Kurt Lewin and Groups

Class #4

In this class we talked about Kurt Lewin, who was one of the most important social psychologists and created a lot of terms and concepts that are part of the lexicon now. For example: group dynamics, running meetings, the idea of providing feedback when doing group research, action research, the "unfreeze, move, and refreeze" model of research. In my opinion, his ability to create a visual (a drawing) to develop a theory of what was going on with the groups he was observing was one of the best techniques and pieces of information on Kurt Lewin. Drawing allows us to observe, think, summarize, symbolize, and isolate problems. It also let us think (or dream?) of solutions for those problems. Since Lewin was the grandfather of the flip chart, I believe drawing and charts should describe Lewin more accurate than just group dynamics, for example.

 One point the class didn't mention--at least, I don't remember--is the fact that Kurt Lewin had a very strong idea of family. First, when he refused to teach in Germany during the Nazi regime, he argued that he would not teach where his children were not welcomed. Second, in at least one of the drawings he sees the groups as two families: the husband's family and the wife's family. When we work, our co-workers become our family (this idea has been mentioned several times in class). I believe I like more Kurt Lewin's ideas and contributions to the social sciences than Frederick Taylor's contributions.

We also formed groups and chose topics for the group presentations we well have at the end of the semester. It was fun! And I suspect that the process was part of the Kurt Lewin's contributions.