Деятельность развивает человека

Main ideas and concepts

1) Definition of “action” (three ways)

• Action as a process where motive and goal do not coincide.
• Action as a process subordinate to a conscious goal.
• Action as a problem-solving process that includes:
  • the goals of education
  • the search for the means to reach those goals

2) “Activity” vs. “actions,” and how new motives arise

• The lecturer positions actions as the central level of activity.
• Core problem: Where do new needs/motives come from, and what are their sources?
• Traditional view (criticized/qualified): motives/needs are innate.
• Alternative view (promoted here): new motives arise from within activity itself, specifically from its structure.
• The lecture foreshadows further distinctions:
  • the relationship between activity and actions
  • the relationship between actions and operations
  • the emergence of new motives problem

3) Mechanism: change of leading activity → crisis → motive–goal reconfiguration

• Leading activity changes over development, often when a crisis occurs, involving a change in motives.
• Example 1: From play to learning
  • The transition should be gradual (learning elements introduced in kindergartens via game methods).
  • In preschool, play’s motive is framed as:
    • development of a future social role (mastering a role through communication and acting out scenarios)
  • As the child performs many game actions (e.g., making costumes, learning communication rules), some become educational actions:
    • the child must learn rules
    • and must follow rules, requiring learning activities
  • In school, what changes is:
    • learning’s initially goal-like aspects become increasingly motivated for the sake of learning itself
    • the game’s role diminishes but is not completely gone
    • effectively, “actions and activities change places”
    • what used to be a goal becomes a motive
• Leading activities are attributed to Daniil Borisovich Ilkonin:
  • infancy: emotional communication with mother
  • early childhood: manipulation of objects
  • older preschool: role-playing games (story-based role-playing)
  • younger school age: learning

4) Mechanism: “shift of motive to goal” (including “abnormal”/pathogenic needs)

• A second major mechanism: shift of motive toward a goal (or motive–goal shift).
• The lecturer notes that Leontiev’s phrase has been criticized, but argues it can explain:
  • abnormal needs, including negative needs (e.g., alcohol addiction)

Example 2: Alcohol addiction as an illustration

• Presented through a literary/biographical framing:
  • a writer character (linked to Jack London’s story) experiences addiction
  • the addiction is shown as an activity with meaningful actions
• How such a need can form:
  • as a young man, the person wants a full place in society
  • to belong, he must perform port/worker actions:
    • training physical strength
    • carrying heavy bags
    • fighting (details mentioned as uncertain)
    • getting drunk to the point of death as a “necessary step”
  • at first, intoxication functions as an action for social self-affirmation
  • later, the shift happens: the original motive isn’t realized, so the behavior persists as a compulsive need
• Additional reference:
  • Vladimir Vysotsky is discussed as someone with socially rooted problems (not accepted where he wanted, not admitted to the Union of Soviet Writers), leading to issues including addiction-like “diseases.”

5) Playful critique of confusing the “right” state with an addictive one

• A provocative example described by Leontiev:
  • an electrode inserted into a rat’s pleasure center allows self-stimulation
  • it escalates to “super-happiness” and ends in death
• Main lesson:
  • post-voluntary (meaningful, heroic) creative states can be confused with involuntary/compulsive pleasure-seeking

6) Third example: “context shift” to stimulate creativity and build jokes

• The lecturer offers a third motive–goal illustration: a widely used mechanism for creativity called “context shift.”

How it works (creativity / narrative)

• Adventure stories can be built via context shift:
  • initial motive: “treasure,” guided by a map
  • extensive actions are required (buying ships, recruiting crew, etc.)
  • over time, those actions become the interest, not just means to the treasure
  • the motive is reconfigured: actions start functioning like new motivational targets

Context shift for jokes/comedy (double shift)

• For jokes/comedy, it’s described as a double shift:
  • an earlier-century person needs one shift to find something amusing
  • later audiences may need two shifts to fully get the comedic effect

Joke construction via element transfer (comic “panel” logic)

• A meaning element is moved from one situation to another.
• Example sequence:
  1. Initial situation: sailor’s quarters; a parrot in a cage; sailors say a word.
  2. Next: the parrot is for sale; the same word “jumps” to the parrot; it utters it.
  3. Then: the sailor sells the parrot to an old woman; the word shocks/horrifies her.
  4. Second comedic reinforcement: another panel with guests; the parrot repeats the word and the horror repeats in the new social context.
• Stated takeaway:
  • context shift is a search for motivational reserves and a transformation of the situation

7) Lecture closing direction

• The lecturer signals next topics:
  • Actions and operations, including:
    • “types of operations”
    • “psychophysiological functions”
    • “levels of movement construction”
• Also mentions continuing a “sixth topic” and completing “the main part of seventh topic.”

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Speakers / sources featured

• A. N. Leontiev (via Leontiev’s theory and later book)
• Daniil Borisovich Ilkonin (developmental leading activities)
• Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (real-life example)
• Jack London (source for the example: John Barleycorn; mentions Martin Eden)
• John Barleycorn (Jack London)
• Martin Eden (Jack London)
• Alexander Pushkin (quoted about happiness/peace-freedom)
• Leontiev’s last book: Activity, Consciousness, Personality