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    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: KURT LEWIN
    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: KURT LEWIN
    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: KURT LEWIN
    Ebook79 pages56 minutes

    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: KURT LEWIN

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    Perfect for research assignments in psychology, science, and history, this concise study guide is a one-stop source for in-depth coverage of major psychological theories and the people who developed them. Consistently formatted entries typically cover the following: biographical sketch and personal data, theory outline, analysis of psychologist's place in history, summary of critical response to the theory, the theory in action, and more.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJan 27, 2015
    ISBN9781535831604
    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: KURT LEWIN

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      A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students - Gale

      scholarship.

      BIOGRAPHY

      Childhood and early life

      Kurt Lewin was born on September 9, 1890—what he himself called the ninth nine of 90 in the small town of Mogilno, which is now part of Poland. At the time of Lewin's birth, however, it belonged to imperial Germany. His father, Leopold Lewin, ran a small general store on the ground floor of the family's home. The Lewins also owned a small farm a few miles outside Mogilno, where Kurt acquired a love of nature and enjoyed the freedom to explore the nearby fields and forests. He also had his own garden and became a skilled amateur mechanic.

      Lewin's mother Recha was a warmhearted and energetic woman who reared her four children while she worked in the family store. Hertha, the firstborn child, was the only daughter. Kurt was the oldest of the three sons; his younger brothers were named Egon and Fritz. The family was close-knit and affectionate with one another. The Lewin family was not wealthy, but belonged to the financially secure middle class. Lewin's father served for a time as the president of the local synagogue.

      In 1905, however, Lewin's family moved from Mogilno to Berlin because the parents wanted to give their children a better education than small-town schools could provide. Kurt was enrolled in the Kaiserin Augusta Gymnasium, a very selective high school that prepared students for university entrance. He was not regarded as an outstanding student until his last two years at the Gymnasium, when he began to study Greek philosophy and fell in love with it.

      Lewin graduated from the Gymnasium in 1909 and entered the University of Freiburg, intending to study medicine and become a country doctor. He disliked the anatomy courses, however, and left Freiburg after one semester, transferring to the University of Munich. After completing one semester at Munich, Lewin transferred again—this time to the University of Berlin, where he remained until he completed his Ph.D. He took courses in philosophy instead of medicine, and found himself particularly attracted to the philosophy of science. One of Lewin's teachers suggested that he might find psychology interesting, and it was this suggestion that led to Lewin's work in the Psychological Institute of the University of Berlin. When the time came for Lewin to choose a director for his dissertation, he requested Carl Stumpf (1848–1936), who was the director of the university's Psychological Laboratory. Stumpf was a pioneer of the experimental method in psychology, which brought him into conflict with the reigning school of psychology in Germany in the 1890s. In addition to Stumpf, the other professor who made a deep impression on Lewin was Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945), who taught courses in philosophy of science. Lewin always admired Cassirer for encouraging him to push beyond the boundaries that limited the study of psychology at that time.

      While in graduate school, Lewin became involved with socialist groups that advocated a democratic government for Germany as well as legal and professional equality for women. He formed a group of nine or 10 students who organized evening classes for working-class men and women in subjects ranging from arithmetic and reading skills to history and geography. The informal school continued to enroll more and more students each year until the outbreak of World War I.

      World War I and early career

      Although Lewin was not eager to go to war, he volunteered to serve in the Kaiser's army after World War I broke out in 1914. He had already completed the requirements for his doctorate, but the degree itself was not conferred until 1916. Lewin served throughout most of the war, working his way up to the rank of lieutenant. He was wounded in 1917 and hospitalized, but his younger brother Fritz was killed in action. While Lewin was recovering, he published his first journal article, Kriegslandschaft or War Landscape, which was a preview of several of the concepts he developed in his later work, such as life space, boundary, and zone. That same year, he married Maria Landsberg, a close friend of his best friend's wife. Maria taught English and German in a high school for girls.

      The years between 1917 and 1921 were full of turmoil for German academics. In 1918, the Kaiser abdicated and fled to the Netherlands as the German army was defeated in France. Part of the Kaiser's former palace was used to house the University of Berlin, and the Psychological Institute was given several rooms to use for lectures and research. In 1921 Lewin was appointed a Privatdozent or university lecturer, but this position did not carry a salary; Privatdozenten were paid directly by their students. Lewin was well liked by his students, however, as he was much less formal than most European academics and encouraged his students to develop their own ideas. It was during this period also that Lewin began to add mathematical formulae and blackboard diagrams to his lectures. He taught courses in philosophy as well as psychology, and after 1924 began to supervise doctoral candidates as well. At a time when women were still not fully accepted in European universities, Lewin had an unusually large number of female doctoral candidates, many of them from the Soviet Union.

      PRINCIPAL PUBLICATIONS

      Kriegslandschaft [War Landscape]. Zeitschrift für angewandte Psychologie 12 (1917) 440–447.

      Der Begriff der Genese in Physik, Biologie und Entwicklungsgeschichte [The Concept of Origin in Physics, Biology, and the History of Evolution]. Berlin: Julius Springer Verlag, 1922.

      A Dynamic Theory of Personality: Selected Papers of Kurt Lewin, translated by Donald K. Adams and Karl E. Zener. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company,

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