Biography
Psychologist Kurt Levin - a leaving from Nazi Germany, who refused to live under the nest of Adolf Gilter and succeeded in the United States of America. Many issues under consideration today are fundamental in science - the level of claims, game situations, field theory. Kurt Levin is called the founder of social psychology, because it was one of the first to study the group dynamics.Childhood and youth
Kurt Levin appeared on September 9, 1890 in a Jewish family in gravestone. Today it is the city of Poland, and in childhood a psychologist - a village with a population of about 5 thousand people, which was part of the German Empire.
Kurt Levin's parents belonged to the middle class. His father Leopold owned by a universal and farm, and the last only formally, because by the laws of that time, the Jews could not dispose of the earth.
In 1905, the family moved to Berlin for the time that Kurt and the three of his brothers receive a decent education. Until 1908, the boy fastened the classic humanitarian science at Kaiserin Augusta Gymnasium, and then scientists began.
Levin studied medicine in the University of Freiburg in 1909, then made a choice in favor of biology and turned into the University of Munich. April 1910 German met in Berlin University, again interested in medicine. By the 1st semester of 1911, Levin's interests were shone towards philosophy, and six months later, a significant part of the young man's schedule was lecture on psychology. In her, the German found exactly what he was looking for so long.
The First World War found Kurt Levin in the army. Without wishing to go to the front, the young man returned to Berlin University to get a doctoral degree. His dissertation was overseen by Karl Stampf, one of the leading German psychologists.
Personal life
In 1917, Maria Landsberg became his wife Kurt Levin. In 1919, they had daughter Esther Agnes, and in the 1922th Son Fritz Raven. In the second half of the 1920s, their personal life began to crack on the seams. Spouses divorced in 1927, and Landsberg decided to immigrate to Palestine with children.Kurt Levin shortly for women's care. Already in 1929, he marked with Gertuda Weiss, who gave birth to him two children: in 1931, daughter Miriam appeared per light, and in the 1933th son Daniel. Wife survived Levin for 40 years and died in 1987.
Psychology
Career climbing Kurt Levin began in Germany, although most scientific achievements have already made a citizen of the United States of America.
In the early stages, Levin turned to behavioral psychology, then departed towards Gestalt Psychology. Students of the University of Berlin University became "experimental rabbits". The German followed their motivation, taking a study, stress resistance while reading lectures, even made photos to keep in mind one or another social point.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and the Jews were in a disadvantage. Before the situation reached a peak, Levin immigrated to the United States, and in 1940 he became a citizen of this country. The psychologist even asked to pronounce his surname as Luin, on the American manner.
Levin turned out to be particularly useful in 1946 - Director of the Interracial Commission of Connecticut asked the psychologist to come up with an effective way to combat religious and racial prejudices. The German suggested that today is called "Group Psychotherapy". It implies a meeting, an exchange of views, because people should learn more about each other before forming an estimated judgment.
American psychologist Karl Rozders called group psychotherapy "Perhaps the most significant social invention of the XX century."
The group represented a special interest for Kurt Levin. On studying the behavior of a separate member in the context of the Group and founded most of the theories of the psychologist. For example, the phenomenon of leadership, classification of guidelines and behavior change models.
Levin, thoughts expressed a significant impact on social psychology and conflictology. Among his bright followers is the author of the theory of cognitive dissonance, Leon Festinger, an ecologist-psychologist Rozder Barker, founder of modern theory and practices of conflict resolution Morton Doych.
Kurt Levin changed the approach of specialists to psychology as science, because, unlike many, the German made focus on practice, and the rest relied on the theory.
The scientist argued that "Applied Studies can be carried out with all the severity of the theory" and that "the study of psychology at the level of the theory contradicts the nature of the social sciences." In an effort to prove the significance of the practice, Levin became a "master to transform the daily problem in a psychological experiment." As a test, he used himself sometimes.
SPORTY SPORTY DEPARTMENT Time Kurt Levin dedicated the concept of Jewish migration and identity. He was embarrassed by the next fact: why, even if a person was distancing from his Jewish identity from the point of view of religion and submission, he remained a Jew in the eyes of the Nazis. In this issue, the Levin's native Germany was eloquently reflected. The conclusions made them were embodied in books and scientific works.
The Second World War touched Levin only indirectly. Performing your duty, the psychologist was engaged in rehabilitation of convicts and concluded concentration camps.
Death
Biography Kurt Levin broke out on the 56th year of life - February 12, 1947 in Newtonville, Massachusetts. The cause of the death of a psychologist served as