Unit-9, Field Theory, 10-04-2021

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M.A.(Psy) 2 FIELD THEORY FIELD THEORY  Course Code: MAP601 All right are reserved with CU-IDOL  Semester: First  E-Lesson: 9  SLM Unit: 9 www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601)

FIELD THEORY 33 OBJECTIVES INTRODUCTION  To enable students to gather a creative and in  The unit covers the field theory given by depth understanding of psychology as a science. Kurt Lewin and his concept of the idea of conflict.  To understand the role and importance of various school of psychology. To familiarize students with recent development  Meaning and application of Kurt Lewin theory.  in the fields in the field of Psychology. Students will acquire and demonstrate knowledge of information pertaining to  personality and individual differences. . www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MMAAPP660011)) INSTITUTAEllOFrigDhIStTaArNeCrEesAeNrDveOdNwLiItNhECLUEA-IRDNOINL G

TOPICS TO BE COVERED 4 > KURT LEWIN > LEWIN’S FIELD THEORY FIELD THEORY www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

KURT LEWIN (1890–1947) 5 • Born on September 9 in Mogilno, Germany. • Kurt Lewin received his doctorate in 1914 from the University of Berlin. • Lewin was a visiting lecturer at Stanford University in 1932 and from 1933 to 1935 at Cornell. • Considered as father of social psychology. https://images.app.goo.gl/fPkG81qaW6yCZZRBA www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

FIELD 6 ▶ A Field is a psychological concept. ▶ Every individual has his own field of perception and field forces. ▶ Field consist of a person and his psychological environment. Psychological environment implies the mental world in which a person lives at a defined moment of his life. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS IN FIELD THEORY 7 ▶ Life space ▶ Foreign Hull ▶ Topology ▶ Vector ▶ Valence ▶ Conflict ▶ Locomotion ▶ Barriers www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

LIFE SPACE 8 ▶ Life space is apsychological representation of individual's environment. ▶ The life space includes the person himself and everything in his environment that influence his behavior. ▶ It includes both the things of which he is consciously aware and the factors which influence him even though he is unconscious of them . ▶ An object which exists, but of which the person is not aware and which does not influence him would not be a factor of his life space. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

9 ▶ Similarly if an object does not exist but of which the person thinks to be thereand reacts to it becomes a part of his life space . Eg: If a child thinks that there is a snake on the floor even if it is imaginary, it is the part of his life space. ▶ It includes the persons , his drives, motives, believes, tensions, thoughts, feelings and his physical environment which consist of perceived objects and events. ▶ The life spaces of two persons in an identical situation may be entirely different . www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

A PERSON IN LIFE SPACE. 10 The person is often represented as a points moving about in his life. Psychologically a person is composed of two components  motor perceptual stratum(abilities)  Inner personal stratum(needs) www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

FOREIGN HULL 11 The life space is surrounded by a non psychological boundary called foreign hull. TOPOLOGY Topology is non-metrical geometry which includes concepts such as inside, outside and boundary. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

VECTORS 12 ▶ Vectors are borrowed from mathematical system used in mechanics to describe the resolution of forces. ▶ A vector is usually represented by an arrow, it has  Magnitude  Direction  Point of application ▶ In field psychology, a vector means a force that is influencing psychological movement towards or away from a goal. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

VALENCE 13 S ▶ Valences are the attracting or repelling powers of regions. ▶ Objects may have either positive or negative valence. The movement of person is decided by the valence of the goal. POSITIVE VALENCE: The object or goal which satisfy needs or are attractive to the person. NEGATIVE VALENCE: The object or goal which threatens the individual or are repulsive to the person. ▶ A person tends to move toward a region in life space that has positive valence and he tends to move away from a region in life space that has negative valence. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

CONFLICTS 14 ▶ It is the state of tensions brought in by the presence of two opposing desires in the individual . ▶ If only one vector impelling upon the individual, he will move in the direction indicated by the vector . ▶ If two equallybalanced vectors are operating , the result is a conflict. ▶ As the person is influenced by several valences at a time, these give rise to conflicts. There are three types of conflicts Approach- approach conflict Approach – avoidance conflict Avoidance- avoidance conflict www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

(i) Approach- Approach conflict 15 It arises when the person is caught in between two goals both having positive valences. It is a conflict between two positive goals which are equally attractive. Eg: 1. A Person who wants to go twomarriages scheduled at the same time. 2. A person who wants to choose a course after completing degree. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

(ii) Approach-Avoidance conflict 16 It arises when the person is caught in between a positive and a negative goal. The same object has strong positive valence as well as negative valence. Eg: Smoking, alcohol consumption etc is enjoyable, but they are threat to health. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

