External and internal activities. External activities and internal activities
According to A.N. Leontiev distinguishes between external and internal activities. External is activity with objects of the material world or their designations; it is called, respectively, material and materialized. Internal - this is activity at the level of consciousness, in an ideal plan - operated by images, symbols, ideas. The introduction of a person to human culture occurs as a result of his appropriation of those methods of action by which the object was created. He masters tools, becomes familiar with the world of things and their functions, absorbs the experience of humanity, the world of human culture. In other words, initially the activity is performed by a person in the external subject matter. At the same time, he draws methods of performing activities either from observation, imitating other people, or gets an idea about them from books and stories, that is, he appropriates them from other people in the process of cooperation and communication. And then internalization takes place—translation of assigned actions into the internal plane, turning them into one’s own patterns of actions, thoughts, and ideas. Thus, higher mental functions can only be born through the interaction of people as interpsychic (the prefix “inter” - “between”), and only then become individual, while they can lose or modify their original external form. In parallel, a change occurs in the very form of reflection of reality: a reflection by the subject of the reality of his own activity, of himself, arises. As a result, consciousness is generated (produced). Thus, the process of internalization does not consist in the fact that external activity moves to the internal plane, it is a process in which the internal plane is formed. To generalize, we define interiorization as a transition as a result of which processes external in form are transformed into processes occurring in the mental plane ; at the same time, they undergo a specific transformation - they are generalized, verbalized, reduced and, most importantly, become capable of further development, which goes beyond the boundaries of the possibilities of external activity. In a brief formulation by J. Piaget, what was said sounds like this: this is a transition “leading from the sensorimotor plane to thought” . L.S. Vygotsky understands interiorization as the “rotation” of external objective actions into the internal plane. In the process of interiorization, he identified two main interrelated points:
1. instrumental (instrumental) structure of human activity;
2. the inclusion of individual activity in the system of relationships with other people.
Activity.
However, the life of an individual in the social and external world is an activity. In activity, personality is formed, expressed and realized. When we consider activity from the perspective of what relationships of the individual are realized in the activity, we talk about the orientation of the individual. When we consider activity from the perspective of real...
Anxious (psychasthenic) type.
Features of communication and behavior. Low background mood, fears for oneself, loved ones, timidity, self-doubt, extreme indecisiveness, experiences failure for a long time, doubts one’s actions. Rarely enters into conflicts, plays a passive role. Traits that are attractive to interlocutors. Friendliness, self-criticism, diligence. Crap...
Conclusion.
The legal basis for negotiating with criminals in our country is Art. 2 of the Constitution Russian Federation, which reads: “Man, his rights and freedoms are the highest value. Recognition, observance and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms is the duty of the state,” as well as the following regulations All-Russian...
Activity has two main forms: external activity (practical) and internal activity are interconnected and transform into one another. Genetically, the primary, main form of activity is external sensitive-practical activity.
From external analysis, practical activities human and the development of the theory of activity began. But then the authors of the theory turned to internal activity. What is “internal activity”?
To begin with, imagine the content of that internal work that is called “mental” and which a person engages in constantly. Is it always the actual thought process, i.e., the solution of intellectual or scientific problems? No not always. Very often, during such “reflections,” a person reproduces (as if replaying) the upcoming actions in his mind.
For example, N. is going to put up bookshelves and is “figuring out” where and how to place them. Having evaluated one option, he refuses it, moves on to another, third option, and finally chooses the most suitable, in his opinion, place. Moreover, during the entire time he never “lifted a finger,” that is, he did not perform a single practical action.
“Playing out” actions in the mind is also part of thinking about actions. What does a person do when he thinks about what to do? Imagines some action to have happened and then looks at its consequences. Based on them, he chooses the action that seems most suitable to him (if, of course, he acts deliberately).
How often does a person, expecting some joyful event, ahead of his time, imagine this event having already happened? As a result, he finds himself sitting with a happy smile. Or how often do we turn to a friend or to a loved one, sharing impressions with him, imagining his reaction or opinion, sometimes having a long argument with him and even sorting things out.
