Levin Kurt: biography, photo, achievements, experiments. Kurt Lewin's field theory is brief

Kurt Levin is a psychologist whose life and achievements history deserves special attention. This is the person who put his heart in making the world a little kinder, to regulate the relationships that arise in different social groups. He was a real humanist.

Kurt Levin: Biography

The future psychologist was born September 2, 1890 in the town of Mogilno, which was in the territory of the Prussian province of Posen (today it is the territory of Poland). At birth, the boy was named Tsadek. But such a name in Prussia did not bode well. For this reason, the boy was given a second name - Kurt.

The young man could hardly hope for a happy future in a remote province. However, in 1905 his family left his hometown and moved to Berlin. Kurt goes to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Freiburg, attends lectures on biology at the University of Munich.

Scientific activity

With the outbreak of the First World War, Levin was serving in the German army. There he made his first discovery. The future scientist found out that a person's worldview is completely dependent on the group and the environment with which he is connected. Thus, the researcher knew by his own example that soldiers could consider a dirty ditch a suitable shelter, and an even flowering lawn - the territory of death. Thus, Levin was able to prove that the perception of the world around the front-line soldiers is different from people's thinking in peacetime. Moreover, changes in consciousness occurred in all representatives of one community.

Levin Kurt, who was wounded during the service, was demobilized, which prompted him to continue working on his thesis at the University of Berlin.

Initially, Levin went deep into behavioral psychology. But over time, his studies have somewhat changed their direction towards gestalt psychology. This made it possible to work with representatives of this school, such as Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Köhler.

In 1933, Levin Kurt went to England, where he soon moved to the United States. At the same time, there was a meeting of the scientist with Eric Trist, who was impressed by Kurt's research while serving in the army.

Prior to that, Levin spent six months as a professor at Stanford, and then went to Cornell University. Soon Kurt was appointed director of the Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

1946 was a fateful year for Levin. He was asked to find a method that can overcome religious and racial prejudices. Kurt took up an experiment that later became known as "group psychotherapy." Such achievements have become an important element in the foundation of the National Training Laboratory.

After the Second World War, Kurt was engaged in psychological rehabilitation of former concentration camp prisoners.

Kurt Levin died on February 12, 1947 in the city of Massachusetts. An outstanding scientist is buried in his homeland. His death came at a speed after the opening of the center for the retraining of world leaders. Unfortunately, Kurt could not live to see the fulfillment of his dream.

Prerequisites for the discovery of "Field Theory"

The formation of field theory occurred under the influence of the achievements of exact sciences, in particular physics and mathematics. At the same time, Levine was fascinated by psychology, in which he also sought to introduce some precision. Thus, the main discovery of Levin in the post-war period was a psychological experiment. Before that time, it was considered that psychology was completely incompatible with this concept, because this science is based on such substances as the soul, emotions, character. In short, it was believed that psychology is closely related to what can not be studied under a microscope.

Kurt Lewin's field theory (briefly)

However, Levin went in the opposite direction, taking on the arsenal of tricks with a hidden camera. In the course of his experiments, the scientist put the subject in the room, where there were various objects: a book, a bell, a pencil and the like. Everyone began to make things with things. But to ring the bell was typical for everyone.

Kurt Levine's experiments led him to the conclusion that a person without a definite purpose is under the influence of external factors. All the subjects were characterized by such actions, which were, as it were, pushed by the subjects themselves. From this it followed that people, knocked out of the familiar environment, it is fairly easy to manage. After all, no participant in the experiment needed to take a pencil or ring a bell. Thus, the objects influenced the needs of the person, which the psychologist treated as some energy charges, provoking the stress of the subject. This state pushed the person to discharge, which consisted in satisfying the needs.

Thus, the field theory of Kurt Lewin, the summary of which is presented to your attention in the article, has become an original interpretation of human behavior. Thanks to her, it was proved that the set of actions completely depends on the specific conditions of the existing field.

The Specificity of Levin Kurt's Teaching

Psychological study of human behavior was reduced to a number of features:

1. Behavior should be analyzed in the context of the overall situation.
2. An individual in a separate situation appears mathematically.
3. Behavior is formed only by real events. What happened in the past or happen in the future, only slightly changes the composition of the field.
4. Identical at first glance, the behavior does not always provoke the same reasons.

Scientists introduced the concept of "generic identity." Kurt Levin, whose photo you see in the article, believed that the behavior of a person can not be conditioned by the character of a person or his upbringing. However, both of these are very significant. From this it follows that behavior is the result of the interaction of the individual and the situation.

Basic management methods

Levin Kurt, among other things, studied organizational management methods in groups. According to the scientist, they can be classified based on the leadership style. There are such basic styles:

1. Authoritarian. The person feels hostile because of the strong pressure of the group leader.
2. The democratic style consists in the joint development of a strategy based on collective processes, taking into account the opinion of the leader.
3. Complete non-interference. The essence of this style is that all decisions are made without the participation of the leader. He participates in the division of labor, only if he is asked to do so. Such a leader seldom praises anyone.

Activities of Kurt Levine in the research center

In 1944, Kurt Levin managed to found the Center for the Study of Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the same time he pursued purely altruistic goals. The scientist all his life hoped for approval in the world of humanism. In his opinion, all of humanity needs democracy, in order to soften its mores. To help the emergence of humanism, Kurt Levin tried with the help of group trainings.

The scientist is convinced that for the changes the social group needs to go through several stages:

• "Thawing";
• "change";
• "A new frost."

"Thawing" is a situation where the group is deprived of its habitual life and value priorities. In this period, she is completely at a loss. At the next stage, she is offered a new value and motivation system, after which the state of the group should again be "frozen".

By the way, it is Levin who owns the creation of a new type of communication between the psychologist and his client. Often, such communication is more like a conversation between a doctor and a patient. Kurt completely changed the strategy of building communication. His communication was like a dialogue between students and a professor.

Experiments of psychologist Kurt Levine

The research center, created by Kurt Levin, actively conducted trainings for employees of various enterprises. For example, Harwood Manufacturing Company applied to the psychologist's services with a complaint that with the introduction of any innovations the employees of the enterprise have been studying for a very long time, which leads to a drop in the level of productivity.

To solve the problem, Levin Kurt took three groups of employees and gave them tasks:

• The first group decided how best to work in the new process technology.
• The second group was to select several representatives who would be sent to the leadership in order to discuss the innovations.
• The third group, consisting of workers and managers, was to conduct a "brainstorm" on the development of new technology.

As a result of the experiment, it turned out that the best results were demonstrated by the last group. After that, the company's management received recommendations from an outstanding psychologist.

Followers of the scientist

Kurt Levin, whose achievements we have examined, is very popular. Scientists from different parts of the world develop his ideas, develop the "field theory". Among the people who continued the work of an outstanding psychologist, the author of the theory of cognitive dissonance, Leon Festinger, the researcher of environmental psychology Roger Barker, as well as the founders of the theory of conflict resolution Morton Deutsch and Bluma Zeigarnik.