Activity theory examines the social context of behavior and the motivations of social pressures on people as they engage in activities to better understand human behavior. In the early 1900s, Russian researchers were among the first to develop and study activity theory, and their findings have been applied to a variety of topics. Researchers can learn about people’s perceptions of themselves studying the origins and motivations of human behavior.
According to activity theorists, people achieve a series of outcomes as they interact with their environment and each other, leading to the development of tools. These could be physical tools, such as someone who spends time building a computer, or more abstract ones, such as social skills. Individual outcomes are sometimes only understandable in the context of a shared and collective activity. Students working on a project together, for example, are engaging in a collective activity that benefits all of the participants.
People’s actions are influenced the roles they play and are assigned society, as well as the rules that apply to those roles. People’s roles change as they get older, and this can affect how they feel about themselves. Understanding the changing emotions of aging adults as they retire is one area where activity theory has been applied. People benefit from having defined roles and rules in their lives, according to researchers, so replacing employment with activity meaningful to the individual can improve quality of life.
By looking beyond internal motivations to external ones, activity theory differs from some other methods of explaining and evaluating human behavior. Rather than focusing on topics such as the brain’s reward mechanisms, researchers are more interested in the social context of activities and interactions. Activity theory can be used to develop anything from better classroom teaching methods to activity programs for senior citizens living in group homes.
Activity theory, like many other schools of psychology, has split several times since its inception, with researchers taking the concept and the research that accompanied it in different directions. Some schools of thought may be in conflict with one another, while others collaborate on projects and research that are complementary. Researchers have also incorporated other psychological concepts into their work on activity theory in order to learn more about how people function in society, both collectively and individually.