Do all the described and similar cases of internal work represent simply curious facts that accompany our real, practical activities, or do they have some important function? They certainly have - and a very important one!
What is this function? The fact is that internal actions prepare external actions. They save human efforts, making it possible to quickly select the desired action. Finally, they give a person the opportunity avoid rude and sometimes fatal errors.
Internal activity represents a plane of consciousness, the transition of the external to the internal, i.e. the transition of processes (actions) external in their form with external material objects into processes occurring in the mental plane. The peculiarity of such internal processes is their generality. They are reduced and become free for further development, i.e. external activity has boundaries, but internal activity does not.
In relation to external and internal activities, activity theory puts forward two main theses.
Firstly, internal activities have fundamentally the same structure as external activity, and which differs from it only in the form of its occurrence. This means that internal activity, like external activity, is stimulated by motives, accompanied by emotional experiences (no less, and often more acute), and also consists of a sequence of actions and operations that implement them. The only difference is that actions are performed not with real objects, but with their images, and instead of a real product, a mental result is obtained.
Secondly, internal activity arose from external, practical activity through a process interiorization. The latter refers to the transfer of corresponding actions to the mental plane.
The second thesis is explained as follows:
1. it is obvious that in order to successfully reproduce some action “in the mind” it is necessary to master it in material terms and first obtain real result. For example, thinking through a chess move is possible only after the real moves of the pieces have been mastered and their real consequences have been perceived.
2. during internalization, external activity, although it does not change its structure, is greatly transformed. This especially applies to its operational and technical part: individual actions or operations are reduced, and some of them drop out altogether; the whole process is much faster.
In human activity, its external (physical) and internal (mental) sides are inextricably linked. On the one hand, the external side - the movements with which a person influences the external world - are determined and regulated by internal (mental) activity, motivational, cognitive and regulatory. On the other hand, all this internal mental activity is directed and controlled by external activity, which reveals the properties of things and processes, carries out their purposeful transformations, reveals the degree of adequacy of mental models, as well as the degree of coincidence of the results and actions obtained with the expected.
Old psychology dealt only with internal processes - with the movement of ideas, their association in consciousness, with their generalization and the movement of their substitutes - words. These processes, like non-cognitive internal experiences, were considered to be the only components of the study of psychology.
The reorientation of previous psychology began with the formulation of the problem of the origin of internal mental processes. A decisive step in this regard was taken by I.M. Sechenov, who even a hundred years ago pointed out that psychology illegally snatches from an integral process, the links of which are connected by nature itself, its middle - the “mental”, opposing it to the “material”. Since psychology was born from this, as Sechenov put it, unnatural operation, then “no tricks could glue these broken links together.” This approach to business, Sechenov further wrote, must change. “Scientific psychology, in its entire content, cannot be anything other than a series of doctrines about the origin of mental activities”66.
The historian’s job is to trace the stages of development of this thought. I will only note that the careful study of the phylogenesis and ontogenesis of thinking that began has actually pushed the boundaries psychological research. Psychology has included such paradoxical concepts from a subjective-empirical point of view as the concept of practical intelligence or manual thinking. The position that internal mental actions are genetically preceded by external ones has become almost universally accepted. On the other hand, i.e. moving from the study of behavior, a hypothesis was put forward about the direct, mechanically understood transition of external processes into hidden, internal ones; Let us recall, for example, Watson’s scheme: speech behavior -> whisper -> completely silent speech67.
However main role The introduction into psychology of the concept of interiorization played a role in the development of concrete psychological views on the origin of internal thoughts.
Interiorization, as is well known, is called a transition, as a result of which processes external in form with external, material objects are transformed into processes occurring on the mental plane, on the plane of consciousness; at the same time, they undergo a specific transformation - they are generalized, verbalized, reduced and, most importantly, become capable of further development, which goes beyond the boundaries of the possibilities of external activity. This, to use J. Piaget’s brief formulation, is a transition “leading from the sensorimotor plane to thought”68.
