GESTALT SCHOOL AND DYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGY:Kurt Lewin, DYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGY

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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

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:

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

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

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

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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