Adolescence is a life stage that all people have to experience to become adults and it has been famously described as a period of ‘storm and stress’. A theoretical framework forms a basis for understanding a problem and conducting further research on it (Abraham, 2006). The following theoretical framework is largely influenced by the psychoanalytic school of thought while incorporating Kurt Lewin’s gestalt perspective. The discussion is a review of this theory in relation to adolescence, its application in a psychotherapy, strengths, weaknesses and relevance in today’s world.
Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory
Kurt Lewin was a Gestalt psychologists whose writings were greatly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual theory (Weiner, 1985). Kurt Lewin found a way to represent behavior in a mathematical way in that behavior (B) is a product of person (P) and environment E; that is, B=P x E. Person and environment are independent circles that simultaneously influence and contradict each other (“Kurt Lewin’s Psychological Field Theory”, 2013). Lewin refers to the interaction of personal and environmental factors the life space and it is made up of a person’s social and physical environments, as well as their psychological influences such as motivations, goals, and emotions among others (Muss, 1988). Each person has a geometric map which is a mental depiction of their life space, and which influences their behavior.
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Lewin sees the puberty period as one of transition from one social group to another, where the adolescent leaves the childhood group to join adulthood (Miller, 1989). While both the child and adult know their place in their group, the adolescent’s place is ambiguous. This confusion is made worse when some forms of childish behavior are unacceptable while some adult engagements such as sexual activity are restricted (Lewin, 1939). Adolescents are therefore open to both positive and negative suggestion (Muuss, 1988). Lewin believes that the more differentiated the child and adult groups are, the more difficult adolescent transition is. Lewin refers to the process of an adolescent tries to find his place in society as social locomotion. During this process, the adolescent’s goals, ambitions, and intentions are ambiguous and this makes them unstable and uncertain (“Kurt Lewin’s Psychological Field Theory”, 2013). For instance, when an adolescent girl gets confused about the types of friends she wants to keep because she does not know whether she wants to popular or kind. This can present a problem because popular girls are often mean so the two qualities may be in contrast.
Lewin also discusses the adolescent self-image which is usually unstable due to the rapid emotional and physical changes they experience. The adolescent therefore becomes preoccupied with how others view his body and whether it meets the normalcy threshold in comparison to his age-mates (Lewin, 1939). There is a risk of developing a negative self-concept and a fluid personality that can easily be swayed leading to behavior such as religious conversions or frequent personality change (Muuss, 1988). Lewin’s theory is relevant today as it recognizes the universality of adolescence and how culture determines different transitional patterns in terms of duration and behavior depending on the values that parents and society emphasizes.
The Field Theory can be applied in psychotherapy to determine the factors which combined affect a child’s disposition to certain behavior. Factors such as a family’s financial status, a child’s peer group, school setting and exposure to media affect how they react to certain situations and most theories ignore the influence of environment (Mark McConville, 2003). For instance, a child may get into drugs to escape family problems or because of peer pressure. Although drug addiction shows the adolescent’s lack of self-control and resilience, his environment reacts with these personal traits to influence behavior. Taking such an approach to psychotherapy can be useful in finding the root causes of problems so as to solve them in their entirety (Weiner, 1985).
The strengths of the ‘Field Theory’ by Lewin include that it is perhaps the most formally and clearly explained theory of adolescence as it is based upon scientific and mathematical concepts (Coleman, 2011). The theory combines nature versus nurture in its explanation of adolescent development, a thing that all other theories have failed to do ( “Kurt Lewin’s Psychological Field Theory”, 2013) . Lewin’s theory does not generalize about adolescents as a group but instead considers the individual dynamics of any adolescents. He believes that no two adolescents behave the same and individual personality was determined by the specific combination of a person’s inherent qualities and their environment. The weaknesses of the theory include that it is viewed by some as more of an approach than a theory as it fails to represent an organized description regarding child development (“Kurt Lewin’s Psychological Field Theory”, 2013). Lewin’s concept of changing group membership may not necessarily be difficult especially when one moves into the adult group together with members of their childhood group .
Conclusion
Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory described above has been chosen because of its ability to describe the factors that affect adolescent development. This theory particularly stands out due to Lewin’s ability to combine the influences of nature and nurture in his explanation of adolescent transition. This makes his theory the only one that can effectively be adjusted to account for cultural and situational differences in adolescent personalities. It is vital to note issues such as identity formation, self-image, peer pressure, social locomotion, geometric maps, and life space, which are identified and emphasized by this theoretical framework as essential in understanding adolescent development.
R eferences
Abraham, M. R. (2008). Importance of a Theoretical Framework for Research. ACS Symposium Series , 47-66. doi:10.1021/bk-2008-0976.ch005
Coleman, J. C. (2011). The nature of adolescence (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Kurt Lewin’s Psychological Field Theory – The Psychology Notes Headquarters. (2013, September 29). Retrieved from https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/psychological-field-theory/
Lewin, K. (1939). Field Theory and Experiment in Social Psychology: Concepts and Methods. American Journal of Sociology , 44 (6), 868-896. doi:10.1086/218177
McConville, M. (2003). Lewinian Field Theory, Adolescent Development, and Psychotherapy. Gestalt Review , 7 (3), 213. doi:10.5325/gestaltreview.7.3.0213
Miller,P. (1989). Theories of adolescent development. In The adolescent as decision-maker: Applications to development and education . San Diego: Academic Press.
Muuss, R. E. (1988). Theories of Adolescence (5th ed.). New York, NY: Random House.
Weiner, B. (1985). Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory. In Human motivation (pp. 141-178). New York: Springer.
