Physical and psychological stress. Stress and Mental Disorders. Relief of psychological stress

In the late 1920s, while working for L.S. Vygotsky and using the ideas of the cultural and historical concept, A.N. Leontiev conducted a series of experiments aimed at studying higher mental functions (voluntary attention and memory processes). In the early 1930s. became the head of the Kharkiv activity school and proceeded to the theoretical and experimental development of the problem of activity. As a result, he put forward the concept of activity, which is currently one of the recognized theoretical directions of modern psychology.

In Russian psychology on the basis of the scheme of activity proposed by Leontiev (activity - action - operation - psychophysiological functions), correlated with the structure of the motivational sphere (motive – goal – condition), practically all mental phenomena were studied, which stimulated the emergence and development of new psychological branches.

Logical development This concept Leontiev considered the possibility of creating an integral system of psychology as "the science of the generation, functioning and structure of the mental reflection of reality in the process of activity."

The main concepts of this theory are activity, consciousness and personality.

Activity a person has a complex hierarchical structure. It consists of several non-equilibrium levels. The top level is the level special types activity, then the level of actions follows, followed by the level of operations, and the lowest is the level of psychophysiological functions.

Central to this hierarchical structure is action, which is the basic unit of activity analysis. Action Is a process aimed at realizing a goal, which, in turn, can be defined as an image of the desired result. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the goal in this case is a conscious image. Performing certain activities, a person constantly keeps this image in his mind. Thus, action is a conscious manifestation of human activity. Exceptions are cases when a person, due to certain reasons or circumstances, has a violation of the adequacy of mental regulation of behavior, for example, in case of illness or in a state of passion.

The main characteristics of the concept of "action" are four components. First, action includes, as a necessary component, an act of consciousness in the form of setting and holding a goal. Secondly, action is at the same time an act of behavior. At the same time, one should pay attention to the fact that action is a movement interconnected with consciousness. In turn, one of the fundamental conclusions of the theory of activity can be drawn from the above. This conclusion consists in the statement about the inseparability of consciousness and behavior.

Third, the psychological theory of activity, through the concept of action, introduces the principle of activity, opposing it to the principle of reactivity. The concept of "reactivity" refers to the response or response to the impact of any stimulus. The "stimulus-response" formula is one of the basic tenets of behaviorism. From this point of view, the stimulus affecting a person is active. Activity from the point of view of the theory of activity is a property of the subject itself, i.e. characterizes a person. The source of activity is in the subject itself in the form of a goal towards which the action is directed.

Fourthly, the concept of "action" brings human activity into an objective and social world... The fact is that the goal of an action can have not only a biological meaning, such as obtaining food, but can also be aimed at establishing social contact or creating an object that is not related to biological needs.

Based on the characteristics of the concept of "action" as the main element of the analysis of activities, the basic principles are formulated psychological theory activities:

Consciousness cannot be regarded as closed in itself: it must manifest itself in activity (the principle of "blurring" the circle of consciousness).

Behavior cannot be considered in isolation from human consciousness (the principle of the unity of consciousness and behavior).

Activity is an active, purposeful process (the principle of activity).

Human actions are substantive; their goals are of a social nature (the principle of objective human activity and the principle of its social conditioning).

The action itself cannot be regarded as that element of the initial level, from which the activity is formed. Action is a complex element that often itself consists of many smaller ones. This situation is explained by the fact that every action is conditioned by a goal. Human goals are not only varied, but also of different scales. There are large goals that are subdivided into smaller private goals, which, in turn, can be subdivided into even smaller private goals, etc. For example, let's say you want to plant an apple tree. To do this, you need:

1) choose the right place for landing; 2) dig a hole; 3) take a seedling and sprinkle it with earth. Thus, your goal is broken down into three subgoals. However, if you look at the private goals, you will notice that they also consist of even smaller goals. For example, in order to dig a hole, you have to take a shovel, press it into the ground, remove and discard the ground, etc. Therefore, your action to plant an apple tree consists of smaller elements - private actions.

Now you need to pay attention to the fact that each action can be performed in different ways, i.e. by using different ways... The way an action is performed is called an operation. In turn, the way the action is performed depends on the conditions. V different conditions different operations can be used to achieve the same goal. In this case, conditions mean both external circumstances and the capabilities of the acting subject himself. Therefore, a goal given under certain conditions is called a task in the theory of activity. Depending on the task, the operation can consist of various actions, which can be subdivided into even smaller (private) actions. Thus, operations Are larger units of activity than actions.

