Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social,
organizational, and applied psychology in the United States.
Lewin is often recognized as the "founder of social psychology" and was one of the first
to study group dynamics and organizational development.
Biography In 1890, he was born into a Jewish family
in Mogilno, County of Mogilno, Province of Posen, Prussia. He was one of four children
born into a middle-class family. His father owned a small general store and a farm. The
family moved to Berlin in 1905. In 1909, he entered the University of Freiburg to study
medicine, but transferred to University of Munich to study biology. He became involved
with the socialist movement and women's rights around this time. He served in the German
army when World War I began. Due to a war wound, he returned to the University of Berlin
to complete his Ph.D., with Carl Stumpf the supervisor of his doctoral thesis.
Lewin had originally been involved with schools of behavioral psychology before changing directions
in research and undertaking work with psychologists of the Gestalt school of psychology, including
Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Kohler. He also joined the Psychological Institute of the
University of Berlin where he lectured and gave seminars on both philosophy and psychology.
Lewin often associated with the early Frankfurt School, originated by an influential group
of largely Jewish Marxists at the Institute for Social Research in Germany. But when Hitler
came to power in Germany in 1933 the Institute members had to disband, moving to England
and then to America. In that year, he met with Eric Trist, of the London Tavistock Clinic.
Trist was impressed with his theories and went on to use them in his studies on soldiers
during the Second World War. Lewin immigrated to the United States in August
1933 and became a naturalized citizen in 1940. Earlier, he had spent six months as a visiting
professor at Stanford in 1930, but on his immigration to the United States, Lewin worked
at Cornell University and for the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station at the University
of Iowa. Later, he went on to become director of the Center for Group Dynamics at MIT. While
working at MIT in 1946, Lewin received a phone call from the Director of the Connecticut
State Inter Racial Commission requesting help to find an effective way to combat religious
and racial prejudices. He set up a workshop to conduct a 'change' experiment, which laid
the foundations for what is now known as sensitivity training. In 1947, this led to the establishment
of the National Training Laboratories, at Bethel, Maine. Carl Rogers believed that sensitivity
training is "perhaps the most significant social invention of this century."
Following WWII Lewin was involved in the psychological rehabilitation of former occupants of displaced
persons camps with Dr. Jacob Fine at Harvard Medical School. When Eric Trist and A T M
Wilson wrote to Lewin proposing a journal in partnership with their newly founded Tavistock
Institute and his group at MIT, Lewin agreed. The Tavistock journal, Human Relations, was
founded with two early papers by Lewin entitled "Frontiers in Group Dynamics". Lewin taught
for a time at Duke University. Lewin died in Newtonville, Massachusetts of
a heart-attack in 1947. He was buried in his home town. His wife died in 1987.
Work Lewin coined the notion of genidentity, which
has gained some importance in various theories of space-time and related fields. He also
proposed Herbert Blumer's interactionist perspective of 1937 as an alternative to the nature versus
nurture debate. Lewin suggested that neither nature nor nurture alone can account for individuals'
behavior and personalities, but rather that both nature and nurture interact to shape
each person. This idea was presented in the form of Lewin's equation for behavior B = ƒ(P,
E). Prominent psychologists mentored by Kurt Lewin
included Leon Festinger, who became known for his cognitive dissonance theory, environmental
psychologist Roger Barker, Bluma Zeigarnik, and Morton Deutsch, the founder of modern
conflict resolution theory and practice. Force field analysis
Force field analysis provides a framework for looking at the factors that influence
a situation, originally social situations. It looks at forces that are either driving
movement toward a goal or blocking movement toward a goal. The principle, developed by
Kurt Lewin, is a significant contribution to the fields of social science, psychology,
social psychology, organizational development, process management, and change management.
His theory was expanded by John R. P. French who related it to organizational and industrial
settings. Action research
Lewin, then a professor at MIT, first coined the term “action research” in about 1944,
and it appears in his 1946 paper “Action Research and Minority Problems”. In that
paper, he described action research as “a comparative research on the conditions and
effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action” that
uses “a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action,
and fact-finding about the result of the action”. Leadership climates
Lewin often characterized organizational management styles and cultures in terms of leadership
climates defined by authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire work environments. He is
often mixed up with McGregor with his work environments, but McGregor adapted them directly
to leadership-theory. Authoritarian environments are characterized where the leader determines
policy with techniques and steps for work tasks dictated by the leader in the division
of labor. The leader is not necessarily hostile but is aloof from participation in work and
commonly offers personal praise and criticism for the work done. Democratic climates are
characterized where policy is determined through collective processes with decisions assisted
by the leader. Before accomplishing tasks, perspectives are gained from group discussion
and technical advice from a leader. Members are given choices and collectively decide
the division of labor. Praise and criticism in such an environment are objective, fact
minded and given by a group member without necessarily having participated extensively
in the actual work. Laissez-faire Environments give freedom to the group for policy determination
without any participation from the leader. The leader remains uninvolved in work decisions
unless asked, does not participate in the division of labor, and very infrequently gives
praise. Change process
An early model of change developed by Lewin described change as a three-stage process.