The process of internalization has now been studied in detail in the context of many problems - ontogenetic, psychological-pedagogical and general psychological. At the same time, serious differences are revealed both in the theoretical foundations of the study of this process and in its theoretical interpretation. For J. Piaget, the most important basis for research into the origin of internal mental operations from sensorimotor acts is, apparently, the impossibility of deriving operator patterns of thinking directly from perception. Operations such as unification, ordering, and centering initially arise in the course of performing external actions with external objects, and then continue to develop in terms of internal mental activity according to its own logical-genetic laws69. Other starting positions determined the views on the transition from action to thought by P. Janet, A. Wallon, D. Bruner.
In Soviet psychology, the concept of internalization (“growing in”) is usually associated with the name of L.S. Vygotsky and his followers, who carried out important studies of this process. Last years the successive stages and conditions of the purposeful, “non-spontaneous” transformation of external (materialized) actions into internal (mental) actions are studied in particular detail by P.Ya. Galperin70.
The initial ideas that led Vygotsky to the problem of the origin of internal mental activity from external activity are fundamentally different from the theoretical concepts of other contemporary authors. These ideas were born from an analysis of the specific features human activity- labor activity, productive, carried out with the help of tools, activity that is initially social, i.e. which develops only in conditions of cooperation and communication between people. Accordingly, Vygotsky identified two main interrelated points that should be the basis psychological science. This is the instrumental (“instrumental”) structure of human activity and its inclusion in the system of relationships with other people. They determine the characteristics of psychological processes in a person. A tool mediates activities that connect a person not only with the world of things, but also with other people. Thanks to this, his activities absorb the experience of humanity. Hence it follows that a person’s mental processes (his “higher psychological functions”) acquire a structure that has, as its obligatory link, socially and historically formed means and methods transmitted to him by the people around him in the process of cooperation, in communication with them. But it is impossible to convey a means, a method of performing a particular process, other than in external form - in the form of action or in the form of external speech. In other words, higher specific human psychological processes can only be born in the interaction of person with person, i.e. as interpsychological, and only then begin to be carried out by the individual independently; at the same time, some of them further lose their original external form, turning into intrapsychological processes71.
To the position that internal mental activities originate from practical activities that historically developed as a result of the formation of human society based on labor, and that in individual individuals of each new generation they are formed in the course of ontogenetic development, another very important position was added. It consists in the fact that at the same time a change occurs in the very form of the mental reflection of reality: consciousness arises - the subject’s reflection of reality, his activity, himself. But what is consciousness? Consciousness is consciousness, but only in the sense that individual consciousness can exist only if there is public consciousness and language, which is its real substrate. In progress material production people also produce language, which serves not only as a means of communication, but also as a carrier of socially developed meanings fixed in it.
Previous psychology viewed consciousness as a kind of metapsychological plane of movement of mental processes.
But consciousness is not given initially and is not generated by nature: consciousness is generated by society, it is produced. Therefore, consciousness is not a postulate or a condition of psychology, but its problem is the subject of specific scientific psychological research.
Thus, the process of internalization does not consist in external activity being transferred to a pre-existing internal “plane of consciousness”; it is the process in which this inner plan is formed.
As is known, following the first cycle of works devoted to the study of the role of external means and their “incorporation,” L.S. Vygotsky turned to the study of consciousness, its “cells” - verbal meanings, their formation and structure. Although in these studies meaning appeared from its, so to speak, reverse movement and therefore as something that lies behind life and controls activity, for Vygotsky the opposite thesis remained unshakable: not meaning, not consciousness lies behind life, but behind consciousness lies life .
The study of the formation of mental processes and meanings (concepts) seems to cut out from the general movement of activity only one, albeit a very important part of it: the individual’s assimilation of ways of thinking developed by humanity. But this does not even cover cognitive activity- neither its formation nor its functioning. Psychologically, thinking (and individual consciousness as a whole) is broader than those logical operations and those meanings in the structures of which they are folded. Meanings in themselves do not generate thought, but mediate it - just as a tool does not generate action, but mediates it.
