Every living thing somehowinteracts with the outside world. In the process of interaction there are two elements: a subject that purposefully influences the environment, and an object that becomes a subject for satisfying the needs of the subject. If we talk about the activities of people, then it can be defined as consciously directed activity to achieve one goal or many goals. As usual, the goal, on the one hand, is related to interests and needs that require satisfaction, and on the other hand, to the requirements of society to the individual.
General concept of activity
Human activities have a number of their owncharacteristics. First, as already mentioned, consciousness is characteristic for people's activities (people understand the goals, methods and means to achieve them, and predict the results). Scientific psychology states that without a person's awareness of the goal, one can not talk about activity, because it will simply be activity. Impulsive behavior is subject to emotions and needs and is characteristic of animals. Secondly, it is difficult to imagine a person's activity without the manufacture, use and subsequent storage of tools. Thirdly, the questions of the psychology of activities concern the public character, because it is the society or group that educates, shows the person what and how to do. Thanks to this type of interaction, a person establishes ties with other people, has a different type of relationship with them.
The study of the psychology of activities within the framework ofstudies of Soviet psychologists (AN Leontyev, SL Rubinstein, AA Smirnov, BM Teplov, and others) showed that the nature of the course and development of different processes in the psyche depends on the characteristics of the activity of the consciousness carrier, its motivational sphere. Also the results of the experiments of AN Leontiev and P. Ya. Galperin indicate that the inner ideal action is formed on the basis of the external material through the successive changes of the latter. This process was called interiorization.
Differences between activity and activity
Activity is a general characteristic for allliving beings, regardless of the level of organization and development. After all, it is she who helps to maintain the vital links of all beings with the environment. It is worth noting that the source of such activity is the needs that stimulate the living organism to act to satisfy them. Human needs and needs of animals have both a similarity and a difference. Basic physical needs are inherent in both, while the other higher ones are characteristic only of man, because they are manifested under the influence of public education.
Questions of psychology consider the differences betweenactivity and activity. The main distinguishing feature is that the activity is conditioned by the need for the object, and the activity - by the need in the activity itself. Also, activity is primary in relation to activity. After all, the first is manifested in our thoughts, plans, fantasies, but the second is related to objects, means. It should be noted that activity is an accompanying element throughout the entire process of activity. Activity provides calculation of forces, time, possibilities, mobilization of abilities, overcoming inertia, activates everything that will help to achieve the result. Activities - a very important and significant in human life concept. Psychology identifies a certain structural organization of this phenomenon.
Activity and its component structure
The structure of activity in psychology hassubstantial substantiation as a result of many theoretical and empirical studies. The main determinant of human activity is a need. Domestic psychology identifies a group of elements that will be described below.
The first element of this scheme is the need.It is defined as a state of burning dissatisfaction, which stimulates activity aimed at finding an object that will quench this state. Man's needs are influenced not only by nature and physiology, but also by socialization and upbringing. Proceeding from these data, the literature on psychology provides two classifications:
- Types of needs, depending on the subject matter - material and spiritual.
- Types of needs depending on their origin - natural and cultural.
Scientists note that a need is like an impetus for a person to be active. 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 psychology class due to a growing motive. Psychologists interpret this concept in terms of motivation for activity, which is associated with the desire to satisfy a need, and which has a clear direction. The need has no clear vision, no subject, but the motive is its concrete expression. Motives, their aggregates and types are considered by psychology. Briefly, she divides motives into conscious and unconscious. The first can be expressed with the help of words, the second - no, because they are repressed. It should be noted that you should not identify a motive with a goal, because it often happens that different motives are united by one goal, and different goals are united by one motive.
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 shown below will help to visually perceive the information:
Need - Motive - Purpose - Action - Result.
Types of activity
Scientists discuss activities as externalphysical and internal mental concept. In this connection, psychology identifies the following actions that ensure the internal psychic activity: the perceptual process (perception), the thought process, the mnemic process (memory), the imagative process (imagination). Such an 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 the mistakes made earlier.
