What is the method used by Münsterberg? Münsterberg's method: instruction

Everyone knows that the most difficult thing during work is to keep the maximum concentration of attention on the chosen subject. Successes in study and career are achieved only by those who are able to focus on one thing and not to be scattered on extraneous thoughts and unnecessary actions. Scientists and psychologists have long studied the issue of human concentration . So there was a method of selectivity of attention of Munsterberg, which helps a person train his attention, in order to further achieve great heights in career and study.

Hugo Munsterberg

Hugo Munsterberg is a German psychologist who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From his youth he was fond of medicine and wanted to become a doctor. But once heard a lecture of the German psychologist Wundt changed his life, and he became interested in psychology, and in 1885 even defended his thesis and received a doctorate in this specialty.

Unfortunately, in those years psychology was a more theoretical science and to practice had a very distant relationship. Hugo Munsterberg became one of the first psychologists who organized the experimental psychological laboratory and tried to give science an applied character.

The energy of the young specialist could not help attracting the first persons of young and developing American science. Munsterberg was made a very advantageous proposal, and he moved to the United States, receiving a position at Harvard and taking under his leadership a new psychological laboratory. Soon the publication began to appear the first scientific work of Munsterberg.

The technique, which allows to improve the human concentration abilities, was discovered by the scientist in 1915. It was during these years that he seriously engaged in industrial psychology.

Münsterberg's method: essence and practical significance

As already mentioned above, Munsterberg seriously engaged in issues of increasing the productivity of man.

The scientist was one of the first to see a direct connection between how a person can concentrate his attention and his successes in the professional sphere of activity. Find an effective way to increase the concentration of a person - that's what was the goal of Munsterberg.

The methodology that he developed is so simple that it can be applied even to children, from an early age developing their ability to keep attention on one subject. And it's not just about concentration in ideal conditions, when nothing prevents a person from thinking about the task at hand, but about the ability to keep attention on one subject in circumstances where there is a lot of that interference.

Test of Munsterberg

One of Munsterberg's tests is aimed not only at developing attention, but also at diagnosing it simultaneously.

A person is given a piece of paper on which a large paragraph of a set of letters is printed. The letters, at first glance, are not connected in any way. Each line looks something like this: "ukolodtdozhdmioidaaidyilmmaldm". But in this set of letters are hidden words that a person must find during the time allotted to him. As a rule, 2-3 minutes are given for the assignment.

Then, the results of the Munsterberg test are evaluated. The processing of the results looks like this.

1. Counts the ratio of encrypted words and those that the person missed.
2. If the number of words found is below the average result, the subject is given a recommendation that he needs to do more exercises for attention and train this property of his psyche.
3. If the number of words found corresponds to the average result, then the person is given a recommendation according to which from time to time in the form of a game he should repeat such exercises.
4. If the number of words found is equal to the number of encrypted words, then the participant of the test can only be congratulated, since he has a remarkably sharp attention skill.

How urgent is the problem of concentration?

The Münsterberg method is used to investigate the professional suitability of a person in many fields of activity. True, it is used in different variations.

1. Astronauts before the flight into space undergo special training, which includes exercises for concentration of attention. For example, they are offered to watch the second hand for five minutes. At first glance, it seems that it is easy to do, but many fail the test and are forced to repeat it again and again.
2. Motorists often fall into accidents due to the fact that they do not have a high ability to concentrate their attention and do not have time to react to obstacles in time. Large and bright road signs are installed in order to attract the attention of the motorist and remind him of the responsibility for his life and the lives of others.
3. The acting profession is completely built on the ability to concentrate. Large volumes of text, proposed circumstances, pictures of the vision - all this the actor must keep in mind and at the moment of the play think only about it.

What do people who know how to concentrate on the goal

People who have high concentration abilities, immediately noticeable. They do their job well, up to the smallest detail, because they know how to throw all that is superfluous beyond their attention and spend some time only on the work they are doing.

In business, the ability to concentrate identically to the purposefulness of a person, as well as the ability to separate the main and secondary. In training, the degree of concentration completely determines the amount of information that a person can absorb. In communication, negotiation, concentration fully determines the ability of a person not only to express his thoughts, but also to perceive the arguments of his interlocutor. A very interesting relationship exists between the temperament of a person and his ability to concentrate. For example, it is noted that choleric people (due to their moving temperament) know how to focus on a matter for a short time. They tend to jump from one topic of conversation to another, from one lesson to another.

Actually, these issues were devoted to the research of Münsterberg. The technique for developing attention is capable, even in a sense, of discovering a genius in man.

Concentration of attention and genius

It is known that all ingenious people differed in their ability to concentrate in a high degree. Even in a dream they continued to solve the tasks (for example, Mendeleev). Münsterberg's method allows to increase the degree of its concentration - it means, in a sense, it contributes to the professional growth of a person. It's no secret that everyone is talented in any field, but whether he succeeds depends entirely on his ability to focus on the goal.

Thus, it is difficult to overestimate the benefit that Munsterberg's technique hides in attention. Exercises are extremely simple, but if you master them and perform them regularly, and then apply your ability to concentrate in work, then each person once risks waking up as a genius.