Internal components of activity in psychology. Main components of activity (structure of activity). Topics and questions for seminars
Every human activity has external and internal components.
TO internal These include anatomical and physiological structures and processes involved in the control of activity by the central nervous system, as well as psychological processes and states included in the regulation of activity (layout in the apartment).
The internal component of activity is a structure consisting of 3 complexes:
1. The motivational complex (substructure) represents at the a) mental level individual "I" person and is expressed through “I want”, “I need”. It can be conscious or unconscious. In addition to the individual I (immediate desire), this complex includes: b) subjective component, representing the interests of surrounding people. These interests may coincide, conflict or be replaced. And also c) supra-individual activity, which is subject only to a person’s personal goals, includes knowledge of the universal Self. d) spontaneous, natural activity;
2. Target includes activity aimed at achieving specific goals by the subject. These goals can be final and intermediate, and activity, accordingly, can be collapsed, mechanical or expanded, mental;
3. The instrumental substructure of internal activity includes tools of a specific kind, developed on the basis of natural functions (organs of the human body, psychophysiological functions associated with these organs, operations associated with motor activity).
TO external components can include a variety of movements associated with the practical implementation of activities.
The external organization of activity includes 3 substructures:
1. Activity itself is the largest unit of activity analysis, determined by motivational activity.
2. Action - associated with goals and responsible for behavioral processes.
3. Operations are determined by the instrumental basis of activity. That is, on the third substructure, the external and internal coincide.
The ratio of internal and external components of activity is not constant. As activities develop and transform, a systematic transition of external components into internal ones takes place. It is accompanied by their internalization and automation. When difficulties arise in activity, when it is restored, associated with violations of internal components, a reverse transition occurs - exteriorization: reduced, automated components of activity unfold, appear externally, internal ones again become external, consciously controlled.
Chapter 6. Activities
The concept and structure of human activity. Definition of activity. The difference between activity and behavior and activity. Specificity of human activity. Basic attributes of activity. Activity structure. The concepts of action, operation and means of carrying out activities. Motivation for activity. Internal and external components of activity, mutual transitions between them.
Types and development of human activity. Types of human activity. Labor as an activity. Teaching and its features. Communication as an activity. Game as a type of activity. Features and functions of games for people of different ages. Specifics of children's play. Playful forms of behavior in adults. Human activity and development. General and special patterns of formation of various types of activities. Structural transformations of activity in the process of its development.
Activity and mental processes. Mental processes as internal components of activity. The dependence of the development of human mental processes on his activities. Identity of the structure of external (practical) and internal (mental) activity. Participation of activity in the processes of sensation and perception. Activity and attention. Active, activity-based nature of ideas. Participation of activities in the formation and development of human memory. Activity and intellectual processes. The dependence of speech on the nature of human activity.
Abilities, skills and habits. Skills and abilities as structural elements of activity. Education of skills and abilities. Motor skills and abilities. Cognitive skills: perceptual, mnemonic, intellectual, orienting. Practical skills and abilities. The concept of habit and its place in the structure of activity.
Concept and structure of human activity
The main, purely external difference between living matter and nonliving matter, higher forms of life from lower ones, more developed living beings from less developed ones is that those named by the former are much more mobile and active than the latter. Life in all its forms is associated with movements, and as it develops, motor activity takes on more and more advanced forms. Elementary, simple living beings are much more active than the most complexly organized plants. This refers to the variety and speed of movements, the ability to move in space to different distances. Protozoa can live only in an aquatic environment, amphibians go to land; vermiforms live on the ground and underground, birds rise into the sky. A person is able to create conditions for himself and live in any environment and anywhere on the globe (and in recent years, even outside the Earth). No living creature can compare with it in diversity, distribution and active forms.
Plant activity is practically limited by the exchange of substances with the environment. Animal activity includes elementary forms of exploration of this environment and learning. Human activity is very diverse. In addition to all the types and forms characteristic of animals, it contains a special form called activity.
Activity can be defined as a specific type of human activity aimed at knowledge and creative transformation of the surrounding world, including oneself and the conditions of one’s existence. In activity, a person creates objects of material and spiritual culture, transforms his abilities, preserves and improves nature, builds society, creates something that would not exist in nature without his activity. The creative nature of human activity is manifested in the fact that thanks to it it goes beyond the limits of its natural limitations, i.e. exceeds its own genotypically determined capabilities. Due to the productive, creative nature of his activity, man has created sign systems, tools for influencing himself and nature. Using these tools, he built a modern society, cities, machines, with their help he produced new consumer goods, material and spiritual culture, and ultimately transformed himself. The historical progress that has taken place over the past few tens of thousands of years owes its origin to activity, and not to the improvement of the biological nature of people.
Modern man lives surrounded by such objects, none of which are pure creations of nature.
All such objects, especially at work and in everyday life, have been touched to one degree or another by the hands and mind of a person, so that they can be considered the material embodiment of human abilities. They seem to objectify the achievements of the human mind. Mastering ways of handling such objects and including them in activities acts as a person’s own development. In all this, human activity differs from the activity of animals, which do not produce anything similar: no clothing, no furniture, no machines, no sign systems, no tools, no means of transportation, and much more. To satisfy their needs, animals use only what nature has provided them.
In other words, human activity manifests itself and continues in creations; it is productive, and not just consumerist in nature.
Having generated and continued to improve consumer goods, a person, in addition to his abilities, develops his needs. Finding themselves connected with objects of material and spiritual culture, people’s needs acquire a cultural character.
Human activity differs fundamentally from animal activity in another respect. If the activity of animals is caused by natural needs, then 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.
The forms and methods of organizing human activity also differ from the activity of animals. Almost all of them are associated with complex motor skills and abilities, which animals do not have - skills and abilities acquired as a result of conscious, purposeful, organized learning. From early childhood, the child is specially taught to use household items in a human manner (fork, spoon, clothes, chair, table, soap, toothbrush, pencil, paper, etc.), various tools that transform the movements of the limbs given by nature . They begin to obey the logic of the objects with which a person deals. Arises subject activity, which differs from the natural activity of animals.
