ABSTRACT
Activity Theory (AT) had a long history in the former Soviet Union. Three prominent Russian scholars - Vygotsky, Leont’ev and Rubinshtein - were responsible for the development of general Activity Theory. AT was initially formulated by Rubinshtein and Leont’ev. The cultural-historical theory of development of human mind developed by Vygotsky was also critically important for AT. According to Vygotsky, external social activity is the source of internal mental activity. This idea was specifically formulated by him as the principal of internalization. Rubinshtein argued that individual psychological characteristics of human are not completely derived from the social environment. We will analyze from the general Activity Theory and the systemic-structural activity theory (SSAT) perspectives how the relationship between the external and internal components of activity affects the development of the human mind.
