E.S. Sadovnikov, associate professor, Ph.D.
V.N. Gulyaikhin, associate professor, Dr.Phil.
Volgograd State University, Volgograd

Key words: healthy lifestyle, self-care, mental activity, physical culture, ontology.

Introduction. Despite the detailed and permanent promotion of a healthy lifestyle a large part of young people and the adult generation does not have a formed rational approach to self-care and care of own health yet. There is a number of objective and subjective determinants of the passive or even negative attitude of large population groups to leading a healthy lifestyle. The main negative factors should include the problem of the irrationality of human thought and behavior in the context of self-care.

The purpose of the research was to define ontological values of three conceptual principles of mental activity.

Materials and methods. During the research we used such general scientific methods as abstraction (idealization, schematization, allocation of essential bases), comparison, analysis and synthesis. What helped to shed light on the problem of the absence of positive and rational striving of a person for a healthy self-care, of which numerous groups of educators, teachers, scientists, politicians and mass media remind him day by day, was the theory of mental activity elaborated by V.Ya. Dubrovsky, a psychologist who, basing on the hypothesis of thinking suggested by his teacher G.P. Shchedrovitsky, had formulated three conceptual principles of mental activity: 1) thinking is impossible without activity as well as activity is impossible without thinking; 2) thinking is generated in the process of communication, finds expression in communication and is realized through communication; 3) "pure" thinking, realized through the nonverbal means, is also an activity as such, since it is specified by the standards on the one hand and implements these standards on the other [1]. Ontological study of the issue of a healthy lifestyle in the context of self-care was organized basing on the presence of the given fundamental principles of mental activity.     

Results and discussion. Healthy lifestyle is one of the rational forms of self-care, which is created by a subject during his activity. The fundamental principles of mental activity serve also as the principles of genesis of a healthy lifestyle.

According to the first principle of mental activity, activity, thinking and language are ontologically inseparable. These phenomena are important components of a person’s healthy lifestyle, and they are defined by the self-care paradigm, which prevails in the public conscience. They become differentiated in the process of evolution of the concept of a healthy lifestyle, which is accompanied by its ups-and-downs caused by the changes in a person’s attitude to himself and to his health. Owing to the possible synthesis of activity, thinking and language, the formation of the value-conceptual systems of self-care and corresponding cultural-communicative channels of their implementation in the ever-evolving system of the healthy lifestyle, the subject of which are both an individual and a social group.      

Assimilation of the regulatory value-conceptual system of self-care and care of own health by a person begins with practical assimilation of the models and standards of the healthy lifestyle, which he defines using intellectual operations and the concepts he perceives through words. First, a person assimilates the existing models, but having gained the necessary experience and knowledge he begins to establish new standards which satisfy him best. If the new models differ in effectiveness and meet his requirements, they are translated into public physical culture. Due to this other individuals have an opportunity to assimilate them. It is young people who are most receptive to new ideas, and during the training process they assimilate new models by means of visual demonstration and thought communication.

The second principle of mental activity states that in view of ontology thought and activity cannot exist without communication. The standards of the healthy lifestyle and self-care are translated and assimilated by means of thought communication in culture, when one subject creates a model in the form of a text and conveys it to the other. G.P. Shchedrovitsky emphasized that during this translation the subject, who creates and conveys the text, thinks in terms of logic as the normative system of thinking, and the individual, who assimilates this text, is in need of the normative system of understanding in order to create perfect objects that would comply with the assimilated text [4]. It is worth mentioning that during the analysis of the thought communication in the context of translation of the standards of the healthy lifestyle it is necessary to take into account the specific standard-protocols which regulate mutual activity of those engaged the text translation.

The main function of the standard-protocols of thought communication, which is involved in the process of translation of the models of healthy lifestyle and self-care, is to coordinate the subjects' combined actions resulting from the constant intercrossing of the alternative organization of their life activities at the present time. In order to make this translation more effective, it is necessary to form the corresponding base for development of coordinated activities. For instance, the standard-protocols of the faculty of physical culture and sport for students engaged in gymnastic apparatus activities will consist in the following: a subject is to have a medical report on his state of health and feasible load, attend training sessions in sports uniform, train only under supervision of a teacher or his assistant, perform complicated elements and exercises with spotting only, observe sufficient time intervals when performing those "in a stream", etc.

