Key Takeaways
- Lewin’s field theory explains that behavior is shaped by personal traits and environmental forces.
- He is known as the father of modern social psychology for his work in group dynamics and leadership styles.
Kurt Lewin was an influential psychologist recognized today as the founder of modern social psychology. His research on group dynamics, experiential learning, and action research had a tremendous influence on the growth and development of social psychology.
He is also recognized for his essential contributions to applied psychology and organizational psychology. In a 2002 review of some of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century, Lewin was ranked as the 18th most eminent psychologist.
Significant Events In Kurt Lewin’s Life
- Born on September 9, 1890.
- 1914 – Joined the German army.
- 1916 – Awarded a PhD from the University of Berlin (although he’d completed the requirements two years prior).
- 1921 – Became a lecturer at the Psychological Institute of the University of Berlin
- 1933 – Emigrated to the United States
- 1935 – Became a professor at the University of Iowa; published A Dynamic Theory of Personality
- 1944 – Established research center at MIT
- Died at age 56 on February 12, 1947, of a heart attack
Lewin’s Early Life
Born in Prussia to a middle-class Jewish family, Kurt Lewin moved to Berlin at 15 to attend the Gymnasium. He enrolled at the University of Frieberg in 1909 to study medicine before transferring to the University of Munich to study biology. He eventually completed a doctoral degree at the University of Berlin.
He originally began his studies with an interest in behaviorism, but he later developed an interest in Gestalt psychology. He served in the German army and was later injured in combat.
These early experiences had a significant impact on the development of his field theory and later study of group dynamics.
Lewin’s Career in Psychology
In 1921, Kurt Lewin began lecturing on philosophy and psychology at the Psychological Institute of the University of Berlin. His popularity with students and prolific writing drew the attention of Stanford University, and he was invited to be a visiting professor in 1932.
Eventually, Lewin emigrated to the U.S. and took a teaching position at the University of Iowa, where he worked until 1945.
While Lewin emphasized the importance of theory, he also believed that theories needed to have practical applications.
Lewin established the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Training Laboratories (NTL). Lewin died of heart failure in 1947.
Lewin’s Field Theory
Influenced by Gestalt psychology, Lewin developed a theory that emphasized the importance of individual personalities, interpersonal conflict, and situational variables.
Essentially, Lewin’s field theory suggests that people are the sum of all of their influences. Behavior involves the complex effects of many influences and our interactions within our environments.
Behavior emerges as a result of an individual’s personal characteristics and their environment. Lewin introduced the idea of:
- Psychological field: The total sum of all forces and influences that can impact a person’s behavior. It incorporates situational, cultural, and social elements.
- Life space: This represents a person’s unique experience and reality. It includes their feelings, thoughts, perceptions, goals, and experiences.
Lewin’s Field Theory proposed that behavior is the result of the individual and the environment. This theory had a major impact on social psychology, supporting the notion that our individual traits and the environment interact to cause behavior.
Lewin, Lippitt, and White Study
In this study, schoolchildren were assigned to either authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire leadership groups.
It was demonstrated that democratic leadership was superior to authoritarian and laissez-faire leadership. These findings prompted a wealth of research on leadership styles.
Lewin’s Contributions to Psychology
Kurt Lewin contributed to Gestalt psychology by expanding on gestalt theories and applying them to human behavior. He was also one of the first psychologists to systematically test human behavior, influencing experimental psychology, social psychology, and personality psychology.
He was a prolific writer, publishing more than 80 articles and eight books on various psychology topics. Many of his unfinished papers were published by his colleagues after his sudden death at age 56.
Lewin is known as the father of modern social psychology because of his pioneering work that utilized scientific methods and experimentation to look at social behavior. Lewin was a seminal theorist whose enduring impact on psychology makes him one of the preeminent psychologists of the 20th century.
What This Means For You
Lewin’s field theory emphasized the importance of understanding how the relationship between the individual and the influences in their environment help shape behavior. Recognizing how your personal characteristics influence your environment and vice versa can provide a deeper, richer understanding of your own life.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Haggbloom SJ, Warnick JE, Warnick R, et al. The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology. 2002;6(2):139-152. doi:10.1037//1089-2680.6.2.139
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Lewin M. The impact of Kurt Lewin’s life on the place of social issues in his work. Journal of Social Issues. 1992;48(2):15-29. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1992.tb00880.x
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Miller ML. Lewin, Kurt. In: Rieber RW, ed. Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories. New York: Springer; 2012. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_358
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Grunberg NE, McManigle JE, Barry ES. Using social psychology principles to develop emotionally intelligent healthcare leaders. Front Psychol. 2020;11:1917. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01917
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Lewin K, Lippitt R, White RK. Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created “social climates”. The Journal of Social Psychology. 1939;10:269-308. doi:10.1080/00224545.1939.9713366
Additional Reading
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Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology. Biography of Kurt Lewin.
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Smith MK. Kurt Lewin: Groups, experiential learning and action research. In: The Encyclopedia of Pedagogy and Informal Education. Updated June 20, 2013.
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Kurt Lewin. Encyclopaedia Brittanica. Updated February 8, 2020.
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