Kurt Lewin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kurt Lewin
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 9 September 1890 Mogilno, Province of Posen, German Empire (now Poland)
|
| Died | 12 February 1947 (aged 56) Newtonville, Massachusetts, U.S.
|
| Nationality | German |
| Citizenship | German Empire, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin |
| Known for |
|
| Spouse(s) |
Maria Landsberg
(m. 1917; div. 1927)Gertrud Weiss
(m. 1929) |
| Children | 4 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions | Institute for Social Research Center for Group Dynamics (MIT) National Training Laboratories Cornell University Duke University |
| Thesis | Die psychische Tätigkeit bei der Hemmung von Willensvorgängen und das Grundgesetz der Assoziation (1916) |
| Doctoral advisor | Carl Stumpf |
| Doctoral students |
|
| Other notable students | |
| Influences | |
| Influenced |
|
Kurt Lewin (/ləˈviːn/ LƏ-veen; September 9, 1890 – February 12, 1947) was a German-American psychologist. He is known as one of the first people to study social psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and applied psychology in the United States.
During his career, Lewin focused on three main areas: applied research, action research, and how groups communicate. Many people see Lewin as the "founder of social psychology." He was also one of the first to study group dynamics and how organizations grow and change. In 2002, a survey ranked Lewin as the 18th most-cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Contents
About Kurt Lewin
Early Life and Education
Kurt Lewin was born in 1890 in Mogilno, which was part of Prussia (now Poland). His family was Jewish and lived in a small village. He was one of four children in a middle-class family. His father owned a small shop.
In 1905, his family moved to Berlin so Kurt and his brothers could get a better education. He studied at the Kaiserin Augusta Gymnasium. In 1909, he started studying medicine at the University of Freiburg. Later, he switched to biology at the University of Munich. Around this time, he became interested in social movements like women's rights.
In 1910, he moved to the University of Berlin. By 1911, he became more interested in philosophy and psychology. He took many psychology courses with a professor named Carl Stumpf.
When World War I started, Lewin served in the German army. After being wounded, he returned to the University of Berlin. He finished his PhD, studying how people's intentions and will work.
Career and Family
In 1917, Lewin married Maria Landsberg. They had a daughter, Esther Agnes, in 1919, and a son, Fritz Reuven, in 1922. They divorced around 1927. Maria and the children later moved to Palestine. In 1929, Lewin married Gertrud Weiss. They had two children, Miriam (born 1931) and Daniel (born 1933).
Lewin first studied behavioral psychology. But he later changed his focus and worked with Gestalt psychology experts like Max Wertheimer. He became a professor at the University of Berlin from 1926 to 1932. During this time, he studied things like motivation and learning.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Because of this, Lewin moved to the United States in August 1933. He became an American citizen in 1940. When he first moved, he worked at Cornell University and the University of Iowa. Later, he became the director of the Center for Group Dynamics at MIT.
After World War II, Lewin helped people who had been in displaced persons camps. He also helped start a journal called Human Relations. Kurt Lewin died in Newtonville, Massachusetts, in 1947.
Kurt Lewin's Ideas
Behavior and Environment
Lewin came up with an important idea called Lewin's equation: B = ƒ(P, E). This means that a person's behavior (B) is a result (function, f) of their personal characteristics (P) and their environment (E).
This idea was new because it showed that a person's current situation is very important for understanding their behavior. It's not just about their past experiences.
Action Research
Kurt Lewin was very interested in using research to solve real-world problems. He believed that studying problems and taking action should go hand-in-hand. He even created the term action research around 1944.
Action research involves a "spiral of steps." You plan an action, then you do it, and then you study the results. This helps people learn and make changes to improve things. Lewin used this approach to study social problems, like issues faced by minority groups.
Leadership Styles
Lewin also studied different styles of leadership. He described three main types of work environments based on leadership:
- Authoritarian: In this style, the leader makes all the decisions. They tell people exactly what to do and how to do it. The leader gives praise or criticism for the work.
- Democratic: Here, the group works together to make decisions, with the leader's help. Everyone shares their ideas before tasks are done. People in the group decide how to divide the work. Praise and criticism are based on facts and given by group members.
- Laissez-faire: This style gives the group complete freedom to decide policies. The leader stays out of work decisions unless asked. They don't usually participate in dividing tasks or giving praise.
How Change Happens
Lewin developed a simple model for how change happens. It has three stages:
- Unfreezing: This is when people realize that old ways of doing things need to change. It's about getting ready for something new.
- Change: This is the actual period of transition. Things might be a bit confusing as new ways are being tried out.
- Freezing: In this final stage, the new ways of doing things become normal. People start to feel comfortable with the changes.
Lewin's ideas about change are still used today to help organizations adapt and improve.
Sensitivity Training
In 1946, Lewin helped set up a workshop to fight religious and racial prejudice. This workshop led to what is now called sensitivity training. This type of training helps people understand themselves and others better, especially in group settings. In 1947, this work led to the creation of the National Training Laboratories.
Group Dynamics
In 1947, Lewin also came up with the term "group dynamics." This idea describes how groups and individuals behave and react when things change. It's about understanding how groups form, grow, and interact with each other and with individuals.
Some people thought that groups weren't real scientific things. They believed that a group's actions were just the actions of its members, taken separately. But Lewin used his behavior equation (B = ƒ(P, E)) to explain group behavior. He said that a member's personal traits (P) mix with the group's environment (E) to create behavior (B).
Lewin also used the idea from Gestalt psychology: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." He believed that when a group forms, it becomes a single system with qualities you can't understand by just looking at each person separately. This idea quickly became popular. The study of group dynamics is still very important in many fields today, like business and sports.
Lewin's work helped shift psychology from focusing only on individuals to also looking at how small groups communicate. He is known for starting research and training in group dynamics. He also helped create the idea of "participative management," where everyone in an organization has a say. He was curious about how people's identities are shaped by being part of a group. These ideas were the beginning of understanding concepts like "groupthink," where a group's desire for harmony can lead to bad decisions.
Major Publications
- Lewin, K. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Lewin, K. (1936). Principles of topological psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Lewin, K. (1938). The conceptual representation and measurement of psychological forces. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
- Lewin, K., and Gertrude W. Lewin (Ed.) (1948). Resolving social conflicts: selected papers on group dynamics (1935–1946). New York: Harper and Brothers.
- Lewin, K., and Dorwin Cartwright (Ed.) (1951). Field theory in social science. New York: Harper.
- Lewin, K. (1997). Resolving social conflicts & Field theory in social science. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.
- Lewin, K., and Martin Gold (Ed.). (1999). The complete social scientist: a Kurt Lewin reader. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
- Lewin, K., (1980). Kurt Lewin Werkausgabe in German (Kurt Lewin Collected Works) Ed. Karl Friedrich Graumann, Stuttgart, Klett; 4 Issues, contains several works, which were published from the estate or never translated into english
- Lewin, K. (2009). Kurt Lewin Schriften zur angewandten Psychologie. Aufsätze, Vorträge, Rezensionen in German, Ed. Helmut E. Lück, Vienna, Verlag Wolfgang Krammer, ISBN: 978-3-901811-46-3; contains several unpublished articles
See also
In Spanish: Kurt Lewin para niños
- Berlin School of experimental psychology
- Approach-avoidance conflict
- Ecological systems theory
- Macy conferences
- Maintenance actions
- Decision field theory
- Valence (psychology)