The main property of operations is that they are little or not at all. In this, operations differ from actions, which presuppose both a conscious goal and a conscious control over the course of action. Essentially, the operation level is the level of automatic actions and skills. Skills are automated components conscious activity generated in the course of its implementation. Unlike those movements that are automatic from the very beginning, such as reflex movements, skills become automatic as a result of more or less prolonged exercise. Therefore, operations are of two types: the operations of the first type include those that arose through adaptation and adaptation to the conditions of habitation and activity, and the operations of the second type are conscious actions that, thanks to automation, have become skills and moved to the area of unconscious processes. At the same time, the former are practically not realized, while the latter are on the verge of consciousness.

Now let's move on to the third, lowest level of the structure of activity - psychophysiological functions. Under psychophysiological functions in activity theory is understood physiological mechanisms providing mental processes. Since a person is a biosocial being, the course of mental processes is inseparable from the processes of the physiological level, which ensure the possibility of the implementation of mental processes. There are a number of possibilities of the organism, without which most of the mental functions cannot be carried out. These possibilities, first of all, include the ability to sense, motor abilities, the ability to record traces of past influences. This also includes a number of innate mechanisms fixed in the morphology of the nervous system, as well as those that mature during the first months of life. All these abilities and mechanisms are acquired by a person at his birth, i.e. they are genetically determined.

Psychophysiological functions provide both the necessary prerequisites for the implementation of mental functions, and the means of activity. For example, when we try to remember something, we use special techniques for faster and better memorization. However, memorization would not have happened if we did not have the mnemonic functions, which are the ability to memorize. Mnemonic function is congenital. From the moment of birth, a child begins to memorize a huge amount of information. Originally this simplest information, then, in the process of development, not only the volume of memorized information increases, but also the qualitative parameters of memorization change. At the same time, there is a memory disease in which memorization becomes completely impossible (Korsakov's syndrome), since the mnemonic function is destroyed. With this disease, events are not remembered at all, even those that happened a few minutes ago. Therefore, even when such a patient tries to specifically learn a text, not only the text is forgotten, but also the very fact that such an attempt was made. Consequently, psychophysiological functions constitute the organic foundation of activity processes. Without them, not only concrete actions are impossible, but also the setting of tasks for their implementation.

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Alexey Nikolaevich Leontiev (1903-1979) - Russian psychologist, doctor psychological sciences, professor, full member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR (1950), the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR (1968), honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1973), honorary doctor of the University of Paris (1968).

Developed a general psychological theory of activity.

Major scientific works: "Development of memory" (1931), "Restoration of movement" together with A.V. Zaporozhets (1945), "Sketch of the development of the psyche" (1947), "Needs and motives of activity" (1956), "Problems of the development of the psyche" (1959, 1965), "On a historical approach to the study of the human psyche" (1959), "Needs , motives and emotions "(1971)," Activity. Consciousness. Personality "(1975).

The main theoretical provisions of the teachings of A.N. Leontyev:
psychology is a specific science about the generation, functioning and structure of the mental reflection of reality, which mediates the life of individuals;
an objective criterion of the psyche is the ability of living organisms to respond to abiotic (or biologically neutral) influences;
abiotic influences perform a signal function in relation to biologically significant stimuli;
irritability is the ability of living organisms to respond to biologically significant influences, and sensitivity is the ability of organisms to reflect influences that are biologically neutral, but objectively related to biological properties;
in the evolutionary development of the psyche, there are three stages:
1) the stage of the elementary sensory psyche,
2) the stage of the perceptual psyche,
3) the stage of intelligence;
the development of the psyche of animals is a process of development of activity;
the features of animal activity are:
a) all animal activity is determined by biological models;
b) all the activity of animals is limited to the framework of visual concrete situations;
c) the basis of animal behavior in all spheres of life, including language and communication, are hereditary species programs. Learning from them is limited to acquiring individual experience, thanks to which the species programs adapt to the specific conditions of the individual's existence;
d) in animals there is no consolidation, accumulation and transfer of the experience of generations in material form, i.e. in the form of material culture;
the activity of the subject is that meaningful process in which real connections of the subject with the objective world are carried out and which mediates the connections between the object and the subject acting on it;
human activity is included in the system public relations and conditions;
the main characteristic of an activity is its objectivity; activity is determined by the object, obeys, assimilates to it;
activity is the process of interaction of a living being with the surrounding world, allowing him to satisfy his vital needs;
consciousness cannot be regarded as closed in itself: it must be brought into the activity of the subject;
behavior, activity cannot be considered in isolation from human consciousness (the principle of the unity of consciousness and behavior, consciousness and activity);
activity is an active, purposeful process (the principle of activity activity);
human actions are substantive; they realize social goals (the principle of objectivity of human activity and the principle of its social conditioning).