The system of movements performed by animals is determined by the anatomical and physiological structure of the body. Animals treat objects of human material culture (book, pencil, spoon, etc.) as if they were ordinary natural objects, without taking into account their cultural purpose and the way they are used by people. In humans, the movements of the arms and legs themselves are transformed, obeying the rules of the culture of using the corresponding objects, i.e. become artificial, more perfect and socially conditioned.
Animals only consume what is given to them by nature. Man, on the contrary, is more creates, what it consumes. If his activity, like the activity of animals, was mainly of a consumer nature, then several dozen generations of people would not have been able to achieve such progress in a historically relatively short period of time, to create a grandiose world of spiritual and material culture. All this is due to the active nature of human activity.
Let's summarize. The main differences between human activity and animal activity are as follows:
- Human activity is productive, creative, creative in nature. Animal activity has a consumer basis; as a result, it does not produce or create anything new compared to what is given by nature.
- Human activity is connected with objects of material and spiritual culture, which are used by him either as tools, or as objects to satisfy needs, or as means of his own development. For animals, human tools and means of satisfying needs do not exist as such.
- Human activity transforms him, his abilities, needs, and living conditions. The activity of animals changes practically nothing either in themselves or in the external conditions of life.
- Human activity in its various forms and means of implementation is a product of history. The activity of animals appears as a result of their biological evolution.
- The objective activity of people is not given to them from birth. It is “given” in the cultural purpose and way of using surrounding objects. Such activities need to be formed and developed in training and education. The same applies to internal, neurophysiological and psychological structures that control the external side of practical activity. The activity of animals is initially given, genotypically determined and unfolds as the natural anatomical and physiological maturation of the organism occurs.
Activity differs not only from activity, but also from behavior. Behavior not always purposeful, does not involve the creation of a specific product, and is often passive in nature. Activities are always purposeful, active, aimed at creating some product. Behavior is spontaneous (“wherever it leads”), activity is organized; behavior is chaotic, activity is systematic.
Human activity has the following main characteristics: motive, goal, subject, structure and means. The motive of an activity is what prompts it, for the sake of which it is carried out. The motive is usually a specific need that is satisfied in the course and with the help of this activity.
Motives of human activity can be very different; organic, functional, material, social, spiritual. Organic motives are aimed at satisfying the natural needs of the body (in humans, at creating conditions that are most conducive to this). Such motives are associated with growth, self-preservation and development of the organism. This is the production of food, housing, clothing, etc. Functional motives are satisfied through various cultural forms of activity, such as games and sports. Material motives encourage a person to engage in activities aimed at creating household items, various things and tools, directly in the form of products that serve natural needs. Social motives give rise to various types of activities aimed at taking a certain place in society, gaining recognition and respect from those around them. Spiritual motives underlie those activities that are associated with human self-improvement. The type of activity is usually determined by its dominant motive (dominant because all human activity is polymotivated, that is, motivated by several different motives).
As activity goals its product stands out. It can represent a real physical object created by a person, certain knowledge, skills and abilities acquired in the course of activity, a creative result (thought, idea, theory, work of art).
The purpose of an activity is not equivalent to its motive, although sometimes the motive and purpose of an activity may coincide with each other. Different activities that have the same goal (end result) can be stimulated and supported by different motives. On the contrary, a number of activities with different ultimate goals may be based on the same motives. For example, reading a book for a person can act as a means of material satisfaction (to demonstrate knowledge and get a well-paid job for this), social (to show off your knowledge among significant people, to achieve their favor), spiritual (to expand your horizons, to rise to a higher level of moral development ) needs. Such different types of activities as purchasing fashionable, prestigious things, reading literature, taking care of appearance, developing the ability to behave, can ultimately pursue the same goal: to achieve someone’s favor at all costs.
Subject of activity is called what it directly deals with. So, for example, the subject of cognitive activity is all kinds of information, the subject of educational activity is knowledge, skills and abilities, the subject of labor activity is the created material product.
Every activity has a certain structure. It usually identifies actions and operations as the main components of activity. An action is a part of an activity that has a completely independent, human-conscious goal. For example, an action included in the structure of cognitive activity can be called receiving a book, reading it; actions included in labor activity can be considered familiarization with the task, searching for the necessary tools and materials, developing a project, technology for manufacturing the item, etc.; Actions associated with creativity are the formulation of a plan and its phased implementation in the product of creative work.
An operation is a method of carrying out an action. As many different ways of performing an action as there are, so many different operations can be distinguished. The nature of the operation depends on the conditions for performing the action, on the skills and abilities a person has, on the available tools and means of carrying out the action. Different people, for example, remember information and write differently. This means that they carry out the action of writing text or memorizing material using various operations. A person’s preferred operations characterize his individual style of activity.
As means of carrying out activities For a person, these are the tools that he uses when performing certain actions and operations. The development of means of activity leads to its improvement, as a result of which the activity becomes more productive and of higher quality.
The motivation of activity during its development does not remain unchanged. So, for example, over time, other motives for work or creative activity may appear, and the previous ones fade into the background. Sometimes an action that was previously included in an activity can stand out from it and acquire an independent status, turning into an activity with its own motive. In this case, we note the fact of the birth of a new activity.
With age, as a person develops, the motivation for his activities changes. If a person changes as a person, then the motives of his activities are transformed. The progressive development of man is characterized by the movement of motives towards their increasing spiritualization (from organic to material, from material to social, from social to creative, from creative to moral).
Every human activity has external and internal components. TO internal include anatomical-physiological structures and processes involved in the control of activity by the central nervous system, as well as psychological processes" and states included in the regulation of activity. external components can include a variety of movements associated with the practical implementation of activities.
The ratio of internal and external components of activity is not constant. As activities develop and transform, a systematic transition of external components into internal ones takes place. He is accompanied by them interiorization And automation. If any difficulties arise in activity, during its restoration associated with disturbances of internal components, a reverse transition occurs - exteriorization: reduced, automated components of activity unfold, appear externally, internal ones again become external, consciously controlled.
Types and development of human activity
Modern man has many different types of activities, the number of which approximately corresponds to the number of existing needs (taking into account the multi-motivation of activity). In order to present and describe all these types of activities, it is necessary to list the most important needs for a given person. But such a task in practice seems difficult, since the number of different needs is large and they vary individually.
