Years ago, before there was a branch of psychology called social psychology, behaviors were understood as simple reactions. Behaviorism was the theory in vogue and scientists used their premises to try to explain behavior. When someone hits us, we react by protecting ourselves to divert the attack or to avoid another. Thus, within this paradigm, the stimuli and associations were the ones that shaped the behaviors.

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However, this stimulus-response relationship was too simple. Behaviorism left aside human cognitions, thoughts. I did not take into account that behaviors are the result of an interaction between people and the environment. The one who did notice this was Kurt Lewin. This psychologist created the field theory, among others, paying attention to the interactions of the groups with the environment. His studies served to be considered one of the fathers of social psychology.

The life of Kurt Lewin

For which they did not read the previous publication. Kurt Lewin was born in Prussia, what is now known as Poland. Later his family moved to Germany, where Kurt studied medicine and biology although he became more interested in psychology and philosophy. From Germany, Kurt was sent to fight in the First World War and there he was wounded. When he returned, he started working at the Psychological Institute of Berlin. With the Nazi uprising, Kurt decided to leave Germany and eventually settled in the United States, where he taught at different universities.

Kurt had been in contact with ideologies close to socialism, Marxism and the struggle for women's rights. These ideas led him to a conclusion: psychology could be helpful in changing society towards a more egalitarian one. For this reason, he devoted his efforts to trying to identify and understand what factors influence our behavior.

"To understand a system, you have to change it"

-Kurt Lewin-

In order to examine human behavior, Kurt Lewin sought inspiration in the theories that came from relativity and quantum physics. He found a theory he could use, the field theory. To integrate it into psychology, he chose to study the behaviors without isolating them from their natural context.

That is why he focused on the study of groups. His studies established the precedent of what would be social psychology and the psychology of organizations. His experiments revolved around the psychology of groups, the dynamics of organizational change and leadership.

           

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The field theory

Taking the field theory of physics, Kurt Lewin established two basic conditions for his field theory. The first is that the conduct must be deduced from a totality of coexisting facts. The second says that these coexisting events have the character of a "dynamic field", the state of each one of the parts of the field depends on all the others.

A field, in physics, is an area of space in which there are properties represented by physical magnitudes (temperatures, forces, etc.). Lewin used the physical concept of "field of forces" in his field theory to explain the environmental factors that influence human behavior.

Behavior, in his opinion, depends neither on the past nor on the future, but on current events and events and on how the subject perceives them. The facts are interconnected and constitute a dynamic field of forces that we can call vital space.

Therefore, the vital space or psychological field of forces would become the environment that encompasses the person and their perception of the next reality. It is, in short, a subjective space, own, that reflects the way we look at the world, with our aspirations, possibilities, fears, experiences and expectations. In addition, this field has some limits, established especially by the physical and social characteristics of the environment.

Kurt Lewin's field theory approach allows us to study our behavior with a perspective of totality, without remaining in an analysis of the parts separately. The influence of the psychological field on behavior is such that Lewin considers that he comes to determine it: if there are no changes in the field, there will be no change in behavior.

For Lewin, psychology should not focus on the study of the person and the environment as if these were two pieces to be analyzed separately, but we must see the way in which they affect each other in real time.

If there are no changes in the field, there will be no change in behavior.

Relevant variables

As in a field of forces, all parties affect each other. To understand our behavior we must take into account all the variables that are intervening in real time in it: both individually and at the group level. In addition, these elements can not be analyzed in isolation, but must focus on studying their interactions to have a holistic view of what happens. To explain it, Lewin introduced three variables that he considered fundamental. These are the following:

Strength: force is the cause of actions, motivation. When there is a need, a force or a force field is produced, which leads to the occurrence of an activity. These activities have a valence that can be positive or negative. In turn, the valence of the activities direct forces towards other activities (positive) or against them (negative). The resulting behavior responds to the psychological mixture of different forces.

Tension: tension is the difference between the proposed goals and the current state of the person. The tension is internal and pushes us to carry out the intention.

The need: that is what initiates the motivating tensions. When there is a physical or psychological need in the individual, an internal state of tension is awakened. This state of tension causes the system, in this case the person, to alter to try to restore the initial state and satisfy the need.

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Lewin affirms that the theory of the field determines which are the possible and impossible behaviors of each subject. Knowledge of the living space allows us to reasonably predict what the person will do. All behavior, or at least all intentional behavior, is motivated: they stimulate tensions, move forces, direct valences and have goals.

The motivations

Kurt Lewin affirms that our actions can be explained from a fact: we perceive particular ways and means to discharge certain tensions. We are attracted to those activities that we see as means to release tension. For Kurt, this type of activities would have a positive valence and therefore we would experience a force that impels us to carry them out. Other activities would have the opposite effect: they would increase the tension and therefore have a repulsive effect.

To better understand this we are going to talk about a need we all have: the need for recognition. When that need arises, a motivation will arise to obtain recognition in some area that interests us. Such motivation will have a positive valence that would lead us to act in order to get recognition.

A tension will arise between the current situation and the need to achieve recognition. All this will lead us to think of possible actions to achieve recognition and, depending on which field we want to be recognized, we will carry out the action that we believe will provide us with the possibility of obtaining such recognition.

Reference:

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Lewin

http://www.psychologydiscussion.net/learning/learning-theory/lewins-field-theory-of-learning-education/2525

http://www.tavinstitute.org/projects/field-theory-rule/

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