In the history of psychology there is an activity approach that reveals the development of the human psyche and consciousness through various forms of activity. In addition, the psyche and consciousness are also designated by some researchers as types of activity, internal. They come from external, objective actions of a person. In this regard, two fundamentally important terms arose in psychology: interiorization and exteriorization. These are processes that characterize the development of various forms of human activity (external and internal).
Forms of human activity in psychology
External human activity, according to the activity approach in psychology, is represented by visible human behavior: practical operations, speech. The internal form of activity is mental, invisible to other people. For a long time, only internal activity was the subject of study of psychology, because external activity was considered its derivative. Over time, researchers came to the conclusion that both forms of activityform a single whole, depend on each other, are subject to the same patterns (the presence of a driving need, motive and goal). And interiorization and exteriorization are the mechanisms of interaction of these forms of human activity.
The ratio of interiorization and exteriorization
Internalization and exteriorization are interrelated processes, mechanisms through which the process of assimilation of social experience by a person takes place. A person accumulates the social experience of generations through the demonstration of tools, speech. This is internalization, an active internal process of the formation of consciousness on the basis of learned experience.
Based on the acquired signs and symbols of society, a person forms his actions. This is the reverse process. The existence of one of them is impossible without the previous one. The concept of "exteriorization" means, therefore, the formation of a person's behavior and speech on the basis of social experience internally formed in him into a certain scheme.
The concept of "exteriorization"
Exteriorization is a process, the result of which is the transition of a person's internal (mental, invisible) activity into external, practical. This transition takes on a sign-symbolic form, which means the existence of this activity in society.
The concept was developed by representatives of Russian psychology (A. Leontiev, P. Galperin), but L. Vygotsky gave it the first designation. In his cultural-historical theory, the psychologist expressed the opinion that the process of the formation of the human psyche, the development of his personalityoccur through the assimilation of the cultural signs of society.
In the modern sense, exteriorization is the process of constructing and implementing a person's external actions, including verbal expression, based on his inner mental life: personal experience, action plan, formed ideas and experienced feelings. An example of this can be the assimilation of educational influence by a child and its manifestation outwardly through moral actions and judgments.