It is easier to determine the basic parameters according to which it is possible to describe the system of human needs, and then, using them, to give characteristics of the types of activities inherent in a particular person. There are three such parameters: strength, quantity and quality of needs.
The strength of a need refers to the significance of the corresponding need for a person, its relevance, frequency of occurrence and motivating potential. A stronger need is more significant, occurs more often, dominates other needs and forces a person to behave in such a way that this particular need is satisfied first.
Quantity is the number of various needs that a person has and from time to time become relevant to him. There are people who have a relatively small number of needs, and they quite successfully cope with their systematic satisfaction, enjoying life. But there are those who have many different, sometimes contradictory, incompatible needs. The actualization of such needs requires the simultaneous inclusion of a person in various types of activities, and conflicts often arise between multidirectional needs and there is a shortage of time necessary to satisfy them. Such people usually complain about a lack of time and experience dissatisfaction with life, in particular because they do not have time to do everything on time.
By the uniqueness of a need we mean items and objects with the help of which one or another need can be quite fully satisfied in a given person, as well as the preferred way of satisfying this and other needs. For example, the cognitive need of one person can be satisfied as a result of systematically watching only entertainment programs on television. For others, to fully satisfy a similar need, reading newspapers, books, listening to the radio and watching television is not enough. The third person, in addition to the above, needs systematic communication with people who are carriers of useful information of a cognitive nature, as well as inclusion in interesting independent creative research work.
In accordance with the described parameters characterizing the system of human needs, it is possible to individually imagine and describe a set of activities characteristic of an individual and for groups of people. In this case, for each of these parameters and the variety of their combinations, it is possible to create and propose classifications of types of human activity.
But there is another way: to generalize and highlight the main types of activities characteristic of all people. They will correspond to the general needs that can be found in almost all people without exception, or more precisely, to the types of social human activity in which each person inevitably becomes involved in the process of his individual development. This is communication, play, learning and work. They should be considered as the main activities of people.
Communication - the first type of activity that arises in the process of individual development of a person, followed by play, learning and work. All these types of activities are developmental in nature, i.e. When a child is included and actively participates in them, his intellectual and personal development occurs.
Communication is considered as a type of activity aimed at the exchange of information between communicating people. It also pursues the goals of establishing mutual understanding, good personal and business relationships, providing mutual assistance and the educational influence of people on each other. Communication can be direct and indirect, verbal and non-verbal. In direct communication, people are in direct contact with each other, know and see each other, and directly exchange verbal or non-verbal information, without using any auxiliary means. With mediated communication there are no direct contacts between people. They exchange information either through other people, or through means of recording and reproducing information (books, newspapers, radio, television, telephone, telefax, etc.).
A game- this is a type of activity that does not result in the production of any material or ideal product (with the exception of business and design games of adults and children). Games are often of an entertainment nature and serve the purpose of relaxation. Sometimes games serve as a means of symbolic release of tensions that have arisen under the influence of the actual needs of a person, which he is unable to weaken in any other way.
There are several types of games: individual and group, subject and plot, role-playing and games with rules. Individual games represent a type of activity when one person is engaged in the game, group - include several individuals. Subject games associated with the inclusion of any objects in a person’s play activity. Story games unfold according to a certain scenario, reproducing it in basic details. Role-playing games allow human behavior limited to a certain role that he takes on in the game. Finally, games with rules are regulated by a certain system of rules of conduct for their participants. Often in life there are mixed types of games: subject-role-playing, plot-role-playing, plot-based games with rules, etc. The relationships that develop between people in a game, as a rule, are artificial in the sense of the word that those around them are not taken seriously and are not the basis for drawing conclusions about a person. Gaming behavior and gaming relationships have little effect on real relationships between people, at least among adults.
However, games are of great importance in people's lives. For children, games have primarily a developmental value, and for adults they serve as a means of communication and relaxation. Some forms of gaming activity take on the character of rituals, educational and training sessions, and sports hobbies.
Teaching acts as a type of activity, the purpose of which is to acquire knowledge, skills and abilities by a person. Teaching can be organized and carried out in special educational institutions. It can be unorganized and occur along the way, in other activities as a by-product, additional result. In adults, learning can take on the character of self-education. The peculiarities of educational activity are that it directly serves as a means of psychological development of the individual.
A special place in the system of human activity is occupied by work. It was thanks to labor that man built a modern society, created objects of material and spiritual culture, and transformed the conditions of his life in such a way that he discovered prospects for further, almost unlimited development. Labor is primarily associated with the creation and improvement of tools. They, in turn, were a factor in increasing labor productivity, the development of science, industrial production, technical and artistic creativity.
When they talk about the development of human activity, they mean the following aspects of the progressive transformation of activity:
- Phylogenetic development of the human activity system.
- The inclusion of a person in various types of activities in the process of his individual development (ontogenesis).
- Changes that occur within individual activities as they develop.
- Differentiation of activities, in the process of which others are born from some activities due to the isolation and transformation of individual actions into independent types of activity.
The phylogenetic transformation of the system of human activities essentially coincides with the history of the socio-economic development of mankind. Integration and differentiation of social structures were accompanied by the emergence of new types of activities among people. The same thing happened as the economy grew, cooperation and division of labor developed. People of new generations, joining the life of their contemporary society, assimilated and developed those types of activities that are characteristic of this society.
This process of integrating the growing individual into the existing system of activities is called socialization, and its gradual implementation involves the gradual involvement of the child in communication, play, learning and work - those four main types of activities that were briefly described above. Moreover, each of these types of activities is first learned in its most elementary form, and then becomes more complex and improved. The communication of an adult with the people around him is no more similar to the communication of a baby or a primary school student than the work activity of adults is to a child’s game.
In the process of development of activity, its internal transformations occur. Firstly, the activity is enriched with new subject content. Its object and, accordingly, the means of satisfying the needs associated with it become new objects of material and spiritual culture. Secondly, activities have new means of implementation that speed up their progress and improve results. For example, learning a new language expands the possibilities for recording and reproducing information; familiarity with higher mathematics improves the ability to perform quantitative calculations. Thirdly, in the process of development of activity, automation of individual operations and other components of activity occurs, they turn into skills and abilities. Finally, fourthly, as a result of the development of activity, new types of activity can be separated from it, isolated and further independently developed. This mechanism for the development of activity was described by A. N. Leontyev and was called the shift of motive to goal.