About the structure of activities

Human activity has a complex hierarchical structure and includes the following levels:
I - the level of special activities (or special types of activities);
II - action level;
III - the level of operations;
IV - the level of psychophysiological functions;
human activity is inextricably linked with his needs and motives. A need is a state of a person, expressing his dependence on material and spiritual objects and conditions of existence that are outside the individual. In psychology, a person's need is considered as the experience of the need for what is necessary to maintain the life of his body and the development of his personality. A motive is a form of manifestation of a need, an incentive to a certain activity, the object for which this activity is carried out. Motive by A.N. Leont'ev is an objectified need;
activity as a whole is a unit of a person's life, an activity that meets a certain motive;
this or that motive prompts a person to formulate a task, to identify that goal, which, being presented under certain conditions, requires the performance of an action aimed at creating or obtaining an object that meets the requirements of the motive and satisfies the need. The goal is the imaginable result of the activity presented to him;
acting like component activity meets a perceived goal. Any activity is carried out in the form of actions or a chain of actions;
activity and action are not rigidly connected with each other. One and the same activity can be implemented by different actions, and the same action can be included in different kinds activities;
action having a specific goal, carried out different ways depending on those voices in which this action is performed. The ways in which an action is taken are called operations. Operations are transformed, become automated actions that, as a rule, are not realized, for example, when a child learns to write letters, this spelling of a letter is for him an action directed by a conscious goal - to write the letter correctly. But, having mastered this action, the child uses the writing of letters as a way to write on the layer and, therefore, the writing of letters turns from an action into an operation;
operations are of two types: the first arise from action by means of their automation, the second arise by adaptation, adaptation to the surrounding conditions, by direct imitation;
a goal given under certain conditions is called a task in the theory of activity;
the relationship between the structural and motivational components of activity is shown in Figure 9.
activity can lose its motive and turn into an action, and an action, when its purpose changes, can turn into an operation. In this case, we talk about the enlargement of units of activity. For example, when learning to drive a car, initially each operation (for example, gear shifting) is formed as an action subordinated to a conscious goal. Subsequently, this action (gear shifting) is included in another action having a complex operational composition, for example, in the action of changing the driving mode. Now gear shifting becomes one of the ways of its implementation - the operation that implements it, and it ceases to be carried out as a special purposeful process: its purpose is not highlighted. For the driver's mind, gear shifting under normal conditions does not seem to exist at all;
the results of the actions constituting the activity, under some conditions, turn out to be more significant than the motive of the activity in which they are included. Then action becomes action. In this case, we talk about the division of units of activity into smaller units. So, a child can do homework in a timely manner, initially, just to go for a walk. But with systematic training and receiving positive marks for his work, increasing his student's "prestige", he awakens interest in the subjects studied, and now he begins to prepare lessons in order to better understand the content of the material. The action of preparing the lessons took on its motive and became an activity. This general psychological mechanism for the development of actions by A.N. Leont'ev called it "a shift of motive to goal" (or the transformation of a goal into a motive). The essence of this mechanism is that the goal, previously prompted to its implementation by some motive, eventually acquires an independent force, i.e. itself becomes a motive. The fragmentation of units of activity can also manifest itself in the transformation of operations into actions. For example, during a conversation, a person cannot find the right word, i.e. what was an operation became an action subordinate to a perceived goal.

