Kurt Lewin
German-born psychologist who founded research on group dynamics
German-born psychologist who linked behaviour to the person and the environment, studied leadership climates in groups in Iowa, and promoted action research and group training before his death in 1947.
Why this person matters
Lewin gave social psychology a field-theory framework and experimental methods for studying groups. Students and colleagues, including Bluma Zeigarnik, Leon Festinger and Dorwin Cartwright, carried his work forward, and collaborators such as Ronald Lippitt and Ralph White ran the Iowa leadership studies with him.
Main contributions
Field theory
In Principles of Topological Psychology (1936) he treated behaviour as a function of the person's 'life space', the facts that are psychologically important to that person at the time. It is often written B = f(P, E), behaviour as a function of person and environment.
Leadership climates
With Ronald Lippitt and Ralph White he studied authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire leadership in groups of boys doing craft activities at Iowa, reported in a 1939 paper on aggressive behaviour in experimentally created social climates. The democratic groups showed high morale and higher-quality work.
Action research and group training
He used the term action research from about 1944 and described cycles of planning, action and fact-finding. A 1946 leadership workshop for Connecticut community leaders led to the National Training Laboratories at Bethel, Maine, in summer 1947.
Context and limits
The three-step model of unfreezing, change and refreezing is often credited to Lewin, but there is evidence that he never developed it and that it took shape after his death. Early critics argued that groups were not valid scientific units; Lewin replied that a group is a system with qualities its members lack individually. He left Germany in 1933. The Iowa leadership study used groups of boys doing craft activities.
In your introductory course
Social psychology.Appears in the social psychology chapter for group dynamics, leadership styles and the person-environment equation.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 13.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1936
Published Principles of Topological Psychology while at the University of Iowa Child Welfare Research Station.
- 1939
Reported the Iowa leadership climate studies with Lippitt and White.
- 1944
Moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to set up the Research Center for Group Dynamics.
- 1946
Published 'Action Research and Minority Problems' and took part in the Connecticut workshop.
- 1947
National Training Laboratories began at Bethel, Maine, shortly after his death.
Sources
- Encyclopedia.com, Kurt Lewin (Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale)Reference work. Reference article inspected.
- Gestalt Theory, Zeigarnik, Bluma Zeigarnik: A Memoir (2007)Society or association. Text passages inspected.
- Wikipedia, Kurt LewinReference work. Reference article inspected.