Change Theory - Model- Lewin Kurt's Field Theory - Essay Example

Change Theory - model- Lewin Kurt's Field theory The "older" sciences, like physics, chemistry or biology have often influenced the least developedones by giving them the patterns of the development of thoughts and theories about the nature of this or that phenomenon. Lewin's field theory is one of the most prominent representations of the influences the physics made on psychology. The field theory experienced influence from the side of physics, Gestalt psychology and psychoanalysis, but, nevertheless, it is absolutely original. Kurt Lewin developed his field theory in order to resolve the uncertainties that existed in the Gestalt psychology. "Gestalt theorists had argued that (contra the atomistic approach of many behaviorists), one could not understand how an organism sensed the environment without attention to the field of perception as a whole. Any one percept [bit of perception] was likely to have its meaning only in relation to others" writes John Levi Martin in his article What Is Field Theory He also noted that Tolman and Brunswik (1935) went farther, and argued that perception had to be understood not as the passive internalization of sensation, but the organism's attempt to navigate a world that had its own "causal texture;" hence the trick was to "get" the principles that would allow for effective action. All the previous attempts to develop the theory that would've had explained these ambiguities were unsuccessful, and Lewin was the one who put field theory on the map in social psychology (Marrow 1969, p. 13). In his works Lewin claimed that the field theory was inspired by the works of Einstein (Lewin, 1951), but it is clearly seen that from his definition of field that it was Gestalt psychology that gave it the background. According to Lewin the field is "a totality of coexisting facts which are conceived of as mutually dependent". Lewin's theory is complex as it addresses numerous fields of research and it includes the theories and hypothesis about the different aspects of social sciences. It is also that overcoming resistance to change has been the focus of numerous studies since the classic 1948 study of resistance to change by Coch and French. Kurt Lewin's well-known approach to overcoming resistance to change consists of three stages. The three stages are unfreezing, changing, and refreezing (Lewin, 1947). Lewin assumes that in any situation there are both driving and restraining forces that influence any change that may occur. Driving Forces Driving forces are those forces affecting a situation that are pushing in a particular direction; they tend to initiate a change and keep it going. In terms of improving productivity in a work group, pressure from a supervisor, incentive earnings, and competition may be examples of driving forces. Restraining Forces Restraining forces are forces acting to restrain or decrease the driving forces. Apathy, hostility, and poor maintenance of equipment may be examples of restraining forces against increased production. Equilibrium is reached when the sum of the driving forces equals the sum of the restraining forces Equilibrium This equilibrium, or present level of productivity, can be raised or lowered by changes in the relationship between the driving and the restraining forces. This theory is a valuable for the nursing practice as it gives the nurses the understanding of the impact that the environmental, surrounding the patient factors make on his/her behavior and the behavior of the patients. It emphasizes the importance of creating the appropriate conditions for the patient to get better in addition to the medical and psychological treatment the nurses provide them. The theory of change also gives the nurses the understanding of how the process of change occurs, gives the information about the methods and strategies of resistance to the changes, thus allowing them to introduce the changes in their practice more effectively. It also allows the nurses to understand their patients better thus facilitating the process of therapy both for the patient and the nurse. Lewin proposed that human behavior is a function of both the person and the environment in which the behavior takes place, including the social parameters. He postulated that needs organize perception of the field and acting within the field. He understood a dynamic interaction of elements in the field. He believed behavior was purposeful and visualized the individual as existing in a field of forces which included +valence forces which attract people, and -valence forces which repel people. The blending of these fields produced and approach/avoidance dynamic. According to Lewin's theory, learning is essential to coping with these opposing force fields. Changes in valences and values are important to the learner's ability to deal with ongoing situations. Lewin also believed that a holistic investigation of human behavior and learning must include the environment in which the learning is taking place, including the psychological environment of the learner and others with whom he interacts. (Schultz, Schultz, 1992) Lewin's field theories lead to field research on human behavior. Lewin believed that it was possible to study social and psychological phenomena experimentally; as a result he conducted experiments in