KURT LEWIN'S FIELD THEORY - PSYCHOLOGY - 2024

The field theory, or topological and vector psychology is a psychological theory proposed by Kurt Lewin, Gestalt psychologist school which explains the interaction between the individual and the environment.

His interest in practicalities and the real world influenced him to make the leap from a way of understanding individual psychology to a way of understanding group psychology.

Lewin field representation

Lewin and field theory are known as precursors to the field of Social Psychology and he is recognized for having coined the term action research, as well as his experiments on the role of leadership in groups.

Lewin believed that people's behavior depends on many different interactions between thoughts, emotions, and the environment in which the person perceives and acts.

Background to field theory: historical context and Gestalt

Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) was born in Mogilno, a German city that is currently part of Poland.

His academic work began at the University of Berlin after serving as a soldier in the First World War. There he worked in the laboratory together with the creators of the Gestalt school: Wertheimer, Köhler and Koffka.

The psychologists of this school challenged the dominant paradigm of the time and argued that to understand behavior, not only the stimuli themselves were important, but the way in which the individual perceived these stimuli.

For them, the whole was more than the sum of its parts and within this whole, the subjective experience was also an inseparable part.

As a Jew, the Nazi party's rise to power was a threat that led him to emigrate to the United States in 1933, where he would continue his academic work.

For Lewin, Gestalt theory would be the basis on which he would develop his field theory. Similarly, his experiences as a refugee influenced his work due to his concern for social struggles, politics and the way to influence the behavior of groups.

Principles of field theory

Living space or psychological field

The field theory argues that systems have behaviors that cannot be explained only from the elements that make them up.

For this author the vital space or psychological field corresponds to the world as the person experiences it at a given moment in his life.

This vital space is made up of a set of interdependent factors that form the psychological experience and that part of the person and the environment as the person perceives it.

Since Lewin gave great relevance to mathematical representation, his theory is represented by the formula B = f (P, E). In this formula, behavior (B) is a function of the interaction between the person / group (P) and their environment (E).

From this concept of field or space, Lewin uses a series of concepts that can explain how that field is organized (structural-topological concepts) and how it works (dynamic-vector concepts).

Environment or surroundings

The environment or environment is the situation in which a person perceives and acts. This environment (E) is subjective, depending on the characteristics of each person (P).

In order to correctly map a person's living space, it is necessary to take into account their conscious and unconscious environment.

Person

For Lewin, person (P) refers to the characteristics of the individual or the person who behaves.

As a person changes, the living space is affected, and instability in the living space can affect the person.

Behavior

Behavior (B) is a change produced in the living space by the action of a person (P) or by the change that occurs in the environment (E) by said action.

Functioning of people and groups

Lewin presents his theory as an explanation to the individual psychology of personality but finally leads it to the analysis of groups.

One of Lewin's great contributions is to have started from Gestalt psychology to define groups as a whole, a system that could be studied as a basic unit of analysis.

The fundamental aspect of a group is that there is interdependence, since groups arise from the tendency of individuals to group together to satisfy their needs.

In this aspect, the social field refers to the set of forces to which the group is subjected.

Balance in the systems

Systems (people or groups) are under the influence of different forces that are in balance. Being in permanent change and interaction, the system is continuously influenced by internal and external factors that can lead to a loss of that balance.

In the case of groups, it is considered that the balance occurs between the needs of the group and those of the individual, where both extremes (individualism or absorption of the individual by the group) would be undesirable.

This loss of balance, whether group or individual, causes tension in the system and causes an action or movement to take place (which he calls locomotion) that seeks to restore that balance and relieve tension.

There will be components that relieve tension (with positive valence) and objects that prevent that tension from being reduced (with negative valence).

Lewin and his disciple, Zeigarnik (1927), demonstrated the effect that stress has on task / situation recall, as tasks that cause stress are more easily recalled later.

The origin of conflicts

When multiple forces come into play, conflicts can develop. Lewin defined conflict as the confrontation between forces of valence of similar intensity.

Conflicts can be of three types:

1. Approximation / approximation: when you have to choose between two goods, that is, two objects of positive valence.
2. Avoidance / avoidance: when you have to choose between two evils, that is, two objects of negative valence.
3. Approach / avoidance: when you are faced with an object that has positive and negative valence at the same time. For example, when something is desired but requires a lot of effort to obtain it (Sánchez, 2014).

All these concepts also serve to understand how changes can be generated within groups. According to Lewin, as the individual cannot be separated from the group, changes must begin at the group level (standards, norms, etc.) to decrease the resistance of individuals.

Generating social changes

In the line of explaining and changing social phenomena, Lewin carried out an experiment with two of his disciples (Lewin, Lippitt and White, 1939) and demonstrated the differences that the type of leadership can generate in the group (autocratic, democratic and laissez faire).

Through field theory, he also proposed the approach to research called action research, which seeks to promote social change based on investigations of relevant social problems.

His interest in these social problems led him to study racism, xenophobia, aggression, among others with this method.

References

1. Billig, M. (2015). Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His Legacy to Social Psychology: Is There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory?. J Theory Soc Behav, 45, pp. 440–460. doi: 10.1111 / jtsb.12074.
2. Burnes, B. and Cooke, B. (2013). Kurt Lewin's Field Theory: A Review and Re-evaluation. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15, pp. 408-425. doi: 10.1111 / j.1468-2370.2012.00348.x
3. Lafuente, E., Loredo, JC, Castro, J. and Pizarroso, N. (2017). History of Psychology. UNED.
4. Lewin, K. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality. New York: McGraw-Hill.
5. Lewin, K. and Lewin, G. (Ed.) (1948). Resolving social conflicts: selected papers on group dynamics. New York: Harper and Brothers.
6. Lewin, K., Lippitt, R. and White, R. (1939). Patterns of Aggressive Behavior in Experimentally Created 'Social Climates'. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, pp. 271-299.
7. Marrow, AJ (1969). The Practical Theorist: The Life and Work of Kurt Lewin. New York: Teachers College Press
8. Sánchez, JC (2014). Group psychology: theories, processes and applications. Spain: McGraw-Hill
9. Zeigarnik, B. (1967). On finished and unfinished tasks. In WD Ellis (Ed.), A sourcebook of Gestalt psychology. New York: Humanities press.