows a person what and how to do. Thanks to this type of interaction, a person establishes relationships with other people, has various types of relationships with them.
The study of the psychology of activity in the framework of the research of Soviet psychologists (A.N. Leontyev, S. L. Rubinstein, A. A. Smirnov, B. M. Teplov, etc.) showed that the nature of the course and development of various processes in the psyche depends on the characteristics activities of the carrier of consciousness, its motivational sphere. Also, the results of the experiments of A. N. Leont'ev and P. Ya. Halperin suggest that the internal ideal action is formed on the basis of the external material through successive changes in the latter. This process has been called internalization.
Differences between activity and activity
Activity is a common characteristic for all living things, regardless of the level of organization and development. After all, it is she who helps maintain the vital connections of all creatures with the environment. It is worth noting that the source of such activity is the needs that stimulate the living organism to act in order to satisfy them. Human needs and animal needs have both similarities and differences. Basic physical needs are characteristic of both, but other higher ones are characteristic only of a person, because they are manifested under the influence of public education.
Psychological issues also consider the differences between activity and activity. The main distinguishing feature is that the activity is determined by the need for the subject, and the activity is determined by the need for the activity itself. Also, activity is initial in relation to activity. After all, the first is also manifested in our thoughts, plans, fantasies, but the second is connected with objects, means. It should be noted that activity is an accompanying element throughout the process of activity. Activity provides the calculation of forces, time, opportunities, mobilization of abilities, overcoming inertia, activates everything that will help to achieve a result. Activity is a very important and significant concept in human life. Psychology highlights a certain structural organization of this phenomenon.
Activity and its component structure
The structure of activity in psychology has substantial substantiation as a result of many theoretical and empirical studies. The main determinant of human activity is need. Domestic psychology identifies a group of elements that will be described below.
The first element of this scheme is need. It is defined as a state of burning dissatisfaction, which stimulates activity aimed at finding an object that will quench this condition. Human needs are influenced not only by nature and physiology, but also by socialization and upbringing. Based on these data, the literature on psychology provides two classifications:
- Types of needs depending on the subject - material and spiritual.
- Types of needs depending on origin - natural and cultural.
Scientists note that need is like a push so that a person can show his activity. But not only this phenomenon is guided by man. An important place is occupied by the concept of motive.
If a person has a need for new knowledge, then he can attend a lesson in psychology due to a growing motive. Psychologists interpret this concept in terms of an incentive to activity, which is associated with a desire to satisfy a need, and which has a clear direction. The need does not have a clear vision, there is no object, but the motive is its concrete expression. Motives, their combination and types are considered by psychology. Briefly she divides motives into conscious and unconscious. The former can be expressed using words, the latter cannot, because they are repressed. It should be noted that it is not necessary to identify the motive with the goal, because it often happens that different motives are united by one goal, and different goals are united by one motive.
Scientific psychology defines the goal as the final result of the activity that exists in the imagination of man and which he wants to achieve. The expression of the goal can be observed both in the material and in the mental plane. The goal, in turn, is divided into specific tasks that help achieve the desired result.
So, the minimum component of an activity that performs a specific task is an action.
These are the elements of the structure of activity in psychology. The diagram below will help to visually perceive the information:
Need - Motive - Purpose - Action - Result.
Types of Activities
Scientists discuss activity as an external physical and internal mental concept. In this regard, psychology distinguishes the following actions that provide internal psychic activity: the perceptual process (perception), the thought process, the mnemonic process (memory), and the impressive process (imagination). That such internal activity prepares external actions. Thanks to them, you can create a plan, think through all aspects of achieving the goal and imagine the final result. Plus, with the help of memory, a person will not repeat mistakes made earlier.
The structure of activity in psychology, namely internal, has two main features. Firstly, in structure it is the same as the external one, differences in the form of the course: operations and actions occur with imaginary objects, and not with real ones, respectively, the result of activity is also mental. Secondly, internal activity was formed from external in the process of internalization. For example, at first the children read aloud and only after a while does the transition to internal speech take place.
But external activity produces external objective actions, namely motor ones (poses, movements in space), expressive movements (facial expressions and pantomimics), gestures, movements associated with speech (vocal cords).
The opposite process of interiorization is the process of exteriorization. It lies in the fact that external actions are generated as a result of the transformation of internal structures that have formed on the basis of internalization.
Operation, control, assessment: what is it
The structure of activity in psychology contains several components, and the most specific that is carried out in the environment is an operation. Theoretical scientists have identified the operation as a way to perform certain actions depending on the situation. The operation provides the technical aspect of the action, because it can be performed by different operations or using different methods.