(iii) Avoidance-Avoidance conflict 17 It arises when a person is caught in between two goals both having negative valences. The person is like “caught in between devil and sea”. Eg: A student who desires to avoid doing homework as well as the punishment from the teacher. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

BARRIERS 18 ▶ A barrier is a psychological obstruction. ▶ They restrict the person’s movement towards the goal, and the path he must follow to reach his goal. ▶ It may be objects, people, social codes anything which threatens the motivated individual as he is moving towards a goal. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

LOCOMOTION 19 ▶ Locomotion in life space is delineated by a geometrical representation of the selection of alternative, the examining of possibilities , the setting out towards the goal. “Learning takes place as a result of locomotion from one region of life space to another. When a person moves from one region to another, the structure of life space undergoes change”. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

According to the field theory proposed by Kurt Lewin, 20 “Learning is a process of perceptual organization or reorganization of one’s life space involving insight and emphasizes on behavior and motivation in learning”. According to this theory, the behavior(B) of an individual is a function of interacting person(P) in the total psychological environmental situation(E) i.e. B = f(P,E) www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

EDUCATIONAL 21 IMPLICATION ▶ The teacher should present the whole problem and evoke the cognitive and emotional readiness in the learners for optimum learning. ▶ In order to achieve optimum communication and meaningful give and take, a teacher should try to workout the life space of each student in his class. ▶ Motivation is an important factor in bringing changes in the cognitive structure of a student In order to motivate the students, the teacher has to identify both the driving as well as the restraining forces present in the life space of each student. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

22 ▶ Teacher should organize his instructional strategies in a manner which will be at the level of ‘exploratory’ rather than ‘explanatory understanding.’ ▶ A change in structure of knowledge may occur with repetition. Too much repetition does not aid learning so teacher should take steps to avoid repetition. ▶ Teacher should use reward and punishment according to the needs of the situation as Lewin accepted the value of reward and punishment in learning. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

LIFE SPACE 23  It is the Lewin’s most fundamental theoretical concept.  A person’s life space consists of all influences acting on him or her at a given time  It of consist of an awareness of • internal events (such as hunger, pain, and fatigue), • external events (restaurants, restrooms, other people, stop signs, and angry dogs) • recollections of prior experiences (knowing that a particular person is pleasant or unpleasant or knowing that one’s mother tends to say yes to certain requests and no to others). These influences are called psychological facts. https://images.app.goo.gl/MH7Zw1p7ehRR4vb97 www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

LIFE SPACE 24 • Principle of contemporaneity states that only https://images.app.goo.gl/FNoV4DAV4ZgmWyZq7 those facts that are currently present in the life space can influence a person’s thinking and behavior. • According to Lewin, that experiences from infancy or childhood can influence adult behavior only if those experiences are reflected in a person’s current awareness. • person’s life space reflects not only real, personal, physical, and social events, but it also reflects imaginary events. • According to Lewin, if a need arises, the life space is articulated with facts that are relevant to the satisfaction of that need. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

LIFE SPACE 25 www.cuidol.in https://images.app.goo.gl/iZvsAADG4wSmRxQy9 All right are reserved with CU-IDOL Unit-9,10(MAP 601)

MOTIVATION 26 • Lewin believed that people seek a cognitive balance. • According to Lewin, both biological and psychological needs cause tension in the life space, and the only way to reduce the tension is through satisfaction of the need. • Psychological needs, which Lewin called quasi needs, include such intentions as wanting a car, wanting to go to a concert, or wanting to go to medical school. • Bluma Zeigarnik (1927) tested Lewin’s tension-system hypothesis concerning motivation. According to this hypothesis, needs cause tensions that persist until the needs are satisfied. It was Lewin’s custom to have long discussions with his students in a café while drinking coffee and snacking. • The subjects were allowed to finish some tasks but not others. Zeigarnik later tested the subjects on their recall of the tasks, and she found that the subjects remembered many more of the uncompleted The subjects were allowed to finish some tasks but not others. Zeigarnik later tested the subjects on their recall of the tasks, and she found that the subjects remembered many more of the uncompleted www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

CONFLICT 27 • Lewin studied conflict experimentally . • He studied 3 kinds of conflicts: 1. AN APPROACH-APPROACH conflict occurs when a person is attracted to two goals at the same time, E.g. when you need to choose from two attractive items https://images.app.goo.gl/TLnYutMkHxpFwRPn7 on a menu or between two equally attractive colleges after being accepted by both. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

CONFLICT 28 2. AN AVOIDANCE-AVOIDANCE: conflict occurs when a person is repelled by two unattractive goals at the same time, E.g. when one must get a job or not have enough money or study for an examination or get a bad grade. https://images.app.goo.gl/RF9Ubyev7iBNGnzGA www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

