The Life of Kurt Lewin - Essay Example

Kurt Lewin Kurt Lewin was born on September 9, 1980 and departed the world on Februrary 12, 1947. He blessed the world with social psychology, organizational development and group dynamics. His contributions in psychology are immense. Lewin was a German American psychologist who worked most in areas of societal, applied and executive psychology. Lewin contributed greatly to Gestalt psychology. He elaborated on the Gestalt theories and applied them to human behavior and that was a great feat indeed (Lewin, 1997). Besides being an extraordinarily gifted student and later professor, Lewin was also a proliferent writer. He wrote extensively of psychology related topics, Lewin got over 80 articles and 8 books published on psychology. Lewin was one of the pioneers of social psychology. He systematically tested human behavior and came up with ideas giving birth to experimental, social and personality psychology. Lewin was also renowned as the ‘father of modern social psychology’ (Lewin, 1999). This is because he used scientific methods and experimentation to observe social behavior in humans. He was a very influential psychologist and that makes him one of the most well known psychologists of the twentieth century. Lewin was known for his ideas and theories; one of better known theories was his equation for behavior. He suggested that neither innate tendencies referred to as nature nor life’s experiences referred to as nurture solely account for a person’s behavior and overall personality. Rather, it is a blend of both. Nature and nurture interact in psychological domains to shape the individual’s personality. Lewin’s equation for behavior suggests that the behavior of an individual is a function of both inborn tendencies and traits and life’s experiences. Mathematically, B=f(Nature, Nurture). One of Lewin’s greatest accomplishments was the Force Field Analysis. In this, Lewin provided a logical succession of factors known as forces that influence any social situation. He considered two kinds of forces, the driving forces and the hindering forces. The driving forces are helping the individual in the social situation he is in while the hindering forces are blocking the social goal for the individual, making it more difficult to reach. In Lewin’s field theory, the field is actually the coexisting facts which are conceived as mutually interdependent (Lewin, 2008). He believed that everyone in the surroundings affects the decisions made by an individual and impacts his personality. Lewin suggested that everyone behaved differently because of the complex interatction of the self with the environment. He suggested that to understand human behavior and to make predictions about it, one has to study the whole life space in which individuals live and interact. Lewin believed that since individuals interact with family, colleagues, neighbors and other citizens, they gain some traits from these interactions and their behaviors are shadowed by these interactions however pleasant or unpleasant they may be. Lewin also talked extensively on democracy and leadership. He explored different leadership styles and member behavior. He concentrated on three classic leadership models, namely democratic, autocratic and laissez faire. He supported democracy the most since he believed that democracy led to thinking as a group and general friendliness. He admonished autocratic and laissez faire kinds of leadership since they led to aggression, violence, revolts, hostility and general discontent. According to Lewin, autocracy is always imposed on an individual while democracy gives an individual the free hand to learn and explore. Democracy leads to happiness and contentment in all the groups of the society since everyone has their voice heard. The masses are thus satisfied. On the other hand, autocracy widens the gap between the different groups in the society, where the rich keeps enhancing the wealth while that of the poor keeps deteriorating. This leads to dissatisfaction and an increase in the crime rate of the country. Another important milestone in Lewin’s contributions was the change theory. Lewin described change in a three stage process. The three stages were unfreezing, transition and freezing. The unfreezing stage is the initial stage and it involves overcoming any self reluctance towards changing and making one’s mindset more open to changes and the effort the change seeps in. The second stage is the transition stage and that is the most important of all. It is where the whole change takes effect. The final stage is known as freezing. This involves crystallizing the change that has been made so that it lasts forever. It involves becoming more comfortable and used to the change and accepting everything that comes along with the change. Initially, changes are difficult to deal with but once one gets accustomed to the change, it becomes easier to continue with it and eventually the change becomes engraved in one’s lifestyle. Lewin’s change theory has been applied extensively to people from all creeds. It has been specifically useful for Americans since Americans are more prone to changing themselves for the better. However, Jews and African Americans have been seen to be a little reluctant to follow the change theory suggested by Lewin astutely. This is because they believe the change will ruin their impact on the world and that the first world countries are trying to change them in order to manipulate them. One needs to be more adaptive and willing for the change theory to show its effect. The ecocentrics, Jews and Africans will have to have an open mind when they plan to change themselves. Think more about individualism and self improvement than cultural bias that exists. However, there have been conflicting social situations to Lewin’s change theory. The theory assumes that everyone working in a group needs to have the same goals and objectives. However, this is difficult to materialize in real life situations where often people with conflicting goals are grouped together. For example, in big companies like the telecommunication companies, often teams of creative artists are grouped together to come up with a theme for a new product or service. The different artists may have different goals and these goals may be conflicting. If Lewin’s change theory is applied to this situation, first, it needs to be analyzed that what would be the effects of each of the agendas. What costs would it seep in and what might the artists be having in their minds when they put forward their proposals. Once it is clear that might be the costs and benefits of all the different plans, the best one must be selected. However, it is extremely important to let all the team members know what their agendas lack so that its more of a team work than an autocratic revelation on them. Lewin also brought in the intricate concept of the interference of fate and task interdependence and its impact on group dynamics. Fate is destined and it ought to be whatever is in one’s fate and tasks are what make a mission reach its goal. One can’t leave everything on fate nor can one do just work to have results; fate is equally important. Lewin saw that in effect, fate and hard work need to go hand in hand for tasks to be accomplished. However, when working in a group it is not just one person’s fate or one person’s hard work that counts. It is actually the group’s fate and the group’s hard work that would yield results. Having one person who is extraordinarily good does no benefit to the team on the whole. Lewin also got credit for a new field in research called action research. Action research is a social researcg program which is based on a comparative study of the causes and effects of various social actions and gaffes particularly. It involves the research leading to such social actions. Lewin defined some steps to ensure a proper planning circle that would do the fact finding about the result of the action( Lewin, 2008). This action research involved finding all causes that led to a particular social action and then the evaluation of all possible effects that it may have and all the possible groups of people that it may affect. Later, it needs to be decided if the social action is worth the cost or not. If not, what other possible actions might it be replaced by. Therefore, this action research program by Lewin was a very well thought idea that catered to all prerequisites of a research program. Conclusively, Lewin was a gem in the line of psychologists. He contributed greatly in the field of social psychology and his work depicts a lot of understanding and thoughtfulness. Lewin’s work shows years of work and expertise. He was a great professor and an even greater orator and writer. His work is an asset for psychologists to date since it involves scientific study and experimentation which was a novel idea back then when theories were worshipped. Lewin’s ideas broke traditional barriers and so his work is there to stay forever. References Lewin, K. (1997).Resolving Social Conflicts: And, Field Theory in Social Science. American Psychological Association. Lewin, K. (2008). Principles Of Topological Psychology. Munshi Press. Lewin, K. & Gold, M. (1999).The Complete Social Scientist: A Kurt Lewin Reader. American Psychological Association. Lewin, K. (2008).A Dynamic Theory Of Personality - Selected Papers. Lewin Press. Read More