Background. Dramatic art requires methodological foundations to be applied for training; psychological theories can form the basis for actor’s skills and allow for the conscious control of performing activities. Nowadays the realistic approach to theatrical art (Stanislavsky, K.S., Toporkov, V.O.) based on the idea of the life-like verisimilitude of acting does not lose its relevance, however, its terms and methods require correlation with psychological constructs describing the structure of actor play as a type of activity.

Objective. Development of model ideas about the structure of an actor’s psychophysical actions by correlating the psychological structure of activity as per A.N. Leontiev with the system of acting work presented in the approaches of K.S. Stanislavsky, V.O. Toporkov.

Methods. A systematic analysis of domestic and foreign research on the psychological structure of activity (A.N. Leontiev, L.S. Vygotsky, K. Levin, B.V. Zeigarnik, W. James, S. Shekhter, etc.) allowed to apply A.N. Leontiev’s theory of activity to the methods of acting presented in the works of the famous theater directors (K.S. Stanislavsky, V.O. Toporkov, M.A. Chekhov, V.E. Meyerhold, E.B. Vakhtangov, etc.).

Results. It is shown that external and internal sides of the actor’s psychophysical action have the same psychological structure: activity (reconstruction of realistic human behavior) — motivation (“supertask”, character’s “struggle”), action (psychophysical action) — goal (representation of the final result related to “supertask”), operation — conditions (given circumstances). The permanency and controllability of the actor’s psychophysical actions is ensured by motivational structures (motive, goal), and not by emotions, which lack incentive effect and duration. Experience arises naturally while acting in the given circumstances motivated by goals and supertask.

Conclusion. Understanding the structure of activity and its motivational aspect allows to control the actor’s psychophysical action through conscious goal setting and managing its achievement. Psychophysical actions cannot be performed beyond the given circumstances and represent a synthesis of the first and second signaling systems.

Abstract

Background. Total emotional distress scores may fail to capture differences in the balance between anxiety and depressive-anhedonic symptoms. For professions involving public evaluation and the need to mobilize resources quickly, analyzing the structure of distress may be more informative than relying on an overall score.

Objective. The goal is to compare the overall level and profile of emotional distress in performing artists, researchers, and a comparison group while accounting for sex and age.

Sample. The analysis included 299 adults from different professions: 87 performing artists, 89 researchers, and 123 participants in the comparison group; 190 women and 109 men. The mean age of the performing artists was 35.92 years (SD = 15.73), that of the researchers was 34.97 years (SD = 15.31), and that of the comparison group was 28.78 years (SD = 11.85).

Methods. Emotional distress was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; A.S. Zigmond, R.P. Snaith). Two subscales — anxiety (HADS-A) and depression (HADS-D) — along with their sum (the total HADS-T score) and a profile contrast calculated as the difference HADS-A minus HADS-D, reflecting the predominance of anxiety over depressive symptoms, were analyzed. Cronbach's α, the Kruskal — Wallis test, multivariate analysis of covariance, linear regression with robust standard errors, and comparison of screening proportions were used.

Results. Total HADS-T scores showed virtually no difference between groups: 10.09 in artists, 10.39 in researchers, and 10.08 in the comparison group; p = 0.900. The profile, however, was not uniform. After adjusting for sex and age, artists scored 2.03 points higher than the comparison group on the anxiety subscale (HADS-A) (p = 0.001) and 1.11 points lower on the depression subscale (HADS-D) (p = 0.018). The profile contrast in artists exceeded that of the comparison group by 3.14 points and that of researchers by 2.32 points (both p < 0.001). The proportion of elevated anxiety scores did not differ, whereas elevated depressive-anhedonic scores were less common among artists.

Conclusion. Comparable overall emotional distress may have a different internal structure. Artists are characterized by a relative predominance of the anxiety-mobilization component alongside less pronounced depressive-anhedonic symptoms. Thus, HADS-T should not be used without separately analyzing its subscales.