Activity- this is a specifically human activity, regulated by consciousness, generated by needs and aimed at understanding and transforming the external world and the person himself.
The main feature of activity is that its content is not determined entirely by the need that gave rise to it. Need as a motive (motivation) gives impetus to activity, but the very forms and content of activity determined by public goals, requirements and experience.
Distinguish three main activities: play, learning and work. Purpose games is the “activity” itself, and not its results. Human activity aimed at acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities is called teaching. is an activity whose purpose is the production of socially necessary products.
Characteristics of activity
Activity is understood as a specifically human way of actively relating to the world - a process during which a person creatively transforms the world around him, turning himself into an active subject, and the phenomena being mastered into the object of his activity.
Under subject Here we mean the source of activity, the actor. Since it is, as a rule, a person who exhibits activity, most often it is he who is called the subject.
Object call the passive, passive, inert side of the relationship, on which activity is carried out. The object of activity can be a natural material or object (land in agricultural activities), another person (a student as an object of learning) or the subject himself (in the case of self-education, sports training).
To understand an activity, there are several important characteristics to consider.
Man and activity are inextricably linked. Activity is an indispensable condition of human life: it created man himself, preserved him in history and predetermined the progressive development of culture. Consequently, a person does not exist outside of activity. The opposite is also true: there is no activity without a person. Only man is capable of labor, spiritual and other transformative activities.
Activity is a transformation of the environment. Animals adapt to natural conditions. A person is capable of actively changing these conditions. For example, he is not limited to collecting plants for food, but grows them in the course of agricultural activities.
Activity acts as a creative, constructive activity: Man, in the process of his activity, goes beyond the boundaries of natural possibilities, creating something new that did not previously exist in nature.
Thus, in the process of activity, a person creatively transforms reality, himself and his social connections.
The essence of the activity is revealed in more detail during its structural analysis.
Basic forms of human activity
Human activity is carried out in (industrial, domestic, natural environment).
Activity- active interaction of a person with the environment, the result of which should be its usefulness, requiring from a person high mobility of nervous processes, fast and accurate movements, increased activity of perception, emotional stability.
The study of a person in the process is carried out by ergonomics, the purpose of which is to optimize work activity on the basis of rational consideration of human capabilities.
The whole variety of forms of human activity can be divided into two main groups according to the nature of the functions performed by a person - physical and mental labor.
Physical work
Physical work requires significant muscle activity, is characterized by a load on the musculoskeletal system and functional systems of the body (cardiovascular, respiratory, neuromuscular, etc.), and also requires increased energy costs from 17 to 25 mJ (4,000-6,000 kcal) and higher per day.
Brainwork
Brainwork(intellectual activity) is work that combines work related to the reception and processing of information, requiring intense attention, memory, and activation of thinking processes. Daily energy consumption during mental work is 10-11.7 mJ (2,000-2,400 kcal).
Structure of human activity
The structure of an activity is usually represented in a linear form, with each component following the other in time.
Need → Motive→ Goal→ Means→ Action→ Result
Let's consider all components of the activity one by one.
Need for Action
Need- this is need, dissatisfaction, a feeling of lack of something necessary for normal existence. In order for a person to begin to act, it is necessary to understand this need and its nature.
The most developed classification belongs to the American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and is known as the pyramid of needs (Fig. 2.2).
Maslow divided needs into primary, or innate, and secondary, or acquired. These in turn include the needs:
- physiological - in food, water, air, clothing, warmth, sleep, cleanliness, shelter, physical rest, etc.;
- existential— safety and security, inviolability of personal property, guaranteed employment, confidence in the future, etc.;
- social - the desire to belong and be involved in any social group, team, etc. The values of affection, friendship, love are based on these needs;
- prestigious - based on the desire for respect, recognition by others of personal achievements, on the values of self-affirmation and leadership;
- spiritual - focused on self-expression, self-actualization, creative development and use of one’s skills, abilities and knowledge.
- The hierarchy of needs has been changed many times and supplemented by various psychologists. Maslow himself, in the later stages of his research, added three additional groups of needs:
- educational- in knowledge, skill, understanding, research. This includes the desire to discover new things, curiosity, the desire for self-knowledge;
- aesthetic- desire for harmony, order, beauty;
- transcending- a selfless desire to help others in spiritual self-improvement, in their desire for self-expression.
According to Maslow, in order to satisfy higher, spiritual needs, it is necessary to first satisfy those needs that occupy a place in the pyramid below them. If the needs of any level are fully satisfied, a person has a natural need to satisfy the needs of a higher level.