The action of this mechanism seems to be as follows. A certain fragment of activity - an action - may initially have a goal recognized by the individual, which in turn acts as a means of achieving another goal that serves to satisfy a need. A given action and its corresponding goal are attractive to the individual insofar as they serve the process of satisfying a need, and only for this reason. In the future, the goal of this action may acquire independent value and become a need or motive. In this case, they say that in the course of the development of activity, a shift of motive to goal occurred and a new activity was born.
Activities and mental processes
Mental processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking, speech - act as the most important components of any human activity. In order to satisfy his needs, communicate, play, study and work, a person must perceive the world, pay attention to certain moments or components of activity, imagine what he needs to do, remember, think, and make judgments. Consequently, without the participation of mental processes, human activity is impossible; they act as its integral internal moments.
But it turns out that mental processes do not just participate in activity, they develop in it and themselves represent special types of activity.
Perception in the process of practical activity acquires its most important human qualities. In activity, its main types are formed: perception of depth, direction and speed of movement, time and space. The child’s practical manipulation with three-dimensional, nearby and distant objects reveals to him the fact that objects and space have certain dimensions: width, height, depth. As a result, a person learns to perceive and evaluate forms. Tracking movements of the hand and eye, accompanied by synergistic, coordinated contractions of certain muscle groups, contribute to the formation of the perception of movement and its direction. Changes in the speed of moving objects are automatically reproduced in the acceleration and deceleration of contractions of certain muscle groups, and this trains the senses to perceive speed.
Imagination is also related to activity. Firstly, a person is not able to imagine or imagine something that has never appeared in experience, was not an element, subject, condition or moment of any activity. The texture of imagination is a reflection, although not a literal one, of the experience of practical activity.
This applies even more to memory, moreover, to its two main processes simultaneously: memorization and reproduction. Memorization is carried out in activity and itself represents a special kind of mnemonic activity, which contains actions and operations aimed at preparing the material for better memorization. This is structuring, comprehension, associating material with known facts, including various objects and movements in the memorization process, etc.
Recall also involves performing certain actions aimed at promptly and accurately recalling the material imprinted in memory. It is known that consciously reproducing an activity during which some material was memorized makes it easier to remember.
Thinking in a number of its forms it is identical to practical activity (the so-called “manual” or practical thinking). In more developed forms - figurative and logical - the activity moment appears in it in the form of internal, mental actions and operations. Speech is also a special kind of activity, so the phrase “speech activity” is often used to characterize it. “Since the internal mental processes in a person display the same structure as external actions, there is every reason to talk not only about external, but also internal action” 1.
It has been experimentally proven that internal, i.e. mental processes, called higher mental functions, are activities in origin and structure. Theories have been developed and proven in practice that claim that mental processes can be formed through external activity organized according to special rules (the theory of the gradual formation of mental actions, discussed in detail in the second book of the textbook). External activity, as a result of its special transformations aimed at reducing and automating individual links, their transformation into skills, gradually turns into internal, actually mental (interiorization). Such internalized mental processes are voluntary and speech-mediated cognitive processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory and thinking.
On the other hand, none of the mentioned mental processes proceeds as purely internal and necessarily includes some external, usually motor, links. Visual perception, for example, is inextricably linked with eye movements, touch - with hand movements, attention - with muscle contractions, which determine its concentration, switchability and absent-mindedness. When a person solves problems, his articulatory apparatus almost always works; speech activity without movements of the larynx and facial muscles is impossible. Consequently, any activity is a combination of internal and external, mental and behavioral actions and operations.
Abilities, skills and habits
Automated, consciously, semiconsciously and unconsciously controlled components of activity are called skills, abilities and habits, respectively.
Skills- these are elements of activity that allow you to do something with high quality, for example, accurately and correctly perform any action, operation, series of actions or operations. Skills usually include automatically performed parts, called skills, but in general represent consciously controlled parts of the activity, at least in the main intermediate points and the final goal.
- Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology: In 2 volumes - Vol. II. - M, 1989. - P. 15.
Skills - These are fully automated, instinct-like components of skills, implemented at the level of unconscious control. If by action we understand a part of an activity that has a clearly defined conscious goal, then a skill can also be called an automated component of an action.
When automating actions and operations and turning them into skills, a number of transformations occur in the structure of activity. Firstly, automated actions and operations merge into a single, holistically occurring act called a skill (for example, a complex system of movements of a person writing a text, performing a sports exercise, performing a surgical operation, making a thin part of an object, giving a lecture, etc.) . At the same time, unnecessary, unnecessary movements disappear, and the number of erroneous ones drops sharply.
Secondly, control over an action or operation, when automated, shifts from the process to the final result, and external, sensory control is replaced by internal, pro-prioceptive. The speed of action and operation increases sharply, reaching a certain optimum or maximum. All of this usually happens as a result of exercise and training.
The development and improvement of activity can be understood, therefore, as the transition of components of individual skills, actions and operations to the level of skills. By the way, operations can also serve as a skill. Then they are part of a more complex skill. Human activity, thanks to the automation of its individual components, “being unburdened from regulation of relatively elementary acts, can be directed to solving more complex problems” 1 .
The physiological basis for the automation of components of activity, initially presented in its structure in the form of actions and operations and then turning into skills, is, as N.A. Bernstein showed, the transition of control of activity or its individual components to the subconscious level of regulation and bringing them to automatism.
- Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. - T. II. - M., 1989. - P. 29.
Since skills are included in the structure of actions and various activities in large numbers, they usually interact with each other, forming complex systems of skills. The nature of their interaction can be different: from coordination to opposition, from complete fusion to mutually negative inhibitory influence - interference. Coordination of skills occurs when: a) the system of movements included in one skill corresponds to the system of movements included in another skill; b) when the implementation of one skill creates favorable conditions for the implementation of the second (one of the skills serves as a means of better mastering the other); c) when the end of one skill is the actual beginning of another, and vice versa. Interference occurs when one of the following contradictions appears in the interaction of skills: a) the system of movements included in one skill contradicts and does not agree with the system of movements that make up the structure of another skill; b) when, when moving from one skill to another, you actually have to relearn, break the structure of the old skill; c) when the system of movements included in one skill is partially contained in another skill that has already been brought to automatism (in this case, when performing a new skill, movements characteristic of a previously learned skill automatically arise, which leads to a distortion of the movements necessary for the newly acquired skill ); d) when the beginnings and ends of sequentially performed skills do not fit together. With full automation of skills, the phenomenon of interference is reduced to a minimum or disappears altogether.