On the essence and structure of consciousness:

Consciousness in its immediacy is a picture of the world that opens up to the subject, into which he himself, his actions and states are included;
initially, consciousness exists only in the form of a mental image that reveals the world around him to the subject, while activity remains practical, external. At a later stage, activity also becomes an object of consciousness: the actions of other people are realized, and through them the subject's own actions. Now they communicate, signified with the help of gestures or sound speech. This is the prerequisite for the generation of internal actions and operations occurring in the mind, in the "plane of consciousness." Consciousness - the image also becomes consciousness - activity. It is in this fullness of its own that consciousness begins to seem emancipated from external, sensory practical activities and, moreover, by its governing body;
consciousness undergoes another major change during historical development... It consists in the destruction of the original fusion of consciousness labor collective(for example, a community) and the consciousness of the individuals that form it. In the same time psychological characteristics individual consciousness can only be understood through their connection with those social relations in which the individual is involved;
the structure of consciousness includes: the sensory fabric of consciousness, meanings and personal meanings;
the sensory fabric of consciousness forms the sensory composition of concrete images of reality, actually perceived or emerging in memory, attributable to the future or only imaginary. These images differ in their modality, sensual tone, degree of clarity, more or less stability, etc .;
a special function of sensory images of consciousness is that they impart reality to the conscious picture of the world that opens up to the subject. It is thanks to the sensory content of consciousness that the world appears for the subject as existing not in consciousness, but outside his consciousness - as an objective "field" and an object of his activity;
sensory images represent a universal form of mental reflection generated by the subject's objective activity. However, in man, sensory images acquire a new quality, namely, their significance. The meanings and are the most important "forming" of human consciousness;
meanings refract the world in the mind of a person. Although language is the bearer of meanings, language is not a demiurge of meanings. Behind linguistic meanings there are socially developed methods (operations) of action, in the process of which people change and cognize objective reality;
in meanings, the ideal form of existence of the objective world, its properties, connections and relations, revealed by the aggregate social practice, transformed and rolled up in the matter of language. Therefore, the values themselves, i.e. in abstraction from their functioning in the individual consciousness, are just as “non-psychological” as the socially cognized reality that lies behind them;
it is necessary to distinguish between the perceived objective meaning and its meaning for the subject. In the latter case, they speak of a personal meaning. In other words, personal meaning is the meaning of this or that phenomenon for a particular person. Personal meaning also creates a partiality of consciousness. Unlike meanings, personal meanings do not have their own "non-psychological existence";
a person's consciousness, as well as his activity itself, is not a certain component of the parts included in it, i.e. it is not additive. It is not a plane, not even a container filled with images and processes. These are not the connections of its individual "units", but the internal movement of its generators, included in general movement activities carrying out real life individual in society. Human activity is the substance of his consciousness. Based on the above, the ratio of various components of activity can be represented as follows (Fig. 10):

The ideas of A.N. Leontiev on the structure of consciousness were developed in Russian psychology by his student V. Ya. Zinchenko. V.P. Zinchenko distinguishes three layers of consciousness: existential (or existential-activity), reflexive (or reflective-contemplative) and spiritual.

The existential layer of consciousness includes the sensory fabric of the image and the biodynamic fabric, while the reflective layer includes meanings and meanings.

The concepts of the sensory fabric of the image, meaning and personal meaning are disclosed above. Consider the concepts introduced into the psychology of consciousness by VP Zinchenko.

Biodynamic tissue is a generic name for different characteristics live movement and objective action. Biodynamic tissue is an observed and recorded external form of living movement. The term "fabric" in this context is used to emphasize the idea that this is the material from which purposeful, voluntary movements and actions are built.

The spiritual layer of consciousness in the structure of consciousness, according to V.P. Zinchenko, plays a leading role, animating and inspiring the existential and reflective layer. In the spiritual layer of consciousness, human subjectivity represents "I" in its various modifications and hypostases. The “Other” or, more precisely, “You” acts as an objective generatrix in the spiritual layer of consciousness.

The spiritual layer of consciousness is constructed by the I-Thou relationship and is formed earlier, or at least simultaneously with the existential and reflective layers.