Motives for activity
Motive - a need-based conscious impulse that justifies and justifies an activity. A need will become a motive if it is perceived not just as a need, but as a guide to action.
In the process of motive formation, not only needs, but also other motives are involved. As a rule, needs are mediated by interests, traditions, beliefs, social attitudes, etc.
Interest is a specific reason for action that determines. Although all people have the same needs, different social groups have their own interests. For example, the interests of workers and factory owners, men and women, youth and pensioners are different. So, innovations are more important for pensioners, traditions are more important for pensioners; Entrepreneurs' interests are rather material, while artists' interests are spiritual. Each person also has his own personal interests, based on individual inclinations and likes (people listen to different music, play different sports, etc.).
Traditions represent a social and cultural heritage passed on from generation to generation. We can talk about religious, professional, corporate, national (for example, French or Russian) traditions, etc. For the sake of some traditions (for example, military ones), a person can limit his primary needs (by replacing safety and security with activities in high-risk conditions).
Beliefs- strong, principled views on the world, based on a person’s ideological ideals and implying a person’s willingness to give up a number of needs (for example, comfort and money) for the sake of what he considers right (for the sake of preserving honor and dignity).
Settings- a person’s predominant orientation towards certain institutions of society, which overlap with needs. For example, a person may be focused on religious values, or material enrichment, or public opinion. Accordingly, he will act differently in each case.
In complex activities, it is usually possible to identify not one motive, but several. In this case, the main motive is identified, which is considered the driving one.
Activity goals
Target - This is a conscious idea of the result of an activity, an anticipation of the future. Any activity involves goal setting, i.e. ability to independently set goals. Animals, unlike humans, cannot set goals themselves: their program of activity is predetermined and expressed in instincts. A person is able to form his own programs, creating something that has never existed in nature. Since there is no goal-setting in the activity of animals, it is not an activity. Moreover, if an animal never imagines the results of its activity in advance, then a person, starting an activity, keeps in his mind the image of the expected object: before creating something in reality, he creates it in his mind.
However, the goal can be complex and sometimes requires a series of intermediate steps to achieve it. For example, to plant a tree, you need to purchase a seedling, find a suitable place, take a shovel, dig a hole, place the seedling in it, water it, etc. Ideas about intermediate results are called objectives. Thus, the goal is divided into specific tasks: if all these tasks are solved, then the overall goal will be achieved.
Tools used in activities
Facilities - these are techniques, methods of action, objects, etc. used in the course of activity. For example, to learn social studies, you need lectures, textbooks, and assignments. To be a good specialist, you need to receive a professional education, have work experience, constantly practice in your activities, etc.
The means must correspond to the ends in two senses. First, the means must be proportionate to the ends. In other words, they cannot be insufficient (otherwise the activity will be fruitless) or excessive (otherwise energy and resources will be wasted). For example, you cannot build a house if there are not enough materials for it; It also makes no sense to buy materials several times more than are needed for its construction.
Secondly, the means must be moral: immoral means cannot be justified by the nobility of the end. If goals are immoral, then all activities are immoral (in this regard, the hero of F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” Ivan asked whether the kingdom of world harmony is worth one tear of a tortured child).
Action
Action - an element of activity that has a relatively independent and conscious task. An activity consists of individual actions. For example, teaching activities consist of preparing and delivering lectures, conducting seminars, preparing assignments, etc.
The German sociologist Max Weber (1865-1920) identified the following types of social actions:
- purposeful - actions aimed at achieving a reasonable goal. At the same time, a person clearly calculates all the means and possible obstacles (a general planning a battle; a businessman organizing an enterprise; a teacher preparing a lecture);
- value-rational- actions based on beliefs, principles, moral and aesthetic values (for example, a prisoner’s refusal to transfer valuable information to the enemy, saving a drowning man at the risk of his own life);
- affective - actions committed under the influence of strong feelings - hatred, fear (for example, flight from an enemy or spontaneous aggression);
- traditional- actions based on habit, often an automatic reaction developed on the basis of customs, beliefs, patterns, etc. (for example, following certain rituals in a wedding ceremony).
The basis of activity is the actions of the first two types, since only they have a conscious goal and are creative in nature. Affects and traditional actions are only capable of exerting some influence on the course of activity as auxiliary elements.
Special forms of action are: actions - actions that have value-rational, moral significance, and actions - actions that have a high positive social significance. For example, helping a person is an act, winning an important battle is an act. Drinking a glass of water is an ordinary action that is neither an act nor an act. The word "act" is often used in jurisprudence to denote an action or omission that violates legal norms. For example, in legislation “a crime is an unlawful, socially dangerous, guilty act.”