Important for understanding the process of skill formation is their transfer, i.e. distribution and use of skills formed as a result of performing some actions and activities to others. In order for such a transfer to take place normally, it is necessary that the skill becomes generalized, universal, consistent with other skills, actions and activities, brought to automatism.
Skills in contrast to skills, they are formed as a result of the coordination of skills, their integration into systems using actions that are under conscious control. Through the regulation of such actions, optimal management of skills is carried out. It is to ensure error-free and flexible execution of the action, i.e. obtaining as a result a reliable outcome of the action. The action itself in the structure of the skill is controlled by its goal. For example, when learning to write, elementary school students perform a number of actions related to writing individual elements of letters. At the same time, the skills of holding a pencil in the hand and performing basic hand movements are performed, as a rule, automatically. The main thing in managing skills is to ensure that each action is error-free and has sufficient flexibility. This means the practical exclusion of low quality work, variability and the ability to adapt the skill system to changing operating conditions from time to time while maintaining positive work results. For example, the ability to do something with one's own hands means that a person with such a skill will always work well and is able to maintain high quality work in any conditions. The ability to teach means that a teacher is able to teach any normal student what he himself knows and can do.
One of the main qualities related to skills is that a person is able to change the structure of skills - skills, operations and actions included in the skills, the sequence of their implementation, while keeping the final result unchanged. A skilled person, for example, can replace one material with another when making a product, make it himself or use the tools at hand, other improvised means, in a word, he will find a way out in almost any situation.
Abilities, unlike skills, are always based on active intellectual activity and necessarily include thinking processes. Conscious intellectual control is the main thing that distinguishes skills from skills. Activation of intellectual activity in skills occurs precisely at those moments when the conditions of activity change, non-standard situations arise that require the prompt adoption of reasonable decisions. Management of skills at the level of the central nervous system is carried out by higher anatomical and physiological authorities than management of skills, i.e. at the level of the cerebral cortex.
Skills and abilities are divided into several types: motor, cognitive, theoretical and practical. Motor include a variety of movements, complex and simple, that make up the external, motor aspects of activity. There are special types of activities, such as sports, that are entirely based on motor skills and abilities. Cognitive skills include abilities associated with searching, perceiving, remembering and processing information. They correlate with basic mental processes and involve the formation of knowledge. Theoretical skills associated with abstract intelligence. They are expressed in a person’s ability to analyze, generalize material, build hypotheses, theories, and translate information from one sign system to another. Such skills and abilities are most manifested in creative work associated with obtaining an ideal product of thought.
Of great importance in the formation of all types of skills and abilities are exercises. Thanks to them, skills are automated, skills and activities are improved in general. Exercises are necessary both at the stage of developing skills and abilities, and in the process of maintaining them. Without constant, systematic exercise, skills and abilities are usually lost and lose their qualities.
Another element of the activity is habit. It differs from ability and skills in that it represents a so-called unproductive element of activity. If skills and abilities are related to solving a problem, involve obtaining a product and are quite flexible (in the structure of complex skills), then habits are an inflexible (often unreasonable) part of an activity that a person performs mechanically and does not have a conscious goal or clearly expressed productive completion. Unlike a simple skill, a habit can be consciously controlled to a certain extent. But it differs from skill in that it is not always reasonable and useful (bad habits). Habits as elements of activity are the least flexible parts of it.
Topics and questions for seminars
Topic 1. Concept and structure of human activity.
- Definition of activity, its main characteristics.
- The difference between human activity and animal activity.
- Activity and behavior.
- The structure of human activity.
- Motivation for activity.
- External and internal components of activity.
Topic 2. Types and development of human activity.
- Types of human activity, their classification.
- Features of communication, gaming, educational and work activities.
- Main directions of activity development.
- Transformations in activity that occur in the process of its development.
Topic 3. Activity And mental processes.
- Activity origin of higher mental functions.
- Cognitive processes as internal moments of activity.
- External (motor) and internal (mental) components of activity.
Topic 4. Abilities, skills and habits.
- Concepts of ability and skill.
- The place of skills and abilities in the structure of activity.
- Formation of skills and abilities.
- Habits and their role in carrying out activities.
Topics for essays
- Specificity of human activity.
- Types of human activity.
- Mental processes as forms of activity.
- Education of skills and abilities.
Topics for independent research work
- Development of human activity in phylo- and ontogenesis.
- Mechanisms of formation and transformation of human activity.
- Formation of higher mental functions in the process of activity.
- Psychological analysis of people's habits.
Literature
- Vallon A. Mental development of the child. - M., 1967. (Child’s activity and development: 49-58. Child’s play and development: 58-74. Movement development: 125-151.)
- Leontyev A.N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. - M., 1982 (1975). (The problem of activity in psychology: 73-123. Activity and consciousness: 124-158. Activity and personality: 159-189.)
- Obukhova L. F. Jean Piaget's concept: pros and cons. - M., 1981. (From action to thought (in the teachings of J. Piaget): 42-53.)
- Rubinstein S. L. Fundamentals of general psychology: IN 2 t. - T. I. - M., 1989. (Action and activities: 14-64. Play: 64-75. Teaching: 75-93.) A textbook on sensation and perception. - M., 1975. (The role of movements in cognitive processes: 9-19. Development of perception and activity: 147-205.)
- Vygotsky L.S. Collected works: In 6 volumes - T. 3. - M., 1983. (Problems in the development of higher mental functions: 6-164.)
- Gippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology: a course of lectures. - M., 1988. (Psychological Theory of Activity: 95-128.)
- Davydov V.V. Types of generalization in teaching. - M., 1972. (J. Piaget on the role of action in thinking: 224- 247.)