Structure activities in psychology, namelyinternal, has two main features. First, the structure is the same as the external, the differences in the form of flow: operations and actions occur with imaginary objects, but not with real ones, respectively, the result of the activity is also mental. Secondly, internal activity was formed from external in the process of interiorization. For example, at first children read out loud and only after a while there is a transition into internal speech.
But the external activity produces externalsubject actions, namely motor (postures, movements in space), expressive movements (mimicry and pantomimics), gestures, movements associated with speech (vocal cords).
The opposite process of interiorizationconsidered 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 been formed on the basis of interiorization.
Operation, control, evaluation: what is it
The structure of activity in psychology containsfew components, and the most specific, which is carried out in the environment - this is an operation. Theoretical scholars 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,It is being evaluated and monitored. Control compares the result with the original image and purpose. Evaluation reveals the degree of coincidence of results and goals. Evaluation is like the last stage of control. A positive assessment indicates satisfaction and positiveness of the activity as a whole, and a negative one, on the contrary. If you don’t like the result, then with the help of the control you can send it for revision whenever possible.
Activity: Forms
Russian psychology has developed a classification of forms of activity. This includes the game, training and work. Consider everything in order.
The next form of activity that mastersman as they grow up is a learning activity. With its help, people receive generalized theoretical knowledge, master subject and cognitive actions. The doctrine provides a social function, the process of incorporating the young individual into the system of social values and society as such. In the process of learning activities, you can develop your abilities, crystallize your knowledge. A child learns discipline, forms will.
The Conscious Purpose - The Subject of Labor - The Means of Labor - The Technology Used - The Labor Operation.
Theories of activity psychology
The theory of activity is one of the mainmethodological foundations for the study of the psyche and consciousness. Within its framework, activity is studied as a phenomenon that mediates all mental phenomena and processes. This scientific view met criticism from foreign psychologists. The literature on the psychology of activity belongs to the 20s of the twentieth century and continues to evolve now.
В этом направлении есть две интерпретации.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. Leont'ev, who outlined the question of the commonality of the structure of external and internal mental activity.
Theory of S. L. Rubinshtein
This scientist studies the psyche by disclosing it.meaningful and objective relationships through activity. Rubinstein argues that you should not 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 A. N. Leontiev
Research psychologist considers the psyche one offorms of subject activity. Leontiev is a supporter of the theory of interiorization and argues that internal activity is formed as a result of the transition of external actions into internal mental ones. The scientist divides activity and consciousness according to the type of image formation process and the image itself. Having formulated such a theory as the structure of activity in psychology, Leontyev issued his collected works in the 1920s. He worked as a researcher under the leadership of L. S. Vygotsky, studying mnemonic processes that he interpreted in the framework of subject activity. In the 30s of the twentieth century, he headed the Kharkov school of activity and continued his theoretical and experimental developments in this problem. For seven years, from 1956 to 1963, Leontiev conducted experiments. The results were that he proved the possibility of forming pitch hearing in people with not very good hearing in music based on adequate action. His proposal to consider activity as a set of actions and operations was accepted positively in the scientific psychological world. Leontiev also studied how the psyche arose and developed during the evolutionary period, how consciousness arose in the process of human development, the relationship between activity and consciousness, the age development of the psyche and consciousness, motivational and semantic sphere, methodology and history of psychology.
The theory of activity of L. S. Vygotsky
He used the theory of activity to explain the peculiarities of the psyche of people and Lev Semenovich. He developed a theory of higher mental functions and was committed to the theory of interiorization.
Высшими психическими функциями ученый называл cognitive processes that are activated in our psyche. He believed that earlier, when society was primitive, the highest mental functions were relations between people. But in the process of evolution internalization of these relations took place, they were transformed into mental phenomena. The main characteristic of VPF is mediation with the help of certain symbols and signs. Even before the appearance of speech, people communicated, conveyed knowledge and information using signs. This means that our mental processes worked on a sign system. But if you start deciphering a word, you may find that it is also a definite sign.
Higher mental functions are located in the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex. There are several stages of the genesis of the VPF:
- The form of relations between people is an interpsychic process.
- Interiorization
- And actually, the highest mental function is the intrapsychic process.
Theories of activity have already become and will become the foundation for many psychological studies in the domestic space.
