Contents and structure of activity in psychology

Every living being somehow interacts with the surrounding world. In the process of interaction there are two elements: a subject that purposefully affects the environment, and an object that becomes a subject of satisfaction of the subject's needs. If we talk about the activities of people, 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 activity has a number of own characteristics. First, as already mentioned, consciousness is characteristic of 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 activity within the framework of the studies 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 Activity of the carrier of consciousness, its motivational sphere. Also, the results of the experiments of AN Leontiev and P. Ya. Halperin 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 all living beings, regardless of the level of organization and development. After all, it is it that 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. The 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 between activity 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 has a substantial justification as a result of many theoretical and empirical studies. The main determinant of human activity is the 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 - material and spiritual.
• Types of needs depending on their origin - natural and cultural.

Scientists note that the 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 the concept of motive.

If a person has a need for new knowledge, then he can attend a psychology lesson because of a growing motive. Psychologists interpret this concept in terms of motivation for activity, which is connected with the desire to satisfy the 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 totality and types are considered by psychology. In short, she divides the motives into conscious and unconscious. The first can be expressed with the help of words, the latter - no, because they are repressed. It should be noted that one should not 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.

The goal of scientific psychology determines how the end result of an activity that exists in the imagination of a person and which he wants to achieve. The expression of the goal can be observed both in the material and in the psychic plane. The goal, in turn, is divided into specific tasks that help achieve the desired result.

So, the minimal component of activity that performs a specific task is an action.

Here from such elements the structure of activity in psychology consists. The diagram below will help you visualize the information:

Need - Motive - Purpose - Action - Result.

Types of activities

Scientists discuss activity as an external physical and internal mental concept. Psychology in this connection distinguishes the following actions that provide for the inner-psychic activity: perceptual process (perception), thought process, mnemic process (memory), imaginative process (imagination). This kind of inner 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 previous mistakes.

The structure of activity in psychology, namely internal, has two main features. First, in structure it is the same as external, the differences in the form of flow: operations and actions occur with imaginary objects, and not with real, respectively, the result of activity is also mental. Secondly, internal activity was formed from the external in the process of internalization. For example, first the children read aloud and only after a while there is a transition to the inner speech.

But external activity produces external objective actions, namely motor (gestures, movements in space), expressive movements (mimicry and pantomime), gestures, movements associated with speech (vocal cords).

The opposite process of interiorization is the process of exteriorization. It consists 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 internalization.

Operation, control, evaluation: what is it

The structure of activity in psychology contains several components, and the most concrete, which is carried out in the environment, is an operation. The theoretical scientists defined the operation as a way to perform certain actions depending on the situation. The operation provides a technical aspect of the action, because it can be performed in different operations or in different ways.

The result of the activity, when it is achieved, goes through the stages of evaluation and control. Control compares the result with the original image and purpose. Evaluation reveals the degree of coincidence of the result and goal. Evaluation is like the last stage of control. Positive assessment indicates satisfaction and positivity of the activity as a whole, and negative - on the contrary. If the result does not like, then with the help of control, you can send it for revision if possible.

Activities: forms

Domestic psychology has developed a classification of forms of activity. This includes the game, educational activities and work. Consider everything in order.

The game is the leading activity for children, because it imitates the life of adults, their imaginary world, they learn and develop. The game will not give the child any material values, and its product will not become material benefits, but it meets all the parameters of the needs of children. For the game is characterized by freedom, detachment, unproductive. It ensures the socialization of the child, develops its communicative, hedonistic, cognitive and creative. Also has compensatory functions. The game has its own subspecies. This is a subject game, story-role, 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 his emotions, feelings, this serves as a huge help to the parents. Also, if the child has a traumatic experience, it's best to solve it with the help of the game.

The next form of activity that a person learns as he grows up is teaching activity. With its help, people get generalized theoretical knowledge, master objective and cognitive actions. The teaching 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 activities you can develop your abilities, crystallize your knowledge. The child learns discipline, forms will.

Scientists believe that the highest manifestation of activity is labor. Labor activity provides an impact on nature through the use of tools and use it for their own consumer purposes. Work is characterized by awareness, energy, universality and expediency. After graduating from a university or other institution, or, generally, immediately after school, a person begins his professional career. The psychological structure of professional activity has the following components:

The Conscious Objective - the Subject of Labor - The Means of Labor - The Technology Used - The Labor Operation.

Theories of the psychology of activity

The theory of activity is one of the main methodological foundations for conducting research on the mind and consciousness. Within its framework, activity is studied as a phenomenon that mediates all psychic phenomena and processes. This scientific view met with criticism from foreign psychologists. The literature on the psychology of activity dates back to the 20s of the 20th century and continues to develop now.

In this direction there are two interpretations. The first is described by SL Rubinstein, who became the developer of the principle of unity of consciousness and activity. The second was created by the well-known scientist AN Leontiev, who outlined the question of the general structure of external and internal mental activity.

The theory of SL Rubinshtein's activity

This scientist studies the psyche by revealing its meaningful and objective relationships through activity. Rubinshtein argues that one should not perceive the inner activity of the psyche as such that it is formed through the transformation of the external. Determinism is that internal conditions become a mediated element of external causes. Consciousness and activity are not two forms of the expression of unity, but two instances that create an indivisible unity.

The theory of the activity of AN Leontiev

The psychologist-researcher considers the psyche as one of the forms of objective activity. Leontiev 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 psychic. The scientist shares activity and consciousness by the type of process of image formation and the image itself. Having formulated such a theory as the structure of activity in psychology, Leontiev issued his collected works in the 1920s. The researcher worked under the leadership of LS Vygotsky, studying the mnemonic processes that he interpreted in the context of objective activity. In the 1930s he headed the Kharkov school of activity and continued his theoretical and experimental development in this problem. For seven years from 1956 to 1963, Leontiev conducted experiments. The results were that he proved the possibility of forming a pitch-high pitch in people with not very good hearing in music on the basis of adequate action. His proposal to review activities as a set of actions and operations was adopted positively in the scientific psychological world. Also, Leontiev studied how the psyche arose and developed during the evolutionary period, how consciousness arose in the process of human development, the correlation of activity and consciousness, the development of the psyche and consciousness, the motivational and semantic sphere, the methodology and history of psychology.

Theory of activity of LS Vygotsky

I used the theory of activity to explain the peculiarities of people's psyche and Lev Semenovich. He developed a theory of higher mental functions and was an adherent of the theory of interiorization.

The scientist called the higher mental functions the cognitive processes that are activated in our psyche. He believed that earlier, when society was primitive, higher mental functions were relations between people. But in the process of evolution there was an internalization of these relations, they were transformed into psychic phenomena. The main characteristic of the VFT is mediation by means of certain symbols and signs. Even before the appearance of speech, people communicated, passed on knowledge and information with the help of signs. This means that our mental processes worked on a sign system. But if you start deciphering a word, you can find out that it is also a certain sign.

Higher mental functions are located in the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex. Several stages of the genesis of the VFT can be distinguished:

• The form of relations between people is an interpsychic process.
• Interiorization.
• And actually, the higher mental function is the intrapsychic process.

Theories of activity have already become and will still become the foundation for many psychological studies in the domestic space.