ABSTRACT
According to the cognitive approach, any mental activity is a process. However, in systemic-structural activity theory, cognitive activity, as a whole, represents not only a process but also a structure. Activity can be presented as a structure unfolding as a process (Bedny and Karwowski 2007). It is obvious that, to some degree, this structure-organized process, before its realization, has been retained in the memory as some partially organized “template,” a basic functional system of activity, which includes the dominant personality features, cumulative knowledge, habits, and skills, in addition to the neuronlevel physiological processes. Therefore, activity is not only an active, dynamic entity, but also includes a potential, passive part, which has to be taken into consideration in the further development of activity theory. This idea can be used to further enhance the activity theory into an area that includes the potential forms of existence of functional systems of activity. In this chapter, we attempt to more clearly formulate the theoretical concepts that explain the relationship between the potential and active components of activity, their connection with the individual psychological features of personality, and the possibility of using these data for the analysis of different professions.
