Lewin, Kurt

views updated

Lewin, Kurt (1890–1947) A German-born social psychologist who moved to America in the early 1930s and worked mainly at the University of Iowa and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His holistic field theory, derived from Gestalt theory but with added social and motivational elements, sees individual behaviour as a function of the psychological field or life-space–that is, the individual and an environment, which is perceived by the individual in terms of his or her needs and goals.

More From encyclopedia.com