Result of activity
Result- this is the final result, the state in which the need is satisfied (in whole or in part). For example, the result of study can be knowledge, skills and abilities, the result - , the result of scientific activity - ideas and inventions. The result of the activity itself can be, since in the course of the activity it develops and changes.
PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION ACTIVITY
More than a hundred years ago, F. Engels wrote: “Now it is no longer necessary to preach as something new that the amount of motion (the so-called energy) does not change when it is converted from kinetic energy (the so-called mechanical force) into electricity, heat, potential ".
This argument makes a brilliant philosophical generalization of the evolutionary process of transformation of nature and the human society living in it.
Physical, chemical, biological, judicial, psychological, pedagogical, political, managerial, etc. - all these are varieties of the great comprehensive evolutionary process of transformation of matter, materials, energy and information.
Matter, energy and information undergo changes due to interactions within the process and are transformed into a new form to enter the subsequent transformation process. There is nothing in the world outside of this process. Even time and space do not exist without interaction processes.
This situation can be represented schematically as follows:
Energy in processes is converted from one type to another, and the total amount of energy before and after the conversion is conserved.
Information generated by processes of transformation of matter and energy, indicates the forms and quantitiestransformations and accumulates in appropriate forms on media.
Unlike matter and energy, information is not only stored quantitatively, but also tends to accumulate. The tendency to accumulate information is a universal principle of evolutionary development.
The process of transformation can be evolutionary or revolutionary, determined naturally or through deliberate human activity.
Let us consider the structure of the process of transformative activity.
Process(lat. processus- origin, promotion) - a consistent change of state, a close connection between naturally successive stages of change or development, representing a continuous single movement.
The process of transformative activity includes the following structural components: need, motivation, goal, organization, technological operations and transitions, result and its evaluation.
Let's look at each of these components.
Need in transformative activities- This the psychological state of an individual created by the need he experiences for objects necessary for his existence and development, and which serves as a source of his activity. The need of people as a function of their transformative activity is a consequence of the development of production. With the help of tools, man changes objects, adapting them to his own needs. Thus, people's needs are given the opportunity to develop. Human needs can be material and spiritual. They are largely determined by the level of his upbringing, therefore, nurturing needs is one of the central tasks of personality formation.
A person must develop reasonable needs for transformative activities that would not harm the natural environment, society and the person himself. In this sense, the example of the intention of some former leaders of our country to change the natural flow of some rivers, to turn them back, which would lead to unpredictable negative consequences, is instructive.
Human needs are discovered and manifested in the motives and goals of activity.
Motive(from lat. moveze- set in motion, push) - motivation for activity related to the satisfaction of human needs. The motive can be a material or ideal object of activity for the sake of which they are carried out. Motives determine the choice of direction of transformative activity and activate it.
The development of motives occurs through a change and expansion of the range of activities that transform objective reality. The study of the motivational and semantic sphere is the central problem of personality psychology.
There are different approaches to classifying motives for activity. We can distinguish social, personally significant and selfish motives for human transformative activity.
As a rule, a person’s transformative activity is determined and stimulated not by one, but by a system of motives arranged in a certain sequence. This system of motives is called activity motivation.
Transformative activities are aimed at achieving a certain goals, by which we mean image of the anticipated result The basis for the formation of a person’s goal is his material, work activity aimed at transforming the world around him. Any transformative human activity has a specific goal. Let's give some examples.
|
Type of transformation activity |
Target |
Training and education of the younger generation |
Formation of a comprehensively developed personality |
Scientific activity |
Discovery of the laws of development of nature, society and man |
Growing crops |
Getting high yields |
Artistic activity |
Creation of highly artistic works of art |
Production of consumer goods |
Creation of high-quality goods that are in demand among the population |
Entrepreneurial activity |
Receiving a profit |
The next structural component of the process of transformative activity is the organization of this activity, which includes planning, preparation of the necessary documentation, personnel, production and technical base, procurement of raw materials, search for markets for products, etc.
Let us give some examples of organizing transformation activities. Thus, teachers draw up plans for preparing and conducting lessons and extracurricular activities, scientists develop plans for conducting research work. For the normal organization of production, certain technological documentation is drawn up, the list of which is established by state standards, the unified system of technological documentation (USTD).
The main types of technological documentation are route and operational maps.
Route maps reflect the technological process for all operations, provide data on equipment, accessories, materials used, as well as some regulatory information.