natural settings where he manipulated complex situational variables and observed the effects. This approach has been used widely in education as "action research" and has had a large impact on modern research. In the 1930's Lewin developed an approach called Topological Psychology in an effort to develop something practical. This was a system using visual diagrams and geometry to illustrate relations among factors influencing behavior and learning. The boundaries and regions assigned to different components in a dynamic were the main tool to identify tension systems that drive behavior. An example would be a person trying to resolve the tension produced by the dilemma of something he needs to do versus something he wants to do. The tension pattern is released when the person resolves the dilemma. Lewin was heavily influenced by the 3 Early Gestaltists (Wertheimer, Kohler, Koffka) as well as Freud and Einstein. In turn, his innovative work had profound influence on Tolman and several of Lewin's students (Festinger, Bluma Zeigarnik, Maria Ovsiankina, Kate Lissner, and Vera Mahler). His theories helped psychologists and educators understand the behavior of groups, experiential learning, and contributed greatly to action research. The main theses of his theory are: A field is defined as the totality of coexisting facts which are conceived of as mutually interdependent a. behavior is a function of the field that exists at the time the behavior occurs b. analysis begins with the situation as a whole from which are differentiated the component parts c. the concrete person in a concrete situation can represented mathematically. Lewin defined behavior as a function of environment and personality, while the environment is the function of personality and personality is a function of environment. Lewin's theory emphasized the thing which was new to many of his contemporaries - that the human organisms don't live in total isolation and their behavior is dictated by the environmental factors. By developing his theory Lewin made some crucial contributions to the psychological science. The first is that the live world is intrinsically affective in contradiction to stimuli, which are accepted without any emotional reactions, while the irritants from the outer world immediately call for positive or negative reactions. Second is that the person is free to relocate within the field, and the third is that the human has conceptions of likely changes in the field at any time. These changes are produced either by the animal's own motion through the field, and by internal developments of the field itself, which may or may not involve actions taken by other animals in the field. Lewin also stated that behavior shouldn't be seen as something caused by the events in the past, but its interpretations has to be based on the understanding of the totality of current situation. (Lewin 1936, p. 10). Lewin applied his theory to the numerous psychological and sociological phenomena, like the adolescent behavior, the behavior of infants and children, group dynamics and the problems of the small groups. According to Lewin's theory the human personality has two properties: 1. It is separated from the outer world by the border 2. It is included in the outer world as it stationed there Thus the human being is represented as the one separated from the world, and in the same time, included into it, as he dwells in there. For to represent the basic structural components of his theory Lewin proposed to draw a figure, which is the circle inscribed in ellipsis, where circle represents the personality, and the ellipse is representing the psychological environment or the living space. The area outside of the ellipse represents the non-psychological environment, a place where physical and social interactions take place. For this psychologist the living space contains the totality of the possible events which are capable of influencing the behavior of the human being. It includes everything needed to understand and interpret the behavior of the chosen person in the given place and time. For Lewin the fact that the psychological environment is surrounded by the physical world doesn't mean that the living space is the part of the physical world. It is that the living space and the space beyond its borders are the parts of the greater totality. Nevertheless, the events that take place in the outer world near the borders of the living space are capable of influencing on the psychological environment. Thus the non-psychological events may change and cause the psychological ones. Lewin named the study of this outer environment the "social ecology" and he emphasized the importance of conducting this research. In his opinion the nature of this events should be defined for those facts will help to define what will happen in the psychological environment and what won't. The events that happen in the psychological environment can, in their turn, change the outer space. These two worlds influence each other, thus it is considered that the border between them possesses the attribute of penetrability. But it is stated by the theory that the human being cannot communicate with the outer world without the intermediation of the psychological environment. Before the event can be influenced by a human or influence him, it has to become the part of his psychological