- Davydov V.V. Problems of developmental education. - M., 1986. (Activity, psyche and consciousness: 21- 37.)
- Zaporozhets A.V. Selected psychological works: In 2 volumes - Vol. I. - M., 1986. (Development of perception and activity: 112-153. The role of activity in the mental development of a child: 235-247.)
- Zaporozhets A.V. Selected psychological works: In 2 volumes - Vol. II. - M., 1986. (Development of voluntary movements: 5-233. The role of speech in the formation and implementation of voluntary movements: 146-188. Attitude and its role in the regulation of movements: 189-227.)
- Zinchenko P.I. Involuntary memorization. - M., 1961. (Involuntary memorization and activity: 141- 221.)
- General psychology. - M., 1986. (Activity: 93-130.)
- Cognitive activity in the system of memory processes. - M., 1989. (Activity approach to memory: 7-10.)
- Belous V.V. Temperament and activity. Tutorial. - Pyatigorsk, 1990. (Temperament and activity: 102-112.)
- Bernstein N.A. Essays on the physiology of movements and physiology of activity. - M., 1966. (On the history of the study of movements: 29-38. On the construction of movements: 79-101. The nature of the skill and training: 160-170.)
- Bespalov B.I. Action. Psychological mechanisms of visual thinking. - M., 1984. (Basic concepts of the theory of action (goal, action, operation): 10-45.)
- Istomina Z.M. Memory development. Educational and methodological manual. - M., 1978. (Dependence of memorization on the nature of the activity: 62- 86.)
- History of foreign psychology. 30-60s of the XX century. Texts. - M., 1986. (Principles of behavior (K. Hull’s theory): 38-59. Operant behavior (B. Skinner): 60-96.)
- Kossov B.B. Psychomotor development of primary schoolchildren. Methodological developments. - M., 1989.
- Merlin B. C. Essay on an integral study of individuality. - M., 1986. (Individual style of activity: 153-181, 197-208.)
- Miller D., Galanter Y., Pribram K. Plans and structure of behavior. - M., 1964. (Motor skills: 100-115.)
- Poddyakov N.N. Preschooler thinking. - M., 1977. (Theory of activity and issues of development of thinking: 6-24.) Feldshtein D.I. Psychology of personality development in ontogenesis. - M., 1989. (Activity and personal development: 72-125.)
In its development, human activity undergoes the following aspects of progressive transformation: 1) phylogenetic development of the system of human activity; 2) the inclusion of a person in various types of activities in the process of his individual development; 3) changes occurring within individual types of activities as they develop; 4) differentiation of activities, in the process of which others are born from some activities due to the isolation and transformation of individual actions into independent types of activity.
The phylogenetic transformation of the system of human activities essentially coincides with the history of the socio-economic development of mankind. Integration and differentiation of social structures were accompanied by the emergence of new types of activities and economies among people. The process of integrating a growing individual into the existing system of activities is called socialization. Moreover, each of these types of activities is first learned in its most elementary form, and then becomes more complex and improved.
In the process of development of activity, its internal transformations occur: 1) activity is enriched with new substantive content; 2) the activity has new means of implementation that speed up its progress and improve the results; 3) in the process of development of activity, automation of individual operations and other components of activity occurs;
4) as a result of the development of activity, new types of activity can be separated from it, isolated and further independently developed.
The activity has external And internal components.
The internal ones include: 1) anatomical and physiological structures and processes involved in the control of activity by the central nervous system; 2) psychological processes and structures included in the regulation of activity.
External components include various movements associated with the practical implementation of activities.
The ratio of internal and external components of activity is not constant. External objective activity is, as it were, preceded by internal activity. Objective actions on objects are replaced by ideal (mental) operations. The process of such a transition from external action to internal ideal is called interiorization. Thus, interiorization is the formation of the internal structures of the human psyche through the assimilation of the structures of external activity.
In turn, exteriorization is the process of generating external actions and statements based on the transformation of a number of internal structures that have developed on the basis of the interiorization of a person’s external conscious activity.
External objective activity can be considered as an exteriorization of internal, mental activity, since a person in the process of activity always implements an ideally presented plan of action. Thus, external activity is controlled by the internal plan of action .
46.Main activities and their characteristics
1. It is traditionally accepted that the main and psychologically main division of activity into its types is the differentiation of activity into work, study and play. Labor activity differs from the other two types in that it involves obtaining some socially significant product or result. For gaming and educational activities, this result is not socially, but individually significant and consists in the subject’s mastering of socially developed experience, knowledge, etc. Finally, the most striking specific feature of gaming activity is that, unlike learning and work, its main motive is the process of activity itself, and not its result. These types of activities replace each other in ontogenesis and are designated by the concept of “leading type” of activity for each of the main age stages. Leading is an activity, the implementation of which determines the emergence and formation of the main psychological new formations of a person at any stage of his development.
2. Equally fundamental and general is the separation of individual and joint activities. Joint activity is implemented, in contrast to individual activity, by the so-called collective subject, i.e., two or more people who have a common motive and a common goal. Other important features of joint activity are the spatial and temporal presence of participants in the activity, the role and instrumental differentiation of participants in certain tasks, the presence of a managerial (organizing) component - either a leader or a manager. Joint activity is also internally heterogeneous and is divided into subtypes: for example, directly joint - “activity together” and indirectly joint - “activity nearby”.
3. The most traditional is, apparently, the classification of activities according to their subject area, i.e., according to professional affiliation. As a result, all those professions that exist today are highlighted, as well as specializations within these professions. Thus, there is a classification developed by E. A. Klimov, which distinguishes five main types of professional activity: “man - technology”, “man - man”, “man - nature”, “man - sign”, “man - artistic image” .
4. Activities are also usually divided into executive and managerial (organizational). The first is characterized by the fact that the subject of labor directly influences his object, although he is in contact with other subjects. The second (managerial) usually does not provide for such direct influence. It, however, necessarily presupposes the organization by one subject of the activities of other people, as well as a hierarchy of their subordination.
5. In practical terms, it is important to divide activities into direct and indirect. In the first case, a person directly influences the object and just as directly receives information from it. In the second case, information about the subject of work is transmitted to a person through intermediary links: in the form of tables on the screen or in any other symbolic form. This is, for example, operator-type activities.