Operational maps describe in more detail the execution of each individual transition operation. They also indicate the rational operating modes of the equipment, the control and measuring instruments and devices used.
The transformation activity itself is carried out in the form of technological operations, which are understood as completed parts of the technological process. A technological operation is carried out using various means, methods, techniques, and actions. For example, a lesson may include the following operations: questioning, explanation of new material, consolidation, homework. During the production process of a car, technological operations such as marking, manufacturing of parts, assembly, painting and many others are performed.
Operations are divided into transitions, which are understood as completed parts of the operation performed using one method, technique, tool, means. For example, when explaining new material, a teacher can use a story, show tables, show a movie, etc. These are technological transitions.
The technological process can be schematically represented as follows:
Each product has special properties that characterize its quality. For example, for a car this is speed, fuel consumption, carrying capacity, etc.; for fabric - density, wrinkle resistance, color, etc. The quality attributes common to all products are reliability, durability, convenience, and beauty.
Therefore, product quality control is an obligatory part of the technological process. A comprehensive quality control system is being introduced in production, which provides for incoming control (checking the compliance of materials and semi-finished products with established technological requirements), checking the technological reliability of equipment, devices, tools and final control at the output of finished products for compliance with State standards.
Thus, the process of transformative activity can be schematically represented as follows:
In the process of transformative activity, a person must follow safety rules. Safety precautions is a set of measures to protect workers from various types of injuries and harmful effects associated with working conditions. For these purposes, a system of legislative measures is being adopted, detailed rules on labor protection are being developed for each specialty, which are mandatory for all employees. Special technical control is established over compliance with labor protection and safety regulations.
Let's read the information
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Activity human - a type of human activity aimed at cognition and creative transformation of the surrounding world, including oneself and the conditions of one’s existence.
Human activity is:
- conscious - a person consciously determines the goal and foresees the result.
- productive - a person directs activity towards obtaining a result (product).
- transformative - a person in the process of activity changes the world around him and himself.
- social - in the process of activity, communication occurs, and various relationships arise with other people.
I. Depending on the characteristics of a person’s relationship to the world around him (or according to objects and results):
1.Practical (material) activities- activity that is associated with the creation of things and material assets necessary to meet people's needs.
- material and production - activities to transform nature.
- social-transformative - activities to transform society.
A) educational- activities related to the reflection of reality in artistic and scientific form, in myths and religious teachings.
Cognitive activity includes all types of human knowledge:
- sensory - cognition through sensation, perception, representation.
- rational - knowledge associated with forms of rational knowledge (concept, judgment, inference).
- scientific knowledge is knowledge that is guided by the principle of objectivity, validity of knowledge, systematic knowledge and verifiability of knowledge.
- artistic - knowledge through art (associated with the use of artistic images).
- everyday (ordinary, practical) - knowledge that is acquired in everyday life and activity.
- personal - knowledge that depends on a person’s abilities and on the characteristics of his intellectual activity.
- mythological - knowledge, which is a fantastic reflection of reality, is an unconscious artistic processing of nature and society by folk fantasy.
- religious - knowledge that is determined by the direct emotional form of people’s relationship to the earthly forces (natural and social) that dominate them.
- parascientific - knowledge that does not meet generally accepted criteria for constructing and justifying scientific theories, as well as the inability to give a convincing rational interpretation of the phenomena being studied.
IN) prognostic- activities related to planning or anticipating possible changes in reality.
II. Depending on the results obtained, the activity can be characterized as
- creative - activity that brings positive results.
- destructive - activity that brings negative results
- reproductive - an activity in which an already known result is obtained or reproduced using known methods and means.
- productive (creative) - activity that is aimed at developing new goals and new means and methods corresponding to them, or at achieving known goals with the help of new, previously unused means.
- economic - activities associated with the processes of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods - production and consumer activities.
- political - 1. Activities of government bodies, political parties, social movements in the field of relations between social groups, aimed at integrating their strengthening with the aim of strengthening political power or seizing it.
- spiritual - activities related to the creation of spiritual values, their preservation, dissemination and development - scientific, educational, leisure.
- social - activity related to transformation, expedient change in society and one’s social essence.
- external - activity that manifests itself in the form of movements, muscle efforts, actions with real objects.
- internal - activity associated with mental (mental) operations.
Let's look at examples material and production activities .