The translated paradigm of healthy lifestyle is always realized with varying deviations from the initial model. That is why thought communication should have its reflexive “addition” needed to either absorb these deviations or neutralize them. According to L.S. Vygotsky, thinking as a superior mental function is not just a system formation, but also communication with one’s own self. In other words, a person understands himself in the process of thinking, and so he thinks while understanding own self. That is why when taking care of oneself it is very important for a subject to understand his existential needs and interests, genetically connected with the healthy lifestyle.

According to the third principle of the theory of mental activity, "pure" thinking (logos) is most strictly standardized. The given fundamental principle is used in the scientific approach to the solution of the issue of healthy lifestyle and formation of a rational system of self-care. "Pure" thinking is realized by means of such regulatory nonverbal means as formula, scheme, operational system, diagram, etc. While creating an effective scheme of formation of a healthy lifestyle in the context of solution of the problems of self-care, a researcher needs to make a qualitative "leap" from the general formal principles of architectonics of own scientific approach to its content-related regulations. Among the crucial formal requirements to the system of theoretical development of a healthy lifestyle are: creation of the fundamental concept, on the basis of which an integral theoretical scheme will be developed; availability of the type of knowledge that serves as a criterion of truth for the formulated concepts; logical derivability of the scientific theses from the axiomatic system of the theory of self-care. When starting with the content-related principles systems, creative ideas and effective schemes are determined, i.e. the standard of a healthy lifestyle is filled with the objective scientific knowledge, which differs from the speculative or fragmentary empirical knowledge. This process is standardized and creative at the same time. Its development is defined by three factors: situation, desired goal and regulatory standard-method. That is why the subject of mental activity implements the standards in self-care basing on the target goal, objectives and specific situation.

Reflection is the principle of development of schemes (standards) of mental activity focused on the formation of a healthy lifestyle. The use of this principle implies the elaboration of the formal rules by a subject, which he will follow for his health promotion. Reflection becomes one of the mechanisms of its achievement. It contributes to the process of production of new meanings (for example, the meaning of a person's healthy lifestyle in the context of patriotic education) and their objectivation within practical activity (for example, in sport) and physical culture. Indisposition or unwillingness to lead a healthy lifestyle can be explained by the low level of reflective thinking of a subject, when he does not create the corresponding formal rules, does not produce new meanings and, consequently, there is nothing to objectify into spiritual and material artifacts of his physical culture.

In many cases a modern man wonders why he is not able to lead a healthy lifestyle, and what needs to be done to achieve that goal. The simplest answer to these questions would be finding a similar case, when somebody else, who possesses similar personal qualities and is imposed to the same social and living conditions, has started to lead a healthy lifestyle, so he could be held up as an example [2]. However, we cannot always find such an example. As a result the subject needs to create one not only as a description of other person’s activity, but as a project of his future activity, i.e. choose a much more complicated way. With that, he is forced to rely on the existing healthy lifestyle practices. For this purpose the subject needs to quit his previous activity approach and adopt an external one with regard to his former and future mental activity, i.e. make a reflexive transition. It is a rather complicated process, as making use of somebody else’s experience, somebody who possesses different personal qualities and lives under different social conditions, it is very difficult to understand, i.e. to reproduce the meaning of the translated knowledge. Success is possible here only if a person knows how to understand that help him “…unite both attitudes and points of view, “see” and know what the other person “sees” and knows, and in the meantime what he needs to “see” and know himself; in the simplest cases the first individual is to have such an idea of the situation and all its objects which could mechanically unite the visions of both of them, but at the same time allow the opportunity to separate them” [4, p. 493]. A considerable part of the models of a healthy lifestyle offered to a modern man by the mass media do not take into consideration his personal psycho-social qualities and are nowhere near his existential needs, and thus he is forced to reject them.

