Kurt LewinBorn 9 Sep 1890; died 12 Feb 1947 at age 56. German-American psychologist who originated the field theory of behaviour. He was among the first to apply laboratory techniques to everyday behavior. He would always formulate a problem in terms of a theory to be tested in experiments. His approach was to study the forces leading to action. Thus he described behaviour as the outcome of positive and negative forces affecting the individual at a given moment. This needed consideration of two kinds of factors, those of the person and those of his psychological environment. Thus his field theory is an approach to the study of human behavior, rather than a theory which has content which can be used for explanatory, predictive, or control purposes.« |
