In the works of methodologists, less attention is paid to the organization and conduct of specific research projects (R&D), which cannot claim the scope of the subject of the discipline as a whole. Accordingly, the issues of the object and the subject of specific R&D are becoming topical. The accelerating evolution of social objects makes these issues permanently relevant. Inaccuracies in their solution lead to shifts in the content and names of disciplines, inadequacy of the conceptual apparatus, and the complexity of the interaction of scientists working in different scientific traditions. In particular, the name of the discipline «Labor Psychology, Engineering Psychology, Ergonomics» is incorrect. Labor in its initial state is neither an object nor a subject of discipline; psychologists study the characteristics of the subjects of qualified activity and the characteristics of such activity; at present, it is more legitimate to talk about labor activity or, more broadly, about a person's labor activity. Based on the analysis of literary sources, 19 criteria for distinguishing the forms of human activity (labor, physical, etc.) were identified. Considering different types of human activity, it can be stated that they historically change and «crystallize» in a few stable forms. With regard to labor activity, we distinguish three main evolving forms – work, craft, profession (professional activity) and many transitional ones, which stood out and became self-sufficient in different historical periods (about 10000-30000 / 6000-10000 / 800 years ago), in the present coexist in a single spacetime, changing in their proportions. In relation to physical (sports) activity, one can distinguish: physical exercises, «desport» and «wild sports», sports, specialized sports, sports of the highest achievements, which appeared and became dominant in different periods of society development (about 10000-30000 / 300-800 / 150-200 / 70-100 / 50-70 years ago); some of them also coexist in a single space-time, renewing themselves in new variations (children, youth and mass sports, health-improving physical culture, etc.). Similar evolutionary processes take place in other types of human activity – play, learning, etc. The spontaneous evolution of different types of activity (activity), in particular, professional and sports, their subordination to social demand can not always be stated as «progress». The historical evolution of forms of human activity (activity) requires a periodic methodological reflection of the state of the object and the subject of our research.