Seminar 5 Blog
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)
Life Span
Principle of Contemporaneity is what Lewin used to explained what psychological facts were. Contemporaneity refers to concentrating on elements of the current situation that motivate people and influence their environment thus shaping change (Neumann,na).
Motivation
Bluma Zeigarnek studied under Lewin, and researched motivation. One of her experiments led to the Zeigarnik Effect. It describes how individuals find it easier to recall a task when it has been started but not completed (Madigan, 2013). The brain is focusing on all the tasks that need to be finished. I have an ever growing To Do list. Once a task is complete, I cross it off the list, move on to the next and forget about what is done. I call it multitasking- being able to focus on and complete more than one thing at a time. I tend to not focus on those items that are complete, because there is always something more that needs my attention.
Conflict
Lewin had three different types of conflicts:
- Approach/ approach conflict: attraction to two appealing goals
- Avoidance/ avoidance conflict: confronting two undesirable possibilities, neither have any positive attributes
- Approach/avoidance conflict: attraction and repulsion of the same goal (Morris & Maisto, 2013).
Group Dynamics
Lewin was also part of a study on leadership. Lewin, Lippitt and White conducted an experiment with males in different group settings.
- Democratic group- with one encouraging leader. They showed productivity
- Authoritarian group- dictating leader. this group showed high levels of aggression
- Liassez-faire group- no leader or group decisions, they could do as they pleased. This group showed no productivity ( Hergenhahn & Henley, 2014).
References
Madigan, J. Ph.D. (2013). Mind Games: The Zeigarnik Effect and Quest Logs. Psychology Today. www.psychologytoday.com
Morris, C.G. & Maisto, A.A. (2013). Understanding Psychology (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Neumann, J. (na). Kurt Lewin- Contemporaneity Rule. www.tavinstitite.org/projects/kurt-lewin-contemporaneity