Activity Theory

Activity theory is a psychological theory whose foundation was laid down by the Russian psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky. It has its roots in the Marxist concept of praxis—the dialectical connection of ideal and practical material activity. [Page 15]Humans generally carry out activities ideally (symbolically) before they carry them out materially (concretely). Planning thus avoids, or at least mitigates, the dangers and pitfalls that inhere in straightforward trial-and-error activity. The symbolic activity, as one pole of praxis, can occur completely on the internal plane, as when a speaker plans what to say in a conversation, or it can take place externally, as when an architect uses a computer to develop plans for a skyscraper. An important aspect of the ideal pole of praxis is that it takes account of the conditions of practical material activity. Speakers are sensitive to the constraints of language, and the architect considers physical forces of nature (e.g., gravity and load-bearing properties of building materials).

Vygotsky proposed that the basic unit of analysis of mind is word meaning. This entails far more than simple reference, whereby a word such as apple references a particular object. It also reflects an abstract concept that allows us to reference linguistically (i.e., symbolically) such objects regardless of their specific features (e.g., size, color, content) and to link these to other concepts (e.g., orange, fruit, nutrition). In addition, words create categories that mediate our thoughts and actions even though the categories themselves may not actually exist in the material world. The English word fruit, for example, is a generalization that references no single concrete object that exists in the absence of the word itself. Things called apples, oranges, and pears exist, but not fruit. The fact that English, and other, though certainly not all, languages, use the category fruit means that speakers of these languages think and therefore act through the generalized category—for instance, when medical experts extol the health merits of eating fruit. What is consumed, however, is not fruit per se, but apples, oranges, or pears.

The explanatory principle that Vygotsky proposed to account for the origin and function of mind is activity. Although he laid the foundation for the theory, he did not fully flesh it out. This task was taken up by Vygotsky's colleague, A. N. Leontiev. (Some contemporary scholars have moved the theory in directions that diverge from Vygotsky's original and Leontiev's expanded notion of the concept and that background its psychological implications.) Mind, or more appropriately consciousness in Vygotsky's theory, is the ideal representation of activity interacting with an external object. The object can be a thing, a person, or an event. Importantly, included in the individual's representation of the activity is the attitude of others that emerges through social interaction. This is because individual consciousness results from the internalization of the meanings made available as the individual participates in socially organized and goal-directed collective activity aimed at transforming the natural world into a cultural, or humanized, world (e.g., transforming a piece of wood into a chair). The activity is mediated primarily through spoken (and written) communication. To communicate is to take account of not only one's own point of view but also that of others, including the objects they attend to and how they attend to and what they do in relation to these objects. In this way, our consciousness is imbued with representations of the needs, interests, and positions of others who participate in our social activity. In essence, we are first and foremost social individuals, but through social activity, we become psychological individuals. In other words, the inner plane of consciousness is created as we internalize the meanings that arise in and through social activity.

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