Soviet psychologist — (1903-1979).
Developing in the 20s. together with L.S. Vygotsky and A.R. Luria, conducted a series of experimental studies revealing the mechanism of formation of higher mental functions (voluntary attention and memory) as a process of “growing”, internalization of external forms of tool-mediated actions into internal mental processes (“Development of memory”, 1931). Based on the ideas of cultural-historical theory, he put forward and developed in detail the general psychological concept of activity, which is one of the most influential theoretical trends in Soviet and world psychology. The content of this concept is closely related to Leontiev’s analysis of the development of the psyche in phylo- and ontogenesis, which reveals the mechanisms of the origin of consciousness and its role in the regulation of human activity (“Problems of the development of the psyche”, 1959). On the basis of the activity structure scheme proposed by Leontiev (activity — action — operation — psychophysiological functions), correlated with the structure of the motivational sphere (motive — goal — condition), a wide range of mental phenomena (perception, thinking, memory, attention, etc.) in which special attention was paid to the analysis of consciousness (singling out meaning, meaning and “sensory tissue” as its main components) and personality (interpretation of its basic structure as a hierarchy of motivational and semantic formations). The concept of Leontiev’s activity stimulated the growth of numerous studies in various branches of psychology (general, child, pedagogical, medical, social, etc.), which in turn enriched it with new data. The further development of this concept, according to Leontiev, is focused on the creation of an integral system of psychology as “the science of the generation, functioning and structure of the mental reflection of reality in the processes of activity” (“Activity. Consciousness. Personality”, 1975).