Thus, the structure of consciousness according to Zinchenko will look like this:

A. N. Leont'ev on the relationship between consciousness and motives:

Motives can be realized, but, as a rule, they are not realized, i.e. all motives can be divided into two large classes - conscious and unconscious;
awareness of motives is a special activity, a special inner work;
unconscious motives "appear" in consciousness in special forms - in the form of emotions and in the form of personal meanings. Emotions are a reflection of the relationship between the result of an activity and its motive. If, from the point of view of motive, the activity is successful, there are positive emotions if unsuccessful - negative. Personal meaning is the experience of an increased subjective significance of an object, action or event that has found itself in the field of action of a leading motive;
a person's motives form a hierarchical system. Usually, the hierarchical relationship of motives is not fully realized. They manifest themselves in situations of conflict of motives.

On the relationship between internal and external activities:

Internal actions are actions that prepare external actions. They save human effort, making it possible to choose quickly enough required action, give a person the opportunity to avoid gross and sometimes fatal mistakes;
internal activities has essentially the same structure as external activity, and differs from it only in the form of flow (the principle of the unity of internal and external activity);
internal activity originated from external practical activity through the process of internalization (or the transfer of appropriate actions to the mental plane, i.e., their assimilation);
internal actions are produced not with real objects, but with their images, and instead of a real product, a mental result is obtained;
for the successful reproduction of any action "in the mind", it is imperative to master it in the material sense and get it first real result... During interiorization, external activity, although it does not change its fundamental structure, is strongly transformed, reduced, which allows it to be carried out much faster;
external activity turns into internal, and internal - into external (the principle of mutual transitions of external activity into internal and vice versa).

About personality:

Personality = individual; it is a special quality that is acquired by the individual in society, in the totality of relations, social in nature, in which the individual is involved;
personality is a systemic and therefore "supersensible" quality, although the bearer of this quality is a completely sensible, bodily individual with all his innate and acquired properties. They, these properties, constitute only the conditions (prerequisites) for the formation and functioning of the personality, as well as the external conditions and circumstances of life that fall on the lot of the individual;
from this point of view, the problem of personality forms a new psychological dimension:
a) other than the dimension in which studies of certain mental processes, individual properties and states of a person are conducted;
b) this is a study of his place, position in the system of public relations, communications that open to him;
c) this is a study of what, for what and how a person uses what he inherited from birth and acquired by him;
the anthropological properties of the individual act not as defining the personality or included in its structure, but as genetically given conditions for the formation of the personality and, at the same time, as something that does not define it psychological traits, but only the forms and methods of their manifestation;
they are not born a person, they become a person,
personality is a relatively late product of the socio-historical and ontogenetic development of man;
personality is a special human education;
the real basis of a person's personality is the totality of his social relations to the world, those relations that are realized by his activities, more precisely, the totality of his diverse activities;
the formation of personality is the formation of a coherent system of personal meanings;
there are three main parameters of personality: 1) the breadth of a person's connections with the world; 2) the degree of ROS hierarchy and 3) their general structure;
personality is born twice:
a) the first birth belongs to the preschool age and is marked by the establishment of the first hierarchical relations between motives, the first subordination of immediate impulses to social norms;
b) the second birth of a personality begins in adolescence and is expressed in the emergence of the desire and ability to be aware of their motives, as well as to actively work on their subordination and re-subordination. The second birth of personality presupposes the presence of self-awareness.

Thus, A.N. Leontiev made a huge contribution to the development of domestic and world psychology, and his ideas are being developed by scientists at the present time.

In the same time the following provisions of the teachings of A.N. Leontyev:
a) motive is an objectified need;
b) the motives are generally not recognized;
c) personality is a systemic quality.

human activity has a complex hierarchical structure and includes the following levels: I - level of special activities (or special types of activities); II - action level; III - the level of operations; IV - the level of psychophysiological functions;

According to AN Leontiev, activity has a hierarchical structure, that is, it consists of several levels. The first level is a special activity. The main thing that distinguishes one activity from another is their subjects. The subject of activity is its motive (A.N. Leont'ev). The subject of activity can be both material and data in perception, and ideal.

We are surrounded by a huge variety of objects, and often there are many ideas in our minds. However, not a single subject says that it is the motive of our activity. Why do some of them become the subject (motive) of our activity, while others do not? An object (idea) becomes a motive when it meets our need. Need is the state of a person's need for something.

