Kurt Lewin

Kurt Lewin

(1890-1947)

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Compiled by Julie Greathouse

• Biography

• Theory

• Time Line

• Bibliography

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Kurt Lewin is universally recognized as the founder of modern social psychology. He pioneered the use of theory, using experimentation to test hypothesis. He placed an everlasting significance on an entire discipline--group dynamics and action research.

Lewin was born in the village of Moglino in the Prussian province of Posen in 1890. He completed his requirements for a Ph.D. in 1914, at the outset of WWI. Two years later, in 1916, his degree from the University of Berlin was conferred. Lewin immigrated to the United States in 1933, where he became a citizen in 1940.

While at the University of Berlin, Lewin "found many of the department's courses in the grand tradition of Wundtian psychology irrelevant and dull" (Hothersall, 1995, p.239). His thinking was changing to emphasize social psychological problems. He is well known for his term "life space" and work on group dynamics, as well as t-groups. Lewin's commitment to applying psychology to the problems of society led to the development of the M.I.T. Research Center for Group Dynamics. "He wanted to reach beyond the mere description of group life and to investigate the conditions and forces which bring about change or resist it" (Marrow, 1969, p.178). Lewin believed in the field approach. For change to take place, the total situation has to be taken into account. If isolated facts are used, a misrepresented picture could develop.

Lewin authored over 80 articles and eight books on a wide range of issues in psychology. Although no prestigious university offered him an appointment, and the American Psychological Association never selected him for any assignment or appointed him to any committee of any significance, his everlasting presence has left him in the ranks of Sigmund Freud and B.F. Skinner.

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Group Dynamics

"The creation of an empirically verifiable theory, Lewin knew, was the essence of science; research, therefore, had to be guided by the need to develop an integrated concept of the processes of group life" (Marrow, 1969, p.183). With this in mind, Lewin established the Research Center on Group Dynamics at Massachusetts's Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). The following six major program areas were developed...

(1) Group productivity: why was it that groups are so ineffective in getting things done?

(2) Communication: how influence is spread throughout a group.

(3) Social perception: how a person's group affected the way they perceived social events.

(4) Intergroup relations.

(5) Group membership: how individuals adjust to these conditions.

(6) training leaders: improving the functioning of groups (T-groups).

"The chief methodological approach would be that of developing actual group experiments of change, to be carried on in the laboratory or in the field" (Marrow, 1969, p.179). Group life was to be viewed in its totality, not on an individual basis. Lewin vowed that C.C.I. would not just find working methods, but would not quit until these methods were put into action. The group dynamic studies should be carried out in real life situations, concentrating on fighting prejudice. Going along with these, Lewin and his colleagues established three major research areas of priority (Marrow, p.192):

(1) "The conditions which improve the effectiveness of community leaders who are

attempting to better intergroup relations,"

(2) "The effect of the conditions under which contact between persons from different groups

takes place."

(3) "The influences which are most effective in producing in minority-group members and

increased sense of belongingness, and improved