The result of the activity, when it is achieved, goes through the stages of assessment and control. Control compares the result with the original image and purpose. The assessment reveals the degree of coincidence of the result and the goal. Assessment is like the last stage of control. A positive assessment indicates satisfaction and positive activity in general, while a negative assessment indicates the opposite. If you don’t like the result, then using the control you can send it for revision if possible.
Activity: forms
Domestic psychology has developed a classification of forms of activity. This includes the game, training and work. Let's consider everything in order.
The game is a leading activity for children, because thanks to it they imitate the lives of adults, their imaginary world, learn and develop. The game will not give the child any material values, and material goods will not become its product, but it meets all the parameters of children's needs. The game is characterized by freedom, isolation, and unproductive. It provides the socialization of the child, develops his communicativeness, hedonism, cognition and creativity. Also has compensatory functions. The game has its subspecies. This is an objective game, a plot role-playing game with rules. A child, passing a certain stage of development, begins to play other games. In this form of activity, the child can express their emotions, feelings, this serves as a tremendous clue to parents. Also, if the child has a traumatic experience, it is best to resolve it all through the game.
The next form of activity that a person masters as he grows up is educational activity. With its help, people receive generalized theoretical knowledge, master objective and cognitive actions. The doctrine provides a social function, the process of including a young individual in the system of social values and society as such. In the process of learning, you can develop your abilities, crystallize your knowledge. The child learns discipline, forms a will.
Scientists believe that the highest manifestation of activity is labor. Labor provides for the impact on nature with the help of tools and its use for their own consumer purposes. Labor is characterized by awareness, energy consumption, universality and expediency. After graduation from a university or other institution, or, generally, immediately after school, a person begins his professional path. The psychological structure of
professional activity has the following components:
Conscious Purpose - Subject of Labor - Means of Labor - Used Technology - Labor Operation.
Theories of activity psychology
The theory of activity is one of the main methodological foundations for conducting research on the psyche and consciousness. In its framework, activity is studied as a phenomenon that mediates all mental phenomena and processes. Such a scientific view met criticism from foreign psychologists. Literature on the psychology of activity refers to the 20 years of the twentieth century and continues to develop now.
There are two interpretations in this direction. The first is described by S. L. Rubinstein, who became the developer of the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity. The second was created by the famous scientist A.N. Leontyev, who outlined the question of the commonality of the structure of external and internal mental activity.
Theory of activity of S. L. Rubinstein
This scientist studies the psyche by revealing its meaningful and objective relationships through activity. Rubinstein argues that it is not necessary to perceive the internal activity of the psyche as such that is formed through the transformation of the external. Determinism is that internal conditions become an indirect element of external causes. Consciousness and activity are not two forms of expression of unity, but two instances that create an indivisible unity.
Theory of activity of A. N. Leontyev
The psychologist-researcher considers the psyche as one of the forms of objective activity. Leont'ev is a supporter of the theory of internalization and argues that internal activity is formed as a result of the transition of external actions to internal mental ones. The scientist separates activity and consciousness according to the type of process of image formation and the image itself. Having formulated such a theory as the structure of activity in psychology, Leont'ev issued his collected works in the 1920s. The researcher worked under the leadership of L. S. Vygotsky, studying mnemonic processes, which he interpreted in the mainstream of substantive activity. In the 30s of the twentieth century, he headed the Kharkov School of Activities and continued his theoretical and experimental developments in this problem. For seven years from 1956 to 1963, Leontyev conducted experiments. The results were that he proved the possibility of forming high-altitude hearing in people with not very good hearing in music based on adequate action. His proposal to consider activity as a combination of actions and operations was accepted positively in the scientific psychological world. Leontyev also studied how the psyche arose and developed during the evolutionary period, how consciousness arose in the process of human development, the relationship of activity and consciousness, age-related development of the psyche and consciousness, motivational and semantic sphere, methodology and history of psychology.
The theory of activity of L. S. Vygotsky
Used the theory of activity to explain the features of the psyche of people and Lev Semenovich. He developed the theory of higher mental functions and was a supporter of the theory of internalization.
The scientist called the higher mental functions cognitive processes that are activated in our psyche. He believed that before, when society was primitive, the highest mental functions were relations between people. But in the process of evolution there was an internalization of these relations, they were transformed into mental phenomena. The main characteristic of HMF is mediation with the help of certain symbols and signs. Even before the appearance of speech, people communicated, transmitted knowledge and information using signs. This means that our mental processes worked on a sign system. But if you start to decipher the word, you can find that it is also a certain sign.
Higher mental functions are located in the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex. There are several stages of the genesis of HMF:
- The form of relations between people is an interpsychic process.
- Interiorization.
- And actually, the highest mental function is an intrapsychic process.
Theories of activity have already become and will still become the foundation for many psychological studies in the domestic space.