COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the person, the society, and the whole human civilization, and it also has challenged the human sciences. The discussion raises a fundamental problem: the collision between psychology and the need to rethink the understanding of а person. A person is considered in the transition from an abstract «psychological» individual to a real, concrete, living person in his bodily, organismic embodiment (or in the aspect of a natural biological subject). The question of expanding the cultural-historical understanding of a person through the prism of his individual history in mastering socio-historical experience is raised. The idea of a critical, emergency situation is introduced not only in the optics of society and nature in the whole or in abstract-hypothetical constructs, but also at the level of individual life of a person. The authors reflect an importance of considering the extreme situation of human existence in theoretical conceptions, not only as an applied problem. Negative interpretations of an extreme, emergency situation require conceptualization in terms of positivity – as a source of overcoming, solving life problems, development, and discovering, opening new experience. In addition, the concept of practice in psychology, which was mentioned by L. Vygotsky, also requires a radical revision. The practice of helping should be considered not only an applied branch in psychology, but in its fundamental, theoretical meaning, revealing psychological helping as the implementation of caring practice. The authors agree, that the existence of a person under the global threat of COVID-19 pandemic radically changes the interaction between a person and society. Global pandemic affects social practices to reveal a person in the context of new relation towards society. Public life is put «on pause» in order to protect a life of individual person. The phenomenon of death, that was previously subjected to theoretical repression in psychology, is now considered to be a part of human life. Meaning as the meaning of life has to be correlated with the meaning of death, which allows to reveal the existence of a person in the fullness of his life and being.

The results of a cross-cultural study of volitional regulation in in representatives of 11 ethno-cultural groups living in the territory of the Russian Federation and the former USSR are presented. The representatives of the Armenian, Bashkir, Byelorussian, Jewish, Mari, Ossetian, Russian, Tajik, Tatar, Ukrainian peoples, as well as the Komi people were compared. The samples were balanced by gender, age and other socio-demographic characteristics. In total, 1156 people took part in the study. To diagnose the individual characteristics of volitional regulation of the respondents, the following methods were used: "Action-control scale" by Yu. Kuhl, "Questionnaire for revealing the expression of self-control in the emotional sphere, activity and behavior", self-evaluation of volitional qualities. The presence of significant differences between the groups for all measured parameters was shown (p<0.001). The obtained results confirm the hypothesis about the presence of cross-cultural differences in the parameters of volitional regulation and confirm the ideas of the volition as a higher mental function.

The author analyzes approaches to understanding personality in Soviet psychology which were developed on the basis of Marxist principles formulated by S.L. Rubistein. Among them are recognition of the role of activity in development of man and his mind, of the role of the object world generated by human activity in development of the human mind and of the role of history of mankind in generation and development of consciousness. The problem is that both science and common sense recognize personality as something that exists objectively, but do not indicate the criterion of personality as a special reality. Therefore there is no generally recognized definition of the term. Unlike Western psychology which treated personality as a special formation in an individual, a special pattern refracting outside influences on the individual and determining one's behavioral responses, Soviet psychology treated personality as the subject of relations with the world and of activity in the world. Social relations prevailed, but the role of activity in development of personality, the role of society and influence of history of mankind on personal development were also emphasized. Absence of a uniform definition of personality prevents generalization of theoretical and empirical findings on personality. Comparing the approaches of Western and Soviet Psychology one may say that the Soviet approach opens more prospects for understanding the human being as a social being emerging within a biological organism and using that organism for realizing his activities as a social entity, which provides opportunities for looking into emergence of man as a personality in the history of mankind and analyzing characteristics of personality as the subject of special relations of a person with other people and society.

The paper presents an analysis of some concepts of psychology and gives the author's idea of their possible content. It is proposed to understand needs how life challenges of living beings; the motivation as the process of mental generation of subject's activities, and motives are considered to be the objects of purposes for which a subject operates; the will is proposed to understand as higher mental function, ensuring the generation and implementation of voluntary actions in conflict between decisions of individuals and tasks due to lower levels of human functioning; personality is considered as a subject of special human relations with other people, society as a whole, with nature and himself. The relationship of people with others concerning the consequences of their activities for each other plays the primary role. The activity is recognized in accordance with the position of A.N. Leontiev, the unit of life of living beings, solving their life problems with the help of external activity (behavior). Regulation of activity is carried out by the subject of activity on the basis of sensual or conceptual picture of the field of action (behavioral space).

The motivation of labor activity is analyzed. Two basic needs that motivate a person to work activity are highlighted: the need for necessary conditions of social life and the need to have a profession. It substantiates the notion of labor activity polymotivation. The explanation is offered of the product of labor acts as arising in biologically important activities aimed at production of items of social value (instruments and objects of needs). It is shown that the worker's labor at a modern enterprise is the independent activity and at the same time action in different activities. The emergence of labor is considered by the author as a particular way of implementing adaptive activities (production of food, protection from the cold and predators). At first it was the creation of conditions for increasing the possibilities of success of activities (labor acts to create guns, ambushes, traps, construction of dwellings, etc.). Then a system of labor actions was built, producing the necessary items of need (food, clothes, shoes, etc.), making adaptive biological activity in labor activity by way of its implementation. In other words, labor appears as a particular way of solving the biological problems of a man. In modern society this relationship of labor and biologically important activities are almost not visible, for the workers themselves as well. Subjectively, the work becomes an important social activity of man, expressing his involvement in total productive activity. The emergence of labor opens the possibility for the society to make the conditions of its existence an essential way of life and social development. The inclusion of people in the aggregate activity of their society, and as a result in the whole of humanity, leads to the division of labor in which workers, as a rule, produce what they do not personally need. However, since any action and activity in general should have some meaning for workers, the question arises about the motives of such manufacturing activity of people, since a person has no need to produce parts for cars, or to extract oil. The inclusion of a person in the overall activity of the society, generating different professions, turns labor into a special social activity, becoming a part of human social life. The needs of the person in conditions of his life, primarily in social conditions, are satisfied for any activity (by sharing the results of labor). However, labor activity is a means of achieving various social and personal goals (self-assessment and assessment by the society, position in society, etc.). This provides polymotivation of labor.

The author insists on a multilevel organization of man: as an organism, as a species, as a natural individual or the subject of natural relations, as a social individual or the subject of social relations, and as a personality or the subject of specific interpersonal relations (moral or amoral). The author states that formation of personality starts with the realization that it is necessary to take into consideration consequences of one's activity with respect to other people. Development of personality consists in transition to recognizing other people as a value for oneself and formation of mechanisms of personal behavior.

The paper analyzes several ideas from the works of A.N. Leontiev and reflects upon the effects of these ideas on the development of general psychology and in particular on the understanding of animal and human behav-ior through the concepts of activity, perception and motivation processes, voluntary regulation. Thus, the paper analyzes the concept of 'sensory experience' and the role of activity in transforming experiences into senses; discusses Leontiev's contribution to the understanding of motivation in terms of his introduction of the concept of an object of need and his new interpretation of the motive of activity; analyzes the role of the con-cept of meaning in creating a temporary derivative of goal valence and in voluntary self-regulation. Finally, the paper explores the connection between the ideas of Vygotsky and Leontiev and the relationship between cul-tural-historical psychology and Leontiev's activity theory.

The authors argue necessity of the notion of will for contemporary psychology and the role of the notion in the categorical structure of the science, insisting that volitional regulation could be regarded as the personality level of conscious self-regulation. Will is viewed as a higher mental function responsible for regulating actions, mental processes and states in situations of conflict between decisions of the highest level of human functioning and decisions and resources of the lower levels. Volitional regulation is not characterized by its object, but by the level on which it is exercised (personality level); by its intrinsic mechanism (intentional modification of the meaning of an action or meaning sets manifesting themselves as volitional characteristics); by its goal (prevalence of a decision of the highest level of regulation).

VOLITION AS A RESULT OF SOCIAL-HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF HUMANITY V.A. Ivannikov*, V.N. Shlyapnikov** * Sc.D., professor, psychological department, MSU after M.V. Lomonosov, Moscow; **PhD, associate professor, general and developmental psychology chair, SOU "Academy of Social Management", Moscow The socio-genesis of volitional regulation as a higher mental function was studied. The main goa of the study was the description of social-cultural tools of volitional regulation, regularities of their transformation through the historical development of humanity and their role in the modern human life. Magical and religious practices were considered as social-cultural tools of volitional regulation, which function was action's meaning transformation and additional motivation. It is shown that transformations of social-cultural tools of volitional regulation follow the general regularities of higher mental function development. In the modern world the social-cultural tools of volitional regulation preserve their functions, but their role is constricted to the regulation of separate individual activity.

The paper examines the necessity of the notion of personality in psychology analyzing aspects of human life which would be difficult to explain without the notion. The author suggests an understanding of personality as a person capable of making conscious and unconscious behavioral choices with respect to possible consequences of their actions for other people. A human being is treated as a multidimensional creature which functions as an organism, a unit of a species, a natural individual - a subject of natural relations, and a social individual - a subjects of social relations, a personality - a subject of moral relations with other people, society and nature.

The question of necessity of activity notion in psychology is discussed. The notion of behavior as a physical activity of living creatures is analyzed. Two approaches to activity analysis developed during Soviet period of Russian psychology are looked at. Psychic processes are analyzed as subjective components of activity, as its inner operations which serve subject's activity.