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History
and Systems of Psychology
PSY502
VU
Lesson
24
GESTALT
SCHOOL AND DYNAMIC
PSYCHOLOGY
Kurt
Lewin
Kurt
Lewin was born in 1890
and died in 1947. He worked
and taught with other
prominent
Gestalt
psychologists in Berlin until
1932, when he immigrated to USA
and joined the University of
Iowa.
Later,
Lewin set up the Research
Centre for Group Dynamics at
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
One
of the contributions of Kurt Lewin is
his theory which he called
the Field Theory. The
field
theory
concept was also given by another Gestalt
psychologist by the name of Kurt
Koffka, but, Lewin's
theory
was different from the one
given by Koffka. According to Lewin's
theory, the field, or the
environment
around the individual has many
attractions which may be
positive or negative. The
positive
attractions
may be to achieve a goal in
life or to help some one in
trouble. On the other hand,
negative
attraction
may be to take undue
advantage of someone in trouble.
These attractions may also
be called
positive
or negative opportunities. According to
Lewin's theory, because of these
positive and negative
opportunities,
conflicts arise in the mind of
individuals who have the
chance to avail either of the
two
opportunities.
Often both the opportunities
may result in significant good
for the individual while
the
negative
one may offer more
value. Therefore, the conflict arises in
the mind of the individual whether
to
go
for the positive opportunity
with lesser good and
satisfaction through doing the
right thing, or to go
for
the
negative opportunity.
Lewin
is a prominent Gestalt psychologist for
his contribution in discovering the kinds
of mental
conflicts
that result in frustration
and are responsible for a
number of problems in people's lives.
He
proposed
three kinds of conflicts that a person
may be faced with:
i.
The approach-approach
conflict
The
approach-approach conflict is a sort of
conflict in which an individual is
faced with the
challenge
of liking between two
things. He may only be able
to approach one at time and the
choice
creates
the conflict. While choosing
one of the options he foregoes the
other one and the
approach-approach
conflict comes up.
ii.
Approach-avoidance
conflict
The
approach-avoidance conflict refers to
when the individual is faced
with the choice of
avoiding
something
or approaching something. This is the simplest of the
three conflicts and the
most
common
one, where something attractive
might have to be avoided because of an
ethical reason.
For
example making money through gambling is
although attractive but avoiding it or
approaching
it
presents a conflict to the mind,
since it is not ethically correct in
our society to make
money
through
gambling.
iii.
Avoidance-avoidance
conflict
Avoidance-avoidance
conflict refers to the conflict
which arises because the
individual faces the
challenge
of which thing to avoid out
of the options which all
need to be avoided. For example, if
a
sick
person has to take bitter
medicine, he would certainly want to
avoid it. But on the other
hand,
he
is left with the other
choice of accepting the sickness,
which he would again want to
avoid.
Therefore,
the avoidance-avoidance conflict refers
to the condition in which the mind
has a conflict
because
of two things which need to be
avoided.
The
other important contribution
that came out of Lewin's
work at University of Iowa is
his theory
of
leadership; and the measurement of
leadership phenomenon. He recognized
three different styles
of
leaders:
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History
and Systems of Psychology
PSY502
VU
i.
Authoritarian
As
the name implies, an authoritarian
leader is the one who intends to
make use of his
authority
to carry out the decision making
process. He likes little
sharing of his power
and
depends
more on his own instincts
and thoughts.
ii.
Democratic
A
democratic leader is the one
who believes in considering the thoughts
and opinions of
others
for
decision making. He lets
others share their thoughts
and make decisions based
upon
consensus.
iii.
Laissez-faire
A
laissez-faire leader is the one
who is willing to delegate power
and authority to others
for
making
decisions. He lets other
decide on some matters and
leads more from the back
seat.
Although
Lewin started as a Gestalt psychologist
in Germany but after migrating to the USA
he
became
more involved in group
dynamics and there he set up
a center which provided some very
important
contributions
in the field of group dynamics.
Group dynamics is the study of
behavior of individuals in
groups
and the behavior of groups as a
whole.
DYNAMIC
PSYCHOLOGY
Dynamic
Psychology is also called
Hormic Psychology. The main
proponent of this point of
view
was
a British psychologist William
McDougal, who taught at Oxford
University and later shifted to
America,
teaching at Harvard and the
Duke Universities.
William
Mcdougall
William
McDougall was born in 1871
and died in 1938. He was
agreed with the American
Behaviorist
School that psychology is the
science of behavior, and
that it should employ objective
methods
for
research and observation. He did
not reject the value of introspection,
for he thought that
only
observation
of behavior would give us a mechanistic
view of psychology.
According
to McDougall, behavior is the result of
"internal strivings" an "urge to
live," or horme.
This
"horme" or the urge to live
expresses itself in various forms
and kinds of behavior. In other
words, all
organisms
try to survive against the environment.
They battle with the environment in
order to be able to
defend
themselves against the hostilities of the
environment and strive to survive.
Because of his
explanation
of behavior in terms of "horme",
his point of view is called
the "hormic" view point. He
taught
that
organisms show goal-seeking
behavior and that behavior
can be explained in terms of internal
drives,
instincts
or propensities. He identified at least
18 different kinds of propensities. The
list included:
1.
Propensity of curiosity
2.
Propensity of sex
3.
Propensity of disgust
4.
Fear
5.
Food seeking
6.
Protection
7.
Anger
8.
Appeal
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History
and Systems of Psychology
PSY502
VU
9.
Constructive
10.
Acquisitive
11.
Laughter
12.
Comfort
13.
Sleep
14.
Migratory
15.
Submissive
16.
Gregarious
17.
Self-assertive
18.
Coughing, sneezing
According
to McDougal, behavior is due to
these propensities, which
are the dynamic
forces
behind
all behavior and all of them
put together can be shown to belong to
the urge to live or
horme.
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