47. Mastering activities: abilities, skills, habits. Every action has a motor and sensory component (execution, control and regulation are the functions of these components). Methods of execution, control and regulation are called methods of activity, partial automation of movements is called a skill. Activity is a specifically human activity regulated by consciousness, generated by needs and aimed at understanding and transforming the external world and the person himself. Activity has a complex structure; it usually has several levels: actions, operations, psychophysiological functions. Actions are aimed at changing the state or properties of objects in the external world; they consist of certain movements. ON THE. Bernstein proposed the principle of movement control; he called it the principle of sensory correction, meaning corrections made to impulses based on sensory information about the course of movement. In this regard, various structural elements of activity are distinguished: abilities, skills, habits. Skills are ways of successfully performing an action that correspond to the goals and conditions of the activity; they are always based on knowledge. A skill is a fully automated component of action formed in the process of exercise. Skill means the formation in the cerebral cortex and the functioning of a stable system of temporary neural connections, called a dynamic stereotype. Skills and abilities can be divided into educational, sports, hygienic, as well as: - motor skills (developed in the process of physical labor, sports, and studies); - mental (developed in the process of observation, planning, oral and written calculations, etc.). The importance of skills and abilities is great: they facilitate physical and mental efforts, introduce a certain rhythm and stability into human activity, creating conditions for creativity. Functional components of a skill: 1. Training, as a pure component of a skill (system of reaction, coordination, etc.). 2. Adaptation to specific conditions. There are three main stages in the formation of a skill: 1. Analytical - initial acquaintance with the movement and mastery of individual elements of actions. 2. Synthetic - combining elements into a holistic action. 3. Automation - an exercise with the goal of making the action smooth, the desired speed, and relieving tension. Stages of motor skills formation: 1. Understanding the skill. (A clear understanding of the goal, but a vague understanding of how to achieve it, gross mistakes when trying to perform actions. ) 2. Conscious but inept execution (Despite intense concentration, voluntary attention, many unnecessary movements, lack of positive transfer of this skill). 3. Automation of a skill (increasingly better performance of an action with weakening voluntary attention or the emergence of the possibility of its redistribution; elimination of unnecessary movements; the emergence of a positive transfer of skill). 4. Highly automated skill (accurate, economical, sustainable execution of an action, which has become a means of performing another, more complex action). 5. De-automation of a skill (optional stage) – deterioration in skill performance, revival of old mistakes. 6. Secondary automation of the skill - restoration of the features of the 4th stage. Thus, it is clear that the skill is formed as a result of exercises, i.e. purposeful and systematic repetitions of actions, and as the exercise progresses, quantitative changes turn into qualitative ones. Acquired skills and abilities influence the formation of new skills and abilities. This influence can be both positive (transfer - a previously developed skill facilitates the acquisition of a similar skill) and negative (interference - the weakening of new skills under the influence of previously developed ones, due to their similarity). To preserve a skill, it should be used systematically, otherwise deautomation occurs when the speed, ease, smoothness and other qualities of an automated action are lost. The skill can be formed through: - simple demonstration; - explanation; - a combination of demonstration and explanation. The conditions that ensure successful development of a skill include: the number of exercises, their pace and distribution over time, as well as knowledge of the results. Reasons affecting the productivity of the skill: - objective (equipment design, its condition, working conditions); - subjective: - physiological (fatigue, state of health); - mental (attitude to activity, self-confidence, mood, skill dynamics). Habits are a component of action that is based on a need. They can be consciously controlled to a certain extent, but are not always reasonable or useful. Ways to form habits: - through imitation; - as a result of repeated repetition of actions; - through conscious, targeted efforts, for example, through positive reinforcement of desired behavior. The theory of levels of movement construction N.A. Bernstein. The essence of the theory: depending on what information the feedback signals carry, afferent signals arrive at different sensory centers of the brain and accordingly switch to motor pathways at different levels. Levels refer to morphological layers in the central nervous system. Each level has its own motor manifestations and each level has its own class of movements. In the organization of complex movements, as a rule, several levels are involved at once - the one on which the movement is built is the leading level. In human consciousness, only the components of movement that are built at the leading level are represented; the work of the background levels, as a rule, is not realized. Formally, the same movement can be built at different levels. The leading level of movement construction is determined by the meaning and task of the movement. Level A is the lowest and phylogenetically the most ancient; has no independent significance, but is responsible for an important aspect of movement - muscle tone. It receives signals indicating the degree of muscle tension, as well as from the balance organs. Own movements of the level: involuntary trembling, chattering of teeth from cold and fear, etc. Level B is the level of synergies. It processes signals that indicate the relative position and movement of various parts of the body. The level solves the problem of internal coordination of complex motor ensembles. Own movements of the level: movements that do not require consideration of external space, for example, facial expressions, stretching, etc. Level C is the level of the spatial field; it receives signals from vision, hearing, touch, i.e. all information about the external space. Own movements of the level: movements adapted to the spatial properties of the object, to their shape, position, weight, etc., for example, walking, jumping, acrobatics, shooting, etc. Level D - level of object actions, cortical level, manager of the organization of actions with objects (almost monopoly belongs to man). Own movements of the level: weapon actions, manipulations with objects, for example, lacing shoes, peeling potatoes, etc. A characteristic feature of the movements of this level is that they are consistent with the logic of the object; rather, these are already actions, and not movements, since in them the motor composition of the movement is not completely fixed, but only the final objective result is given. For this level, the method of performing actions is indifferent. Level E is the level of intellectual motor acts, such as speech movements, writing, etc. Movements at this level are determined not by objective, but by verbal meaning.
External (motor) and internal (mental) components of activity
Mental processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking, speech - act as the most important components of any human activity. In order to satisfy his needs, communicate, play, study and work, a person must perceive the world, pay attention to certain moments or components of activity, imagine what he needs to do, remember, think, and make judgments. Consequently, without the participation of mental processes, human activity is impossible; they act as its integral internal moments.
But it turns out that mental processes do not just participate in activity, they develop in it and themselves represent special types of activity.