There are two stages in the life of every need: the first stage is when a person has not yet determined which object can satisfy this need. Surely, each of you experienced a state of uncertainty, a search, when you want something, but what definitely you cannot say. A person, as it were, performs an enumeration of objects, ideas that would meet his needs. In the course of this search activity, meetings usually take place! needs with her subject. Here is how Y.B. Gippenreiter perfectly illustrates this moment with a fragment from "Eugene Onegin":

“You just entered, I instantly knew

All was stunned, flamed

And in my thoughts she said: here he is! "

The process of meeting a need with an object is called the objectification of the need. In this act, a motive is born - an objectified need. Let's schematically depict it as follows:

need -> subject -> motive

In this case, the need becomes another-definite, the need for this particular object. Behavior acquires its own direction. So, activity is prompted by a motive (remember the proverb "If there was a hunt, any work would go well").

Second, the level in the structure of activity is represented by actions. Action is a process aimed at realizing a goal. The goal is the image of the desired, that is, the result that must be achieved in the course of performing the action. Goal setting means an active principle in the subject: a person does not just react to the action of a stimulus (as was the case with behaviorists), but actively organizes his behavior.

Action includes, as a necessary component, the act of creation in the form of setting and holding a goal. But action is at the same time an act of behavior, since a person makes external movements in the process of activity. However, unlike behaviorism, these movements are considered by A. N. Leontiev in indissoluble unity with consciousness. Thus, action is a unity of opposite sides:

It should be noted that actions are dictated by the logic of the social and objective environment, that is, in his actions, a person must take into account the properties of the objects on which he acts. For example, when you turn on a TV or use a computer, you correlate your actions with the device of these devices. Action can be viewed from the position of what should be comprehended and how it should be achieved, that is, in what way. The way an action is performed is called an operation. Let's represent it schematically:

Any action is carried out by certain operations. Imagine that you need to take an action - multiply two two-digit numbers eg 22 and 13. How will you do this? Someone will multiply them in their head, someone will be in writing (in a column), and if you have a calculator at hand, then you will use it. Thus, these will be three different operations of the same action. Operations characterize the technical side of performing an action, and when they talk about dexterity, dexterity ("golden hands"), this refers specifically to the level of operations.

What determines the nature of the operations used, that is, why, in the above case, the multiplication action can be performed by three different operations? The operation depends on the conditions in which it is performed. Conditions mean both external circumstances (in our example, the presence or absence of a calculator), and the possibilities, internal means of the acting subject himself (someone thinks perfectly in his mind, but for someone it is necessary to do it on paper).

The main property of operations is that they are little or not at all realized. In this way, operations are fundamentally different from actions that involve conscious control over their implementation. For example, when you write down a lecture, you take an action: you try to understand the meaning of the teacher's statements and record it on paper. During this action, you perform operations. So, the spelling of any word consists of certain operations: for example, to write the letter "a" you need to perform an oval and a hook. Of course, you don't think about it, you do it automatically. I would like to note that the boundary between action and operation, a very mobile action can turn into an operation, an operation into action. For example, for a first grader, writing the letter "a" is an action, since he has the goal of mastering the way of writing this letter. However, gradually he thinks less and less about what elements it consists of and how to write them, and the action turns into an operation. Let's imagine further that you have decided to make a beautiful inscription on the postcard - it is obvious that all your attention will be directed, first of all, to the writing process itself. In this case, the operation becomes an action.

So, if the action is related to the goal, then operation-with conditions performing an action.

We pass to the lowest level in the structure of activity. This is the level of psychophysiological functions.

The facility that carries out activities has a highly developed nervous system, a complex musculoskeletal system, developed sense organs. Under

Psychophysiological functions are understood as the physiological support of mental processes. These include a number of abilities of our body, such as the ability to feel, to form and fix traces of past influences, motor (motion) ability, etc.

How do we know where we are dealing with action, and where with action. A.N. Leontiev called activities such processes that are characterized by the fact that the motive (motivation for activity) coincides with what is directed this process generally. To illustrate this point, he gives the following example. A student reads a book while preparing for the exam. Is it an action or an activity? Needed psychological analysis this process. Let's say a friend came to our student and said that this book was not needed for the exam at all. What will our friend do? Two options are possible here: either the student will willingly put the book down, or he will continue to read. In the first case, the motive does not coincide with what the reading of the book is aimed at. Objectively, reading a book is aimed at finding out its content, gaining new knowledge. However, the motive is not the content of the book, but the passing of the exam. Therefore, here we can talk about action, and not about activity. In the second case, the motive coincides with what the reading is aimed at: the motive here is to find out the content of the book by itself, regardless of passing the exam. Activity and action can flow into each other. Using the example in the quotation, the book is initially only to pass the exam, but then reading takes you so deeply that you start reading for the sake of the very content of the book - it appears new activity, action turns into activity. This process is called the shift of a motive to a goal „-or transformation of a goal into a motive

"Theory of activity" A. N. Leontiev.