environment. The thesis about the penetrability of the border between the psychological environment and the outer space is one of the key ones in the Lewin's theory. He presumes that as the psychological environment can be influenced by the events in the outer world, thus the predictions about the behavior that are grounded only on the knowledge of psychological laws are ineffective, as it's always possible that some event from the outer world will change the psychological environment dramatically. Thus, as Lewin states, it is more real for the psychologist to understand and describe the existing situation in the terms of the field theory than try to predict what will this or that human do in future. (Lindzey, Hall, 1997) Lewin state that the structure of the person is not homogeneous, as it is separated on the detached parts that are interdependent. To depict this scheme Lewin divided the area inside the circle into several zones. The structure of a person includes an outer region called the perceptual-motor region that is in contact with the psychological environment, and a central portion called the inner-personal region. The inner-personal region is divided into cells that represent tension systems. (Daniels, 2003). Non-differentiated or homogeneous environment is the ideal environment where all the events that take place in it would've influenced the person equally. This is impossible, thus the environment is also differentiated. (Lindzey, Hall, 1997) The person and the psychological environment are divided into regions that undergo differentiation. Regions are connected when a person can perform a locomotion betweeen them. Locomotion includes any kind of approach or withdrawal--even looking at a pretty object or away from an ugly one, or listening to liked music and avoiding disliked or uninteresting music. They are said to be connected when communication can take place between them. The region that lies just outside the life-space is the foreign hull. The person is a differentiated region in the life space, set apart from the psychological environment by a boundary. A barrier may block the locomotion called for by vectors. A barrier exerts no force until force is exerted on it. Then it may yield, or resist strongly. How rigid it is you can find out only by exploration. You may have a plan that another person doesn't like, but you don't know how strongly he'll resist your carrying it out until you try. An impassible barrier is likely to acquire a negative valence and may lead to cursing or attacking it. (Daniels, 2003). Examples of Lewin's Theory Gang Behavior: Religious services had been disturbed on Yom Kippur by a gang of Italian Catholics. Lewin assembled a group of workers comprised of Catholics, Jews, Negroes, and Protestants. The groups first action was to get the four young men who were arrested for the crime put into the custody of local priests and the Catholic Big Brothers. Next, they involved as many community members as possible to make improvements more likely. It was decided that the act was not one of anti-Semitism, but one of general hostility. Likewise, it was not a problem that could be solved by sending the men to jail. The solution was to eliminate the frustrations of community life by establishing better housing, enhancing transportation, and building recreational facilities. These would allow members of different backgrounds and groups to integrate. Plans were put into motion to get the projects completed. The members of the gang kept in contact, and within a year, conditions had improved greatly. There seemed to be no change in attitude toward the Negroes and Jews, but aggression towards them had ceased. Law and Social Change: Lewin believed that prejudice caused discrimination, not resulted from it, and altering that behavior could change attitudes. "He held that if universities were required by law to admit students on merit and not on the basis of race or religion, the practice would bring new and more favorable attitudes" (Marrow, 1969, p.204). If the support of discrimination is taken away, the base will be weakened. Discrimination could be overcome by enforcing legislation with community education. Using this, the Medical School of Columbia University was sued for their quota on how many Jews were permitted to enroll. The case was settled out of court, which led to the revision of quotas in leading colleges and universities throughout the United States. Integration of Negro Sales Personnel: Facts were compiled about department stores not hiring Negro personnel because the customers may object to it. Customers were interviewed who had dealt with Negro clerks, those who had dealt with white clerks, and white persons on the street. Those twelve who responded in a prejudiced manor were asked if they would continue to shop at that particular store with Negro sales people. They said no, but previously five of them had been observed shopping at a counter with a Negro sales person. Over sixty percent of the others surveyed said they would still shop at the department store. It was concluded that even if a customer is prejudiced, it did not influence where they shopped, or who they purchased goods from--a white or Negro clerk. Therefore, fear of sales declining was not supported by the evidence. (Worchel, Shebilske, 1992) With the help of this theory the