Activity (psychology)

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Activity (introduced into the German language since the 17th century via Middle Latin “activitas” or via French “activité”) in everyday language generally denotes the energy, the active behavior of people, the work , the entrepreneurial spirit, the thirst for action, especially the Externally detectable changes in biological behavior, such as those shown in the sleep-wake rhythm.

In psychology it is traditionally understood to be an activity of an organism or a person that is triggered directly by internal conditions. In this way, not only the voluntary and externally observable activity, but also the ready -made faculty is understood as an inner condition of a corresponding activity. From time immemorial, ability has also been counted under ability . This does not mean that there are no external influences on what is happening. Rather, it is intended to express that an individual's own energy is involved in the processes. The term is applied equally to psychological and physiological issues. In biological psychology and neuropsychology cardiovascular actions as well as electrodermal and electroneuronal potentials have recently been referred to as activities.

Concept history

Common usage

The general usage of the language is shaped by the philosophical tradition on act and potency that began with Aristotle (around 384–322 BC) . It was taken up by scholasticism , especially in the Middle Ages . The medieval term "vita activa" refers to the " artes liberales ", i. H. to the activities worthy of a free man. What was essential here for the Greek tradition was an as far as possible absence of external coercion . The main weight of the Aristotelian way of life (βίοι) lay on the "free" deeds within the polis .

psychology

The neo-scholastic philosopher Franz Brentano (1838–1917) assumed the concept of activity with his teaching of nude psychology . But other psychologists such as Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1841), Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801–1887) and Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) used it. Therefore, the activity is to be understood as a basic psychological term that has been understood and interpreted in many different ways.

Activity and passivity

For Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) the logical opposition between activity and passivity can be related to the psychological opposition between voluntary action and involuntary becoming. However, there is no logically mutually exclusive relationship, but a psychological reciprocal relationship ( correlation ). The autonomic nervous system is influenced by the animal and vice versa.

“The soul without arbitrariness would grow and unfold like inanimate life, aimlessly, unconsciously. The arbitrariness can achieve nothing without the abundance that may stimulate or inhibit it; it would rattle like an empty mechanism. "

- Karl Jaspers : ibid.

Activity and reactivity

The logical contrast between activity and inactivity can psychologically relate to different lifestyles or typological differences. On the one hand, a more contemplative lifestyle and, on the other hand, a way of life geared towards change and design can be noticed. Since this is an arbitrarily and continuously graduated system of attitudes, gradual designations such as the degree of activation of a certain posture in certain emotional or motivational processes are also common.

The possibility of a gradual increase in a patient's activity in psychotherapy became clear to Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) on the way from hypnosis to free association . Freud began to intensify his own doctor-patient relationship , which fundamentally differentiated him from representatives of classical German psychiatry and, on the one hand, led him to a dynamic understanding of mental life and, on the other hand, prompted the development of the concept of resistance .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ activity . In: Drosdowski, Günther: Etymologie . Dictionary of origin of the German language; The history of German words and foreign words from their origins to the present. 2nd Edition. Dudenverlag, Volume 7, Mannheim 1997, ISBN 3-411-20907-0 ; See p. 26 for “Activity”.
  2. ↑ activity . In: Brockhaus, FA: Brockhaus encyclopedia. The big foreign dictionary . 19th edition, Brockhaus Leipzig, Mannheim 2001, ISBN 3-7653-1270-3 ; P. 67 on tax "activity"
  3. ^ Heinrich Schmidt : Philosophical Dictionary (= Kröner's pocket edition. 13). 21st edition, revised by Georgi Schischkoff . Alfred Kröner, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-01321-5 ; P. 10 to Lemma "Activity".
  4. ↑ a b c Wilhelm Karl Arnold et al. (Ed.): Lexicon of Psychology . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-508-8 ; Col. 48 f. to Lemma "activity".
  5. ↑ Markus Antonius Wirtz (ed.): Dorsch - Lexicon of Psychology . 18th edition, Hogrefe Verlag, Bern, 2014, ISBN 978-3-456-85234-8 ; P. 429 Lexicon lemma: "Electrodermal activity" (André Schulz), online , accessed on October 18, 2018.
  6. ↑ Hannah Arendt (English original title): The Human Condition . [1958]; German transl. Vita activa or From active life . 3rd edition, R. Piper, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-492-00517-9 ; P. 18 ff, on tax "vita activa" (conceptual history).
  7. ^ A b Karl Jaspers : General Psychopathology . 9th edition, Springer, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-540-03340-8 ;
    (a) p. 292 ff. on head. “Activity and Passivity”;
    (b) P. 272 ​​ff. on head. “Activity and reactivity”.
  8. ↑ Reinhard Brunner (ed.) U. a .: Dictionary of Individual Psychology . Ernst Reinhard Munich 1985, ISBN 3-497-01100-2 ; P. 19 on the lemma “degree of activity”.
  9. ^ Robert S. Woodworth & H. Schlosberg: Experimental psychology . 2nd edition, New York-London, 1954.
  10. ↑ Mario Erdheim : The social production of unconsciousness . An introduction to the ethno-psychoanalytical process. 2nd edition, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 456, Frankfurt / Main, 1988, ISBN 3-518-28065-1 ; See p. 175 on head. "Activity".