- mining and transportation of minerals
- production of ferrous and non-ferrous metals
- mining and beneficiation of ferrous metal ores
- production of chemical and petrochemical products
- production of reinforced concrete products
- production of steel and cast iron pipes
- repair of gas field and linear equipment
- construction of new facilities: railways, housing, schools, hospitals, cultural institutions and consumer services
- production of machinery and equipment
- production of building materials
- production of light and food industry products
- production, transmission and sale of electricity
- wood harvesting and processing
- production of pulp, paper, cardboard
- production of consumer goods from various types of raw materials
- food production
- animal meat processing
- extraction and processing of fish and other seafood
- processing of plant, animal, artificial and synthetic fibers into yarn, threads, fabrics
- production of clothing and other garments
- shoe making
- production of fine ceramic products
- growing grain, fodder, technical plants
- raising large and small livestock
Used Books:
1. Unified State Exam 2009. Social studies. Directory / O.V. Kishenkova. - M.: Eksmo, 2008. 2. Social studies: Unified State Exam-2008: real tasks / author-comp. O.A.Kotova, T.E.Liskova. - M.: AST: Astrel, 2008. 3. Social science: a complete reference book / P.A. Baranov, A.V. Vorontsov, S.V. Shevchenko; edited by P.A. Baranova. - M.: AST: Astrel; Vladimir: VKT, 2010. 4. Social studies: profile level: academic. For 10th grade. general education Institutions / L.N. Bogolyubov, A.Yu. Lazebnikova, N.M. Smirnova and others, ed. L.N. Bogolyubova and others - M.: Education, 2007. 5. Social science. 10th grade: textbook. for general education institutions: basic level / L.N. Bogolyubov, Yu.I. Averyanov, N.I. Gorodetskaya and others; edited by L.N. Bogolyubova; Ross. acad. Sciences, Ross. acad. education, publishing house "Enlightenment". 6th ed. - M.: Education, 2010.
Internet resources used:
Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia
In the history of Russian philosophy, a person is considered as the only subject of culture, creating a living environment for himself and being formed under its influence. This means that the formation of the cultural world is the result of a long process of mutual influence of biological and social evolution. The following key points can be highlighted here:
1) the ability of a social person to produce culture is the result of the interaction of biological and social evolution, which includes the evolution of tools, as a result of which a person is not only the creator of culture, but is also formed on the basis of labor and culture;
2) the transition from the pre-human stage to the human stage occurred gradually and in a progressive manner over a long period of time.
Today we are living witnesses to how modern civilization is rapidly transforming the environment, social institutions, and the life of millions of people. At the same time, culture acts as a factor in creative life, an inexhaustible source of innovation in society. That is why today there is a growing desire to identify the potential of culture, its internal reserves, and find opportunities for its further activation.
Culture- these are phenomena, properties, elements of human life that qualitatively distinguish man from nature. This qualitative difference is associated with the conscious transformative activity of man.
The role and place of culture in human activity can be very clearly understood on the basis of the idea that human activity is ultimately reproductive in nature. Social reproduction includes the reproduction of the individual, the entire system of social relations, including technological and organizational ones, as well as culture. The essence, main content and purpose of the cultural sphere is the process of social reproduction and development of man himself as a subject of diverse social activities and social relations. Culture, taken as a necessary element of social reproduction and at the same time as the most important characteristic of the subject of activity, develops in unity with the reproductive process as a whole in all its historical specificity.
The objective activity of man is the basis, the true substance of the real history of the human race: the entire totality of objective activity is the driving prerequisite for human history, the entire history of culture. And if activity is a way of being for a social person, then culture is a way of human activity, the technology of this activity. We can say that culture is a historically and socially conditioned form of human activity, that it represents a historically changing and historically specific set of those techniques, procedures and norms that characterize the level and direction of human activity, all activity taken in all its dimensions and relationships. In other words, culture is a way of regulating, preserving, reproducing and developing all social life.
Conversion peace. In previous discussions it was already said that with the appearance of man in the world, a special factor of change and transformation of the world appears. After all, this process is impossible without the appearance of materialized results of human activity, say, the invention of the wheel or printing. Although these inventions do not and cannot go beyond the laws of nature and radically change the world, these changes could not happen by themselves, on the basis of the corresponding laws of nature. In the same way, when a person sets goals that go beyond purely material needs, something comes into the world that could not appear “by itself.” At the same time, the prerequisites are created for more complete satisfaction of material needs. Let us note in this regard that the history of mankind shows that not a single culture that set material well-being as its main goal ultimately achieved this material well-being. On the contrary, cultures that set themselves the goals of spiritual improvement, goals that were essentially “transcendent” for the material world, achieved both progress in a person’s personal qualities and material well-being.
