Anna Nicolaisen '04

The study of psychology is a science centered on understanding and predicting human behavior.   Throughout its history distinct individuals have come along and dramatically impacted our understanding and perception of this science with their thoughts, theories, and research, shaping psychology into what it is today.  One such person who had this dramatic effect is Kurt Lewin.  Psychology’s founding fathers, such as Freud, strongly believed that behavior was driven by our unconscious motivations or personality characteristics.  Kurt Lewin revolutionized the study of psychology by empirically showing that human behavior was not only a product of one’s internal makeup but also greatly effected by the dynamic environment in with an individual lives. 

Kurt Lewin has been stated to be one of the founders of social psychology and has radically influenced our understanding of experimental learning, leadership, action research, and group dynamics.  Lewin’s contribution and importance to the study of psychology can be seen in that his work not only set a firm foundation for modern research on human interaction but more importantly he displayed how social interactions can be empirically measured and studied.

Kurt Lewin was born on September 9, 1890 in Mogilno, in the province of Posen (a part of Prussia, currently known as Poland).  Lewin was one of four children born into a common Jewish family.  His father worked in the families owned general store and was an active member of their Jewish community.  At age 15, the Lewin family moved to Berlin to ensure all possible educational advantages for their children. 

Lewin’s early education included semesters of study in Frieburg focusing of medicine and natural science and a semester of study in Munich focusing on biology.   It was during this time that Lewin became involved in the socialist movement with a particular concern for combating anti-Semitism, the democratization of German institutions, and the position of women in society. (Marrow 1969).  These concerns fueled Lewin’s thoughts and study while acting as a driving force for his research.  At age 20, Lewin began his studies at the University of Berlin and received his doctorate in 1916.  In this program he worked under Karl Stumpf in a fairly open minded psychological program that was veering away from the traditional Wundtian approaches and embracing the ideas of Gestalt psychology.

Upon receiving his doctorate, Lewin spent four years in active military service achieving the rank of lieutenant and receiving the Iron Cross.  After completion of his military duty, he returned to the University of Berlin to teach as an assistant professor in psychology and philosophy.  Lewin became increasingly popular through his published work and his reputation as an exciting professor who could hold all the students attention.  He remained at the University of Berlin until he was invited to come to Stanford University as a visiting professor in 1932.  It was during his time at Stanford that Hitler come into power in Germany, and with the implications of this new regime, Lewin deiced to bring his family to America and continue his work away from Germany.

Lewin spent a year at Stanford University and two years at Cornell University before settling into the Child Welfare Research Station at the University of Iowa in 1935 as a professor of child psychology.  It was during his first year at Iowa that Lewin published one his first works in English, A Dynamic Theory of Personality.  He published his second book, Principles of Topological Psychology, in 1936.  At Iowa, Lewin, along with his associates, began pioneer research on human behavior in social contexts.  He became increasing interested in research areas concerning the war and its outcomes, giving him a great desire to heavily research group dynamics. It was also during this time that Lewin’s solidified large amounts of research and theory in democracy and groups, group dynamics, field theory, and action research. 

Lewin remained at the University of Iowa until 1944 when the Research Center for Group Dynamics was founded at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Lewin became part of the American Jewish Commission with the Commission of Community Interrelations project in 1944 as well.  It was within this project that Lewin’s action research model (research directed to solving social problems) was used to investigate different types of religious and racial prejudice.   Unfortunately in 1947 Kurt Lewin passed away after a fatal heart attach.  While his life was cut short, his theories and research continue to carry on the legacy of his name and his immense contribution to the study of psychology. 

Lewin considered himself to be allied in theory with Gestalt psychologists.  He carried a strong conviction for the importance of theory and practice and strived to apply laboratory techniques to social behavior in order to develop theories and continuously refine his theories with empirical evidence from these laboratory techniques.  It was these principles that brought field theory, group dynamics, democracy and groups, and action research to be Kurt Lewin’s most well known and influential contributions. 

Field theory stems out of the idea in order to explain behavior one must look at all pieces of the puzzle, all dynamic interactions influence outcomes.  In his theory Lewin defines the field as the totality of coexisting facts which are conceived of as mutually interdependent (Lewin 1951).  The field represents the complete environment of the individual.  Behavior, Lewin believed, resulted from tensions between an individuals self-perceptions and the environment encountered. (Smith 2001).   Ones “life space”, or total environment of the individual and all significant others, had to be understood and researched in order to understand behavior.  Lewin then concluded that as individuals participate in many different life spaces such as family, church, work, or school, behavior was represented as movements through life spaces that carry both positive and negative influences and are driven by ones perceptions based off their underlying psychological needs. (Daniels 2003).

