Empirical Studies In Psychology Research Articles

An Empirical Psychological Study of Thought Processes in Creative Problem-Solving from the Perspective of the Theory of Activity

A point that has been constantly stressed in Soviet Psychology is that Soviet psychologists emphasize the contribution made by the active cognitive agent in carrying out psychological processes. This means that the human problem-solver is viewed as bringing a complex system to a task situation and that this system plays just as important a role in the resulting outcome as does the information from the environment. The major theoretical framework that has fostered this viewpoint in the USSR is the theory of activity [deyatel‘nost’]. Although the notion of activity plays an important role in several Marxist theories of psychology, the view proposed by Vygotsky and developed further by A. N. Leont'ev has been the most influential one in Soviet psychology.