The development of the theory of activity is associated with his name. According to Leontiev: internal - mental activity arises in the process of internalization of external - practical activity and has essentially the same structure ... The main questions : how the mental arises, what is its structure and how to study it. Studying practical activities, we also comprehend the laws mental activity; managing the organization of practical activity, we manage the organization of internal - mental activity.

The process of transition from "internal to external" is denoted as " exteriorization ". The principle " interiorization - exteriorization " - one of the most important in the theory of activity.

Based on the concept of the psyche as a special form of reflection, Leontyev sees a "dividing line" between the pre-psychic and mental levels reflections in the transition from irritability to sensitivity.

Irritability he considers how the property of an organism to react to biologically significant (biotic) influences directly related to life.

Sensitivity is defined as the property to respond to influences, in themselves, not carrying biological significance (abiotic), but signaling the body about the associated biotic effect, which contributes to more effective adaptation.

It is the presence of sensitivity that is the criterion of the mental, according to Leontiev. At the level of sensitivity, it turns out to be possible to talk about behavior as a special form of activity. Sensitivity, in simplest form, is associated with sensations, that is, the subjective reflection of individual properties of objects and phenomena, the objective world.

Stages of evolutionary development of the psyche according to Leontiev:

1.Elementary sensory psyche.

2. Perceptual psyche, on which perception arises as a reflection of integral objects ("perception" means "perception").

3. Stage of intelligence.

New stages of mental reflection arise as a result of the complication of the activity that connects the organism with the environment.

Discusses the problem of the emergence of consciousness . Distinctive feature consciousness - the possibility of objective reflection. The emergence of consciousness is due to the emergence of a special form of activity - collective labor, which assumes separation of functions. In terms of Leontief goal separates from the motive, as a result of which stands out action, as a special unit of activity. To carry out an action, a person must realize its result in a general context, that is, comprehend it.

Activity is the starting point for the formation of the psyche on different levels. Let's consider its structure.

Activity represents a form of activity. Activity prompted need, that is, the state of need in certain conditions of the normal functioning of the individual, the need is "presented" as an experience of discomfort, dissatisfaction, stress and manifests itself in search activity). In the course of searches, a meeting of a need with its object occurs, that is, a fixation on an object that can satisfy it.

From the moment of "meeting" activity becomes directed, it is objectified and becomes motive which may or may not be realized. It is now possible to talk about activity. Activity is related to motive.

Motive- that for the sake of which the activity is performed.

Activity Is a set of actions called motive.

Action- the main structural unit of activity. It is defined as a process aimed at achieving a goal.

Target represents a conscious image of the desired result. The relation of the goal of action to the motive is meaning.

The action is carried out on the basis of certain methods, correlated with specific situation, i.e., conditions. These methods (unconscious or poorly recognized) are called operations and represent more low level in the structure of activities. We have defined activity as a set of actions caused by a motive. An action can be viewed as a set of operations subordinate to a goal.

The lowest level is psychophysiological functions , "Providing" mental processes.

Activity theory also describes the patterns of individual mental development... So, Leontiev proposed the concept « leading activities», the one with which, at this stage of development, the emergence of the most important neoplasms is associated and in the mainstream of which other types of activity develop. A change in leading activity means a transition to a new stage.

The main mechanism is "Shift of the motive to the goal" - the transformation of what was one of the goals into an independent motive.

In the mainstream of the theory of activity, the problem of personality is also discussed - primarily in connection with the formation of the motivational sphere of a person. According to Leontiev, personality is "born" twice.

The first "birth" of personality happens in preschool age when a hierarchy of motives is established, the first correlation of immediate motives with social criteria, that is, there is an opportunity to act contrary to immediate motives, in accordance with social motives.

Second birth" happens in adolescence and is associated with the awareness of the motives of their behavior and the possibility of self-education.

Nominated the idea of the phased formation of mental actions .