At a later stage of his research, L.S. Vygotsky many times and different forms expressed this fundamentally important point. He saw the last remaining “hidden” plane of verbal thinking in its motivation, in the affective volitional sphere. A deterministic consideration of mental life, he wrote, excludes “attributing to thinking magical power determine human behavior by one’s own system”72. The positive program that followed from this required, while preserving the opened active function of meaning, thought, to turn the problem around once again. And for this it was necessary to return to the category subject activity, extending it to internal processes- processes of consciousness.
It is as a result of the movement of theoretical thought along this path that the fundamental commonality of external and internal activities is revealed as mediating the relationship of a person with the world, in which his real life is carried out.
Accordingly, the main distinction underlying classical Cartesian-Lockean psychology is the distinction, on the one hand, outside world the world, extension, which includes external, bodily activity, and on the other hand, the world of internal phenomena and processes of consciousness, must give way to another distinction; on the one hand, objective reality and its idealized, transformed forms (verwandelte Formen), on the other hand, the activity of the subject, which includes both external and internal processes. And this means that the division of activity into two parts or sides, supposedly belonging to two completely different areas, is eliminated. At the same time, this puts new problem- the problem of studying the specific relationship and connection between various forms human activity.
This problem has occurred in the past. However, only in our time has it acquired a very specific meaning. Now before our eyes there is an ever closer interweaving and convergence of external and internal activities: physical work, which carries out the practical transformation of material objects, is increasingly “intellectualized” and includes the performance of complex mental actions; at the same time, the work of a modern researcher - a specifically cognitive activity, mental activity par excellence - is increasingly filled with processes that in their form are external actions. Such a unification of activity processes that are different in form can no longer be interpreted as the result of only those transitions that are described by the term internalization of external activity. It necessarily presupposes the existence of constantly occurring transitions also in the opposite direction, from internal to external activity.
In social conditions that provide comprehensive development people, mental activity is not isolated from practical activity. Their thinking becomes a moment that is reproduced as needed in the integral life of individuals73.
Looking ahead somewhat, we will say right away that the mutual transitions in question form the most important movement of objective human activity in its historical and ontogenetic development. These transitions are possible because external and internal activities have the same general structure.
The discovery of the commonality of their structure seems to me to be one of the most important discoveries of modern psychological science.
So, activity internal in its form, arising from external practical activity, is not separated from it and does not become above it, but retains a fundamental and, moreover, two-way connection with it.
Activity is a holistic process that combines external physical (objective) and internal mental (subjective) components in an indissoluble unity. In essence, they seem completely different and incompatible. Modern science still cannot explain the psychological nature and mechanism of their connection.
External and internal components of activity have functional specialization. On the basis of external components of activity, real contacts of a person with objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, their transformation, recreation of their properties, as well as the generation and development of mental (subjective) phenomena are carried out. The internal components of activity perform the functions of motivation, goal setting, planning, orientation (cognition), decision making, regulation, control and evaluation.
In real activities, the ratio of internal and external components may be different. Depending on this, two types of activities are distinguished: external(practical) and internal(mental).
An example of external activity is any physical labor.
Learning activities are an example of internal activities.
However we're talking about only about the relative predominance of certain components. In their “pure” form, their existence in humans is impossible. However, we assume that when certain circumstances, in particular after the physical death of a person, the internal (mental) components of activity are capable of independent existence. By at least, there are no facts contradicting this assumption. Human activity has the ability to develop. It is expressed in the fact that with exercises and training, the activity becomes more perfect, the time it takes to complete it decreases, energy costs are reduced, the structure is transformed, the number of erroneous actions is reduced, their sequence and optimality change. At the same time, there is a change in the ratio of external and internal components of activity: external components are reduced and reduced while the share of internal components increases. There is a kind of transformation of activity in form. From external, practical and expanded in time and space, it becomes internal, mental and abbreviated (collapsed). This process in psychology is called interiorization. This is exactly how the generation and development of the psyche occurs - on the basis of the transformation of activity. However, internal activity is only a component holistic activities, her side. Therefore, it is easily transformed and expressed in external components. The transition of internal components of activity to external ones is called exteriorization. This process is an integral attribute of any practical activity. For example, a thought, as a mental formation, can easily be transformed into practical action. Thanks to exteriorization, we can observe through the external components of activity any mental phenomena (processes, properties, state): intentions, goals, motives, various cognitive processes, abilities, emotional experiences, character traits, self-esteem, etc. But for this it is necessary to have very high level psychological culture.
