#TalkThree 10: How to use a Hierarchy?
A case study: SSAT, CHAT, and Possible Practice
Hierarchy is a typical thinking tool. Today I’d like to share a hierarchy of human activity and social practices.
In September 2020, I reviewed A. N. Leontiev’s three-level hierarchical structure of activity, which is a popular model of Activity Theory, and compared it with other models. The outcome is a universal hierarchy of activity and practice. You can also view its original file on Google Spreadsheet.
Based on perspectives from activity theorists and other researchers, I found there are eight levels of the hierarchy of activity and practice. The six mid-levels are adopted from activity theorists. The top-level is adopted from anthropologist Morris Opler (1945). The low level is adopted from ecological psychologist James J. Gibson (1979).
I also classify these eight levels into three types: “logical level”, “actual level”, and “possible level”. We can call the logical level as ideal level too. I don’t have perfect terms to name these types. Bedny and other SSAT theorists distinguished “Objects of study” and “Units of analysis”. They think “activity” and “task” are considered the…