The first stage he called "unfreezing". It involved overcoming inertia and dismantling
the existing "mind set". It must be part of surviving. Defense mechanisms have to be bypassed.
In the second stage the change occurs. This is typically a period of confusion and transition.
We are aware that the old ways are being challenged but we do not have a clear picture as to what
we are replacing them with yet. The third and final stage he called "freezing". The
new mindset is crystallizing and one's comfort level is returning to previous levels. This
is often misquoted as "refreezing". Lewin's equation
The Lewin's equation, B = ƒ(P, E), is a psychological equation of behavior developed by Kurt Lewin.
It states that behavior is a function of the person in their environment.
The equation is the psychologist's most well known formula in social psychology, of which
Lewin was a modern pioneer. When first presented in Lewin's book Principles of Topological
Psychology, published in 1936, it contradicted most popular theories in that it gave importance
to a person's momentary situation in understanding his or her behavior, rather than relying entirely
on the past. Group dynamics
In a 1947 article, Lewin coined the term 'group dynamics'. He described this notion as the
way that groups and individuals act and react to changing circumstances. This field emerged
as a concept dedicated to the advancement of knowledge regarding the nature of groups,
their laws, establishment, development, and interactions with other groups, individuals
and institutions. During the early years of research on group processes, many psychologists
rejected the reality of group phenomena. Critics shared the opinion that groups did not exist
as scientifically valid entities. It had been said by skeptics that the actions of groups
were nothing more than those of its members considered separately. Lewin applied his interactionism
formula B = ƒ(P, E), to explain group phenomena, where a member's personal characteristics
interact with the environmental factors of the group, its members, and the situation
to elicit behaviour. Given his background in Gestalt Psychology, Lewin justified group
existence using the dictum "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts". He theorized that
when a group is established it becomes a unified system with supervening qualities that cannot
be understood by evaluating members individually. This notion - that a group is composed of
more than the sum of its individual members - quickly gained support from sociologists
and psychologists who understood the significance of this emerging field. Many pioneers noted
that the majority of group phenomena could be explained according to Lewin's equation
and insight and opposing views were hushed. The study of group dynamics remains relevant
in today's society where a vast number of professions rely on its mechanisms to thrive.
See also Lewin's equation
Berlin School of experimental psychology Action research
Approach-avoidance conflict Force field analysis
Ecological systems theory Field theory
Macy conferences Social psychology
Group dynamics Leadership
Maintenance actions Decision field theory
Valence References
Further reading Burnes B., "Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach
to Change: A Re-appraisal", Journal of Management Studies, Manchester, 2004.
Foschi R., Lombardo G.P., Lewinian contribution to the study of personality as the alternative
to the mainstream of personality psychology in the 20th century. In: Trempala, J., Pepitone,
A. Raven, B. Lewinian Psychology.. Bydgoszcz: Kazimierz Wielki University Press. ISBN 83-7096-592-X
Kaufmann, Pierre, Kurt Lewin. Une théorie du champ dans les sciences de l’homme, Paris,
Vrin, 1968. Marrow, Alfred J.The Practical Theorist: The
Life and Work of Kurt Lewin(1969, 1984) ISBN 0-934698-22-8
Trempala, J., Pepitone, A. Raven, B. Lewinian Psychology. Bydgoszcz: Kazimierz Wielki University
Press. ISBN 83-7096-592-X White, Ralph K., and Ronald O. Lippitt, Autocracy
and Democracy ISBN 0-8371-5710-2 Weisbord, Marvin R., Productive Workplaces
Revisited ISBN 0-7879-7117-0 Lewin,K..Frontiers of Group Dynamics: Concept,
method and reality in social science, social equilibria, and social change. Human Relations,
1,5-41. External links
The Kurt Lewin Center for Psychological Research at Kazimierz Wielki University
International Conference on "Kurt Lewin: Contribution to Contemporary Psychology"
Kurt Lewin: groups, experiential learning and action research
Kurt Lewin Foundation Kurt Lewin Institute