When it comes to the actual cooperation of meanings (the offered models help unite different activity approaches), then, during the reflexive transition, the latest mental activity “absorbs” the first activities aimed at the formation of a healthy lifestyle, which served as the object of cognition, and the future activity became a projected object. Owing to the reflexive absorbing more complicated cooperative structures emerge between "the old" (still remaining beneficial for health) and "the new" (for instance, innovative health promoting technologies). Cooperative connections make mental activity more useful and effective.

Projective-reflective thinking contribute to forming a system of self-care and healthy lifestyle basing on scientific forecast and taking into account future changes in both a person himself and people around him. Projective-reflective thinking is also the main type of thinking in the sports and training activities, when an athlete and a coach constantly design and construct different training techniques for athletes using a variety of means and methods on the basis of short- and long-term forecasts. One of the main forecasting factors determining sports achievement is an athlete’s health level, as it is reflexive transition to health and its constant monitoring that unite sports and fitness activities despite different objectives they pursue: sports result - in the first instance and recreational effect - in the second. Sports training activities help develop "healthy" mindset in young athletes, leaving traces of its impact, which are easily seen in the further organized adult fitness activity [3, p. 45].

An important attribute of mental activity within sport and fitness activities is organization of self-care, one of the main processes of which is reproduction of the samples of a healthy lifestyle. At the ontological level reproduction comprises the whole content area of activity [5]. It is the process constituting the activity, which in turn is determined by the internal and external standards. In the context of formation of a healthy lifestyle of a modern man the given process is of evolutionary nature and it consists in the gradual qualitative changing of the standards organized into physical culture. That is why it is fair to speak about historical-cultural determination of mental activity focused on self-care. Its standards are of the same importance as the natural laws; however, they differ from the latter as they are constantly evolving due to their dependence on the socio-cultural and psycho-social factors and determinants.

Conclusion. There are three conceptual principles of mental activity which are ontologems of a healthy lifestyle in the context of self-care: inseparability of activity, thinking and language of a subject in the area of physical culture; impossibility of the thought and action without communication between those involved in the process of translation of ideals of a healthy lifestyle; normalization of "pure" thinking, which helps create schemes of human creative activity for solving the problems of self-care. The main features of mental activity on the formation of a healthy lifestyle include: activity displayed by a subject for self-care; reflexivity needed to establish formal rules and produce new meanings of physical education; projective nature, which includes forecasting, programming and designing of a complex of healthy measures; hierarchical organization, giving the necessary form to self-care; reproduction of actual samples of health promotion. Projective-reflective thinking is used to form a system of self-care and healthy lifestyle on the basis of scientific forecast, taking into account future changes in both an individual and people around him. One of the main forecasting factors contributing to sports achievement is health level of an athlete, it is the reflexive transition to health and its constant monitoring that unite sports and fitness activities. Sports and training activities help in developing "healthy" mindset in young athletes, leaving traces of its influences, which are easily seen in the further organized adult fitness activities of an individual.

References

1. Dubrovsky, V.Ya. Introduction to the general theory of activity / V.Ya. Dubrovsky [electronic resource] URL: http://www.fondgp.ru/fond/news/60 (In Russian)
2. Sadovnikov, E.S. System mechanisms of design of fitness technologies / E.S. Sadovnikov // Uch. zap un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta. – 2013. – № 7 (101). – P. 121–127. (In Russian)
3. Solov'ev, G.M. Formation of the activity attitude of students to physical culture and healthy lifestyle / G.M. Solov'ev, I.E. Shatalova // Pedagogicheskoe obrazovanie i nauka. – 2009. – № 6. – P. 44–49. (In Russian)
4. Schedrovitsky, G.P. Thinking. Understanding. Reflection / G.P. Schedrovitsky. – Moscow: Nasledie MMK, 2005. – 800 P. (In Russian)
5. Gulyaikhin, V., Galkin, A., Vasil'eva, E. Young People's and Children's Social Associations as Agents of Secondary Socialization: The Experience of a Regional Survey // Russian Education and Society. – 2013. – V. 55. – № 7. – Р. 68–78.

Corresponding author: evgeniysadov@mail.ru