Perception in the process of practical activity acquires its most important human qualities. In activity, its main types are formed: perception of depth, direction and speed of movement, time and space. The child’s practical manipulation with three-dimensional, nearby and distant objects reveals to him the fact that objects and space have certain dimensions: width, height, depth. As a result, a person learns to perceive and evaluate forms. Tracking movements of the hand and eye, accompanied by synergistic, coordinated contractions of certain muscle groups, contribute to the formation of the perception of movement and its direction. Changes in the speed of moving objects are automatically reproduced in the acceleration and deceleration of contractions of certain muscle groups, and this trains the senses to perceive speed.
Imagination is also connected with activity. Firstly, a person is not able to imagine or imagine something that has never appeared in experience, was not an element, subject, condition or moment of any activity. The texture of imagination is a reflection, although not a literal one, of the experience of practical activity.
This applies to an even greater extent to memory, and to its two main processes simultaneously: memorization and reproduction. Memorization is carried out in activity and itself represents a special kind of mnemonic activity, which contains actions and operations aimed at preparing the material for better memorization. This is structuring, comprehension, associating material with known facts, including various objects and movements in the memorization process, etc.
Recall also involves performing certain actions aimed at promptly and accurately recalling the material imprinted in memory. It is known that consciously reproducing an activity during which some material was memorized makes it easier to remember.
Thinking in a number of its forms is identical to practical activity (the so-called “manual” or practical thinking). In more developed forms - figurative and logical - the activity moment appears in it in the form of internal, mental actions and operations. Speech is also a special kind of activity, so the phrase “speech activity” is often used to characterize it. Since a person’s internal mental processes display the same structure as external actions, there is every reason to talk not only about external, but also internal action.
All living beings have memory, but it reaches the highest level of development in humans. Pre-human organisms have only two types of memory: genetic and mechanical. The first is manifested in the genetic transmission from generation to generation of vital, biological, psychological and behavioral properties. The second appears in the form of the ability to learn, to acquire life experience, which cannot be preserved anywhere except in the organism itself and disappears with its departure from life.
A person has speech as a powerful means of remembering, a way of storing information in the form of texts and various kinds of technical records. He does not need to rely only on his organic capabilities, since the main means of improving memory and storing necessary information are outside of him and at the same time in his hands: he is able to improve these means almost endlessly, without changing his own nature. Humans have three types of memory, much more powerful and productive than animals: voluntary, logical and indirect. The first is associated with broad volitional control of memorization, the second - with the use of logic, the third - with the use of various means of memorization, mostly presented in the form of objects of material and spiritual culture.
There are several bases for classifying the types of human memory. One of them is the division of memory according to the time of storage of the material, the other - according to the analyzer that predominates in the processes of memorizing, storing and reproducing the material. In the first case, instantaneous, short-term, operational, long-term and genetic memory are distinguished. In the second case, they talk about motor, visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, emotional and other types of memory. I will not give their definitions here due to space limitations. In addition to this classification, according to the nature of the participation of the will in the processes of memorizing and reproducing material, memory is divided into involuntary and voluntary. In the first case, they mean such memorization and reproduction that occurs automatically and without much effort on the part of the person, without setting a special mnemonic task for himself (for memorization, recognition-storage or reproduction). In the second case, such a task is necessarily present, and the process of memorization or reproduction itself requires volitional efforts. Involuntary memorization is not necessarily weaker than voluntary; in many cases in life it is superior to it. It has been established, for example, that it is better to involuntarily remember material that is the object of attention and consciousness, acts as a goal, and not a means of carrying out an activity. Involuntarily, one also remembers better material that involves interesting and complex mental work and that is of great importance to a person.
It has been experimentally proven that internal, i.e. mental processes, called higher mental functions, are activities in origin and structure. Theories have been developed and proven in practice that claim that mental processes can be formed through external activity organized according to special rules. External activity, as a result of its special transformations aimed at reducing and automating individual links, their transformation into skills, gradually turns into internal, actually mental (interiorization). Such internalized mental processes are voluntary and speech-mediated cognitive processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory and thinking.
On the other hand, none of the mentioned mental processes proceeds as purely internal and necessarily includes some external, usually motor, links. Visual perception, for example, is inextricably linked with eye movements, touch - with hand movements, attention - with muscle contractions, which determine its concentration, switchability and absent-mindedness. When a person solves problems, his articulatory apparatus almost always works; speech activity without movements of the larynx and facial muscles is impossible. Consequently, any activity is a combination of internal and external, mental and behavioral actions and operations.
In its development, human activity goes through the following aspects of progressive transformation: 1) phylogenetic development of the human activity system; 2) the inclusion of a person in various types of activities in the process of his individual development; 3) changes occurring within individual types of activities as they develop; 4) differentiation of activities, in the process of which others are born from some activities due to the isolation and transformation of individual actions into independent types of activity.
Phylogenetic transformation systems of human activities coincides essentially with the history of the socio-economic development of mankind. Integration and differentiation social structures were accompanied by the emergence of new types of activities and economies among people. The process of integrating a growing individual into the existing system of activities is called socialization. Moreover, each of these types of activities is first learned in its most elementary form, and then becomes more complex and improved.
In development activity, its internal transformations occur: 1) the activity is enriched with new substantive content; 2) the activity has new means of implementation that speed up its progress and improve the results; 3) in the process of development of activity, automation of individual operations and other components of activity occurs;
4) as a result of the development of activity, new types of activity can be separated from it, isolated and further independently developed.
The activity has external And internal components.
Internal ones include: 1) anatomical and physiological structures and processes involved in the control of activity by the central nervous system; 2) psychological processes and structures included in the regulation of activity.
External components include various movements associated with the practical implementation of activities.
The ratio of internal and external components of activity is not constant. External objective activity is, as it were, preceded by internal activity. Objective actions on objects are replaced by ideal (mental) operations. The process of such a transition from external action to internal ideal is called interiorization. Thus, interiorization is the formation of the internal structures of the human psyche through the assimilation of the structures of external activity.
In its turn exteriorization represents the process of generating external actions and statements based on the transformation of a number of internal structures that have developed on the basis of the internalization of a person’s external conscious activity.
External objective activity can be considered as an exteriorization of internal, mental activity, since a person in the process of activity always implements an ideally presented plan of action. Thus, external activity is controlled by the internal plan of action.