CONFLICT 29 3. AN APPROACH-AVOIDANCE: Conflict is often the most difficult to resolve because it involves only one goal about which one has mixed feelings, E.g.: when having a T-bone steak is an appealing idea but it is one of the most expensive items on the menu or when marriage is appealing but it means giving up a great deal of independence. https://images.app.goo.gl/TLnYutMkHxpFwRPn7 www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

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LEWIN'S APPROACH TO PERSONALITY 31 Lewin emphasized the explanation of human behavior in terms of the forces and tensions that move us to action. Unlike Wertheimer, Kohler, and Koffka, who started with perception and then moved to behavior, Lewin began with behavior and what produces it, and then moved on to the problems of how people perceived their own and others' behavior. When a perceptual set (described below) affected the way learned associations were expressed, Lewin saw it as conflict between competing determining tendencies. In both laboratory and world, he held, a person's behavior is always oriented toward some goal. The person is always trying to do something. That intention or determining tendency is what matters most. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

ASSOCIATIONS 32 Lewin declared, \"Psychology cannot try to explain everything with a single construct, such as association, instinct, or gestalt. A variety of constructs has to be used. They should be interrelated, however, in a logically precise manner. \" www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

INTENTIONS AND INTENTIONAL ACTIONS 33 Lewin did not try to relate psychological forces to physical forces, except in the descriptive names like \"vector.\" He did not address the question of how motives originate, whether in insinct or previous experience, but rather focused on how they operate. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

THE STRUCTURE OF A PERSON 34 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. As a child develops, the personality system expands and differentiates. His view of the psychological environment is subject to cognitive restructuring--it becomes better understood and he does a better job of distinguishing between the real world and the \"irreal\" world of wishes and fears. The child finds new social roles and learns new social norms and codes. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

FIELD THEORY 35  Behavior must be derived from a totality of coexisting facts.  These coexisting facts make up a \"dynamic field,\" which means that the state of any part of the field depends on every other part of it  Behavior depends on the present field rather than on the past or the future. \"This is in contrast both to the belief of teleology that the future is the cause of behavior, and that of associations that the past is the cause of behavior.\" www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

THE LIFE-SPACE  The places where you physically go, the people and events that occur there, 3 6 and your feelings about the place and people. One part of this is the places you inhabit every day, or at least regularly. Another part is places you've been to, but go only very occasionally or may never go back to again.  Your vicarious life-space (my term, not Lewin's), includes the world you travel into through reading, movies, TV, what other people say, etc.  Then there is also your own personal mental life space--the places you inhabit in your mind, your fantasy world, etc. This was of great concern to Jung, although he did not use this term for it, but of less interest to Lewin who was most interested in our social world. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

CONTD….. 37  When you're planning what to do tomorrow, your life-space is not the room you're in now but the place where you expect to be tomorrow. Your present locomotion in that expected environment involves deciding on one course of action rather than another, as a result of vectors that impel you in one or another direction. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS 38 1. Which of the following is the equation gave by Kurt lewin? a. B=f(p.e) b. E=f(b.p) c. f=b(p.e) d. p=e(f.b) 2. when we modify or change new information to fit into our schemas is known as______. e. Accomodation f. Equilibrium g. Assimilation h. Schema Answers: 1. a. 2.c. Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL www.cuidol.in

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS 39 3. Which of the following types of conflict involves two negative goals and is a fairly common experience? a. Approach-Approach Conflict b. Avoidance-Avoidance conflict c. Approach-Avoidance conflict d. Multiple approach-Avoidance conflict 4. What is the correct sequence of cognitive development stages by Piaget? a. Concrete operational- sensorimotor- formal operation- preoperational b. Sensorimotor – preoperational-formal operational- Conrete operational c. Sensorimotor– preoperational– concrete operational – formal operational d. Formal operational– senorimotor– Concrete operational –Preoperational Answers: 3.b 4.c. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 40 1. Highlight the significance of field theory given by Kurt Lewin. 2. Elaborate the cognitive developmental stage given by jean piaget. 3. What is conflict? Elaborate on its types with the help of examples. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

REFERENCES 41 • Retrieved: https://resources.saylor.org/wwwresources/archived/site/wpcontent/uploads/2011/07/psych 406-5.3.2.pdf • Retrieved: https://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwpapajl/evolution/assign2/DD/theory.html • Hergenhahn, B.R. & Oslon, M.H.(2001). An Introduction to theories of Learning 6th Edition. New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall. www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

42 THANK YOU www.cuidol.in Unit-9,10(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL