Kurt Lewin:
photocredit: nndb
"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."
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/lewin.htm
"Hall and Lindzey (1978: 386) summarize the central features of Kurt Lewin’s field theory as follows:
Behaviour is a function of the field that exists at the time the behaviour occurs,
Analysis begins with the situation as a whole from which are differentiated the component parts, and
The concrete person in a concrete situation can represented mathematically.
Kurt Lewin also looked to the power of underlying forces (needs) to determine behaviour and, hence, expressed ‘a preference for psychological as opposed to physical or physiological descriptions of the field’ (op. cit.).
In this we can see how Kurt Lewin drew together insights from topology (e.g. lifespace), psychology (need, aspiration etc.), and sociology (e.g. force fields – motives clearly being dependent on group pressures). As Allport in his foreword to Resolving Social Conflict (Lewin 1948: ix) put it, these three aspects of his thought were not separable. ‘All of his concepts, whatever root-metaphor they employ, comprise a single well-integrated system’. It was this, in significant part, which gave his work its peculiar power."
Hall, C.S. and Lindzey, G., 1978. Theories of Personality 3e, New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Lewin, K. (1948) Resolving social conflicts; selected papers on group dynamics. Gertrude W. Lewin (ed.). New York: Harper & Row, 1948.
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm
"Few people have had as profound an impact on the theory and practice of social and organizational psychology as Kurt Lewin. Though I never knew him personally I was fortunate during my graduate school years at Harvard's Social Relations Dept. in 1949-50 to have been exposed to Alex Bavelas and Douglas McGregor, who, in my mind embodied Lewin's spirit totally. As I will try to show in this essay, Lewin's spirit and the assumptions that lay behind it are deeply embedded in my own work and that of many of my colleagues who practice the art of "Organization Development." This essay will attempt to spell out some of Lewin's basic dictums and show their influence in my own and others' contemporary work. I will endeavor to show how my own thinking has evolved from theorizing about "planned change" to thinking about such processes more as "managed learning."
I. "There is Nothing So Practical as a Good Theory:" Lewin's Change Elaborated
The power of Lewin's theorizing lay not in a formal propositional kind of theory but in his ability to build "models" of processes that drew attention to the right kinds of variables that needed to be conceptualized and observed. In my opinion, the most powerful of these was his of the change process in human systems. I found this to be fundamentally necessary in trying to explain various phenomena I had observed, and I found that it lent itself very well to refinement and elaboration."
Edgar H. Schein
Professor of Management Emeritus
MIT Sloan School of Management
http://www.a2zpsychology.com/ARTICLES/KURT_LEWIN'S_CHANGE_THEORY.HTM
Kurt Lewin's Change
For Biographical details and more detail on his theories
This is the that everyone knows and uses - unfreezing, changing, and refreezing which is the theoretical foundation upon which change theory is built. There's a very useful article by Edgar Schein on Lewin's and how useful it has been to him, the way in underpins his 'process consultation' and the uses it can be put to in order to aid learning. It also has some interesting observations on the way consultants have used the change down the years. Lewin said that we cannot understand an organization without trying to change it, therefore consultants cannot make an adequate diagnosis without intervening. As he points out we are not scientists trying to pretend we can keep it all separate. The error consultants make 'is to separate the notion of diagnosis from the notion of intervention.'
Most organisational textbooks and group texts will have an overview of Kurt Lewin and his theories. He wrote some time ago but his ideas have stood the test of time.
Lewin's field theory: A field is defined as "the totality of coexisting facts which are conceived of as mutually interdependent"
a. behavior is a function of the field that exists at the time the behavior occurs
b. analysis begins with the situation as a whole from which are differentiated the component parts
c. the concrete person in a concrete situation can represented mathematically.
Lewin, K. A dynamic theory of personality. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1935.
Lewin, K. Principles of topological psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1936
Lewin, K. Field theory in social science; selected theoretical papers. D. Cartwright (Ed.). New York: Harper & Row, 1951"
http://www.onepine.info/mgrp2.htm
Lewin's equation
Lewin's Equation is a psychological equation of behavior developed by Lewin. It states that behavior is a function of the person and his or her environment [1]. The equation is a foundation of social psychology, which is largely considered to be "fathered" by Lewin. When first presented in Lewin's book Principles of Topological Psychological, 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 [2].
Bibliography
- Marrow, Alfred J. The Practical Theorist: The Life and Work of Kurt Lewin (1969, 1984) ISBN 0-934698-22-8 (Marrow studied as one of Lewin's students)
- Miner, J.B. (2005). Organizational Behavior: Behavior 1: Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.
- White, Ralph K., and Ronald O. Lippitt, Autocracy and Democracy (1960, 1972) ISBN 0-8371-5710-2 (White and Lippitt carried out the research described here under Lewin as their thesis-advisor; Marrow's book also briefly describes the same work in chapter 12.)
- Weisbord, Marvin R., Productive Workplaces Revisited (2004) ISBN 0-7879-7117-0 (Chapters 4: Lewin: the Practical Theorist, Chapter 5: The Learning Organization: Lewin's Legacy to Management.) "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Lewin
Force field analysis - brief article at accel-team.com
Kurt Lewin - timeline and and brief biography - prepared by Julie Greathouse plus a brief description of his theoretical contribution to psychology
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm
from:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm
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bravenet.com