In its origin and essence, activity is not an innate, but an educated function of a person. In other words, he does not receive it as a given according to the laws of genetics, but masters it in the process of training and upbringing. All human (not individual) forms of behavior are social in origin. The child does not invent them, but assimilates them. Under the guidance of adults, he learns to use objects, behave correctly in certain life situations, meet his needs in a socially accepted way, etc. It is in the course of mastering various types activity, he himself develops as a subject and as a person. The sociality of objective activity is also expressed in functional terms. When performing it, a person directly or indirectly relates to other people who act as its creators and accomplices. This can be seen especially clearly and clearly in conditions joint activities, where the functions of its participants are distributed in a certain way. Considering that in objective activity another person is always co-present, it can be called co-activity.
Activity is a holistic process that combines external physical (objective) and internal mental (subjective) components in an indissoluble unity. In essence, they seem completely different and incompatible. Modern science still cannot explain the psychological nature and mechanism of their connection.
External and internal components of activity have functional specialization. On the basis of external components of activity, real contacts of a person with objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, their transformation, recreation of their properties, as well as the generation and development of mental (subjective) phenomena are carried out. The internal components of activity perform the functions of motivation, goal setting, planning, orientation (cognition), decision making, regulation, control and evaluation.
In real activities, the ratio of internal and external components may be different. Taking into account the dependence on this, two types of activity are distinguished: external (practical) and internal (mental).
An example of external activity is any physical labor.
Educational activities is an example of internal activity.
In this case, we are talking only about the relative predominance of certain components. In their “pure” form, their existence in humans is impossible. At the same time, we assume that under certain circumstances, in particular after the physical death of a person, the internal (mental) components of activity are capable of independent existence. At least, there are no facts contradicting this assumption. Human activity has the ability to develop. It is expressed in the fact that with exercises and training, the activity becomes more perfect, the time it takes to complete it decreases, energy costs are reduced, the structure is transformed, the number of erroneous actions is reduced, their sequence and optimality change. At the same time, there is a change in the ratio of external and internal components of activity: external components are reduced and reduced while the share of internal components increases. There is a kind of transformation of activity in form. From external, practical and expanded in time and space, it becomes internal, mental and abbreviated (collapsed). This process in psychology is usually called internalization. This is exactly how the generation and development of the psyche occurs - on the basis of the transformation of activity. At the same time, internal activity is only a component of holistic activity, its side. Therefore, it is easily transformed and expressed in external components. The transition of internal components of activity to external ones is usually called exteriorization. This process is an integral attribute of any practical activity. For example, a thought, as a mental formation, can easily be transformed into practical action. Thanks to exteriorization, we can observe through the external components of activity any mental phenomena (processes, properties, state): intentions, goals, motives, various cognitive processes, abilities, emotional experiences, character traits, self-esteem, etc. But for this it is necessary to have very high level of psychological culture.
In its origin and essence, activity is not an innate, but an educated function of a person. In other words, he does not receive it as a given according to the laws of genetics, but masters it in the process of training and upbringing. All human (not individual) forms of behavior are social in origin. The child does not invent them, but assimilates them. Under the guidance of adults, he learns to use objects, behave correctly in certain life situations, meet his needs in a socially accepted way, etc. It is in the course of mastering various types of activities that he himself develops as a subject and as a person. The sociality of objective activity is also expressed in functional terms. When performing it, a person directly or indirectly relates to other people who act as its creators and accomplices. This can be seen especially clearly and clearly in conditions of joint activity, where the functions of its participants are distributed in a certain way. Considering that in objective activity another person is always co-present, it can be called co-activity.