Daniels pinpoints three important summary points to Lewin’s field theory.  First that behavior is derived for the totality of all coexisting facts.  Second that these coexisting facts make up the dynamic field, and that in the dynamic field every part is dependent on every other part.  And thirdly that behavior depends on the present field, not on past or future encounters.   In this complex theory Lewin stated that concrete people in a concrete setting can be measured mathematically and empirically proved.  (Smith 2001).

Group dynamics resulted out of Lewin’s work with field theory.  Group dynamics are the collective interactions that take place with in a group.  (Reber & Reber 2003).  Lewin was particularly interested in the uniformity found in many group interactions and looked extensively at how field theory came into play in group settings and the roles that individuals take on when placed in a group setting.

Lewin’s work in group dynamics can also be seen in to his research involving democracy and groups.  Lewin research in this area has been cited as one of his best-known research topics. (Daniels 2003).  In this study Lewin, along with Ronald Lippitt, looked at the effects of democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire methods/styles of leadership on group structure and the behavior of group members.   Results showed numerous insights into group structure.  Results showed that groups with efficient change that occurred in democratic ways lead to superior group results.  Superior results were found with the basis that as all individuals can participate and become an identifiable part of the group, change is more easily accepted.    Groups that contained more authoritarian structures were found to be more rigid, hindered creativity and lead to dysfunctional decision making processes.  Group that contained laissez-faire styles were found to be very inefficient and unproductive. (Daniels 2003).

Overall results of these three leadership styles showed that democratic leadership styles lead friendliness, conscientiousness for group members, and more originality than the other leadership styles.  Autocratic and laissez-faire groups showed significantly greater amounts of discontent, hostility, scapegoating, and aggression than the democratic leadership style. Lewin concluded that changes resulted not from individual differences but from group dynamics.  He also emphasized need to facilitate and guide change, as autocracy is imposed on individuals, but democracy is learned. (Smith 2001). 

It was from his work in leadership styles and group dynamics that the “T” groups were formed and the National Training Laboratory in Group Development was founded.  This training center used Lewin’s laboratory practices in order to teach effective methods of change and change motivation in group situations and to further explore the effects of group dynamics and leadership styles.

“Action research” is a term created by Lewin that emphasizes research that is directly purposed at understanding and generating practical applications and solutions to real world problems. (Reber & Reber 2003).  This is the idea of researched used for social management and leading to social action to solve social problems.  Lewin broke down this process into a cyclical pattern.  The pattern involves identifying a general idea and examining the facts of the situation.  This then leads into planning for the first step of action to take.  After the first step of action is made, a cycle of evaluating, planning and fact finding continues leading to an overall plan and additional steps of action.  This process continues throughout the action research process. 

Controversy has centered on whether action research is truly scientific research.  With this work Lewin was more interested in practical applications than in conducting pure scientific research. (Daniels 2003). Lewin action research involved studies in real life situations that encountered a wide variety of social problems.  Such studies were conducted in factories or housing projects, and lead to community studies and further research on minority groups.

In conclusion Lewin’s life and particularly his work in field theory, group dynamics, democracy in groups, and action research have significantly influenced the study of psychology and many sub fields in psychology. Lewin’s theories and research have greatly contributed to the understanding and knowledge of leadership and group dynamics.  Additionally his work has spurred on many other psychologists to further investigated and understand the immense effects and importance of group dynamics and leadership on our society.   

Citations

Daniels, V. (2003). Kurt Lewin notes. Sonoma State University. http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/daniels/lewinnotes.html.

Lewin, K. (1951) Field theory in social science; selected theoretical papers. D. Cartwright. New York: Harper & Row.

Marrow, A. J. (1969) The Practical Theorist. : The Life and Work of Kurt Lewin, New York: Basic Books.

Smith, M. K. (2001) Kurt Lewin, groups, experiential learning and action research. The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm.

Reber, A & Reber, E (2003). The penguin dictionary of psychology. 3rd Edition. Penguin Books.