Have you heard of Kurt Lewin’s field theory?Before we explain it, let’s talk a little bit about the context in which it emerged.
Years ago, before there was a branch of psychology called social psychology, behaviors were thought to be simple reactions. Conductism was the theory used and scientists used their premises to try to explain the behavior. When someone hits us, we react by protecting ourselves to dodge the attack or to avoid another. Thus, in this paradigm, it is the stimuli and associations that have shaped the behavior.
- However.
- This stimulus-response relationship was very simple.
- Conductism has set aside cognitions and human thoughts.
- Has not taken into account that behaviors are the result of the interaction between people and the environment (Caparrs.
- 1977).
- And the one who saw it all was Kurt Lewin.
- Theory.
- Among other things.
- By focusing on group interactions with the environment.
- His studies have earned him the right to be considered one of the fathers of social psychology.
Kurt Lewin was born in Prussia, now called Poland. Later, his family moved to Germany, where Kurt studied medicine and biology, although he eventually became more interested in psychology and philosophy. In Germany, Kurt was sent to fight during World War I. and was wounded there. On his return, he began working at the Berlin Institute of Psychology. With the rise of the Nazis, Kurt decided to leave Germany and eventually settled in the United States, where he taught at several universities.
Kurt had been in touch with ideologies close to socialism, Marxism and the struggle for women’s rights, these ideas led him to a conclusion: psychology could help move society towards a more egalitarian society, so he has devoted his efforts to trying. to identify and understand what factors influence our behavior.
“To understand a system, we need to change it. -Kurt Lewin-
To examine human behavior, Kurt Lewin was inspired by theories of relativity and quantum physics (D-az Guerrero, 1972) and found a theory he could use, field theory. To integrate her into psychology, she chose to study behaviors without removing them from their natural context.
That’s why he focused on the study of groups, his studies set a precedent for what would be social psychology and the psychology of organizations, his experiences revolved around group psychology, the dynamics of organizational change and leadership.
Taking the theory of the fields of physics, Kurt Lewin established two basic conditions for his field theory: the first is that conduct must be inferred from a total of coexisting facts (Fernandez, 1993); the second says that these coexist the facts have the character of a “dynamic field”, the state of each part of the field depends on everyone else.
A field, in physics, is an area of space where there are properties represented by physical sizes (temperatures, forces, etc. ). Lewin used the physical concept of “force field” (Lewin, 1988) in his field theory to explain the environmental factors that influence human behavior.
According to him, conduct does not depend on the past or the future, but on current facts and events and how the subject perceives them, the facts are interconnected and constitute a field of dynamic force that can be called living space.
Therefore, the living space or field of psychological forces would become the environment that encompasses the person and his perception of the near reality; it is, in short, a subjective, clean space that keeps our gaze on the world, with our aspirations, our possibilities, our fears, our experiences and our expectations. In addition, this area has certain limitations, established in particular by the physical and social characteristics of the environment.
The purpose of Kurt Lewin’s field theory allows us to study our behavior from a full perspective, without staying in an analysis of the separate parts. The influence of the psychological field on behavior is such that Lewin considers that he has just determined that if there are no changes in the field, there will be no changes in behavior.
For Lewin, psychology should not focus on the study of the person and the environment as if they were two pieces to be analyzed separately, but on seeing how they affect each other, in real time.
If there are no changes to the field, there will be no behavioral changes.
As in a force field, all parties are affected by each other, to understand our behavior we must take into account all variables that occur in real time: both individually and at the group level, in addition, these elements cannot be analyzed in isolation, the study must focus on interactions to have a holistic view of what is happening. To explain, Lewin (1988) introduced three variables that he considered fundamental, these are:
Lewin states that field theory determines what is possible and what behaviors are impossible for each subject; knowledge of living space allows us to reasonably predict what the person will do; any behavior, or at least any intentional behavior, is motivated: tensions encourage you, forces move you, Valentors direct you and set goals.
Kurt Lewin (1997) argues that our actions can be explained by a fact: we perceive particular ways and means of alleviating certain tensions; we are attracted to these activities, which we see as a way to ease tensions. The activity would have a positive value and that is why we would experience a force that drives us to carry them out. Other activities would have the opposite effect: they would increase tension and therefore have a repellent effect.
To better understand, let’s talk about a need that we all have: the need for recognition, when this need arises will create an incentive to gain recognition in an area of our interest, such motivation will have a positive value that will lead us to act to gain recognition.
This will create a tension between the current situation and the need to achieve recognition, all this will lead us to think about possible actions to obtain recognition and, depending on the area in which we want to be recognized, we will continue the action to consider providing opportunities for such recognition.
Caparrs, Antonio (1977). History of Psychology. Barcelona: Universe of the editor of the circle.
Guerrero, Rogelio (1972). Psychological evolution according to Kurt Lewin: Lectures.
Fernandez, Alejandra (1993). Kurt Lewin (1890-1947): A current assessment of its importance to psychology. Madrid: National University of Distance Education.
Lewin, Kurt (1988). Field theory in the social sciences. Barcelona: Paidas.
Lewin, Kurt (1997). Resolution of social conflicts: field theory in the social sciences. Washington, DC: American Association of Psychology.