behavior of the person can be understood, explained and even predicted, just by analyzing the events that take place around the person's psychological environment. It also gives the researcher the opportunity to affect the person's thoughts or actions by adding or removing some factors from the outer space that is around the object. Observing the locomotion a person performs between the regions in his/her psychological environment his/behavior can also be predicted. Lewin's theory made a considerable contribution into the contemporary social psychology, but still his theory is very controversial, and it aroused numerous discussions among his fellow scientist. The first and one of the most important things was that Lewin in his works tried to combine a metric notion of field taken from physics with a wholly distance-less understanding from topology (Rummel 1975; Spiegel 1961). Even more importantly, there were severe limitations built into Lewin's definitions, especially insofar as he tried to make the field wholly psychological. Most important were the limitations in his conception of valences. A valence is something that pulls one towards or pushes one away: the field itself may be seen as the product of many valences, as a gravitational field may be seen as the product of many objects each with its own gravitational field. This seemingly unremarkable definition, however, leads to paradox, because Lewin considered the valence to be "in the head" of any person in question. Accordingly, any need, desire or drive held by the person or animal itself has a valence. It then becomes not the cheese that has the valence, but the hunger of the rat. The field continually collapses to a point; Lewin is in the position of someone holding one end of a string, and forced to argue that the pull he feels comes not from the other end, but his own end. Similarly, Lewin understood the field to consist of everything relevant to the person in question at one time: "What is real is what has effects." But since actors do not always know about all the factors that are in fact relevant, Lewin (1936, p. 19) was forced to conclude that the psychological life space-the field which he claimed to be in the head of the acting subject-contains elements that are wholly outside this person's psyche. Lewin did sometimes speak of a social space or social field, by which he meant the joint life-space of more than one person (Mey 1972); unfortunately, joining two or more unworkable topological models did not increase the concreteness or usefulness of his scheme. In fact, his approach made it difficult to understand why the life-spaces of two people would have anything to do with one another. The scholarship about this theory doesn't explain the reasons for which the locomotion between the regions takes place. It also gives little knowledge that would've allowed predicting the actions of the person. This theory also does not address the issue of why some events that take place in the outer space influence the psychological environment of the person and some don't. As the theory discussed is a valuable and useful one, there should be more research conducted in this field in order to address the issues the developers of this theory failed to address. Kurt Lewin's theory may turn out to be very valuable applied to the nursing practice. The nurses who are acquainted with this concept are capable of making the therapy process more effective, as they will note that in order to affect the person this or that thought, dillema or scheme should pass into the inner psychological environment of the patient, and they will do their best to achieve this goal. It is also that it will become easier for the nurse to understand his/her patient if he/she will apply the analysis of the environment that surrounds the patient in order to understand and interpret his/her inner condition. Reference 1. Coch, L., and J.P.R. French (1948) Overcoming resistance to change. Human Relations 1:512-532 2. Hall C.S, Lindsey, G. (1997). Theories of Personality, New York: John Wiley and Sons 3. Lewin, K. (1936). Principles of topological psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill 4. Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method, and reality in social science. Human Relations, 1 5-41. 5. Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science; selected theoretical papers. D. Cartwright (Ed.). New York: Harper & Row 6. Marrow, Alfred F. (1969). The Practical Theorist: The Life and Work of Kurt Lewin. New York: Basic Books, Inc. 7. Martin, J.L. (2003). What Is Field Theory American Journal of Sociology, volume 109, p.1-49 8. Mey, H. (1972) Field-Theory: A Study of Its Application in the Social Sciences, trans. Douglas Scott. New York: St. Martin's Press 9. Rummel, J. (1975). Understanding Conflict and War. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications 10. Tolman, E.C., & Brunswick, E. (1935). The organism and the causal texture of the environment. Psychological Review, 42, 43-77 11. Spiegel, R. (1961). Theory and Problems of Statistics. Schaum's Outline Series in Mathematics, McGraw Hill 12. Worchel, S, Shebilske, W. (1992). Psychology: Principles and Applications. New Jersey: Prentice Hall 13. Daniels, V. (2003). Kurt Lewin Notes. The Psychology Department at Sonoma State University. Retrieved July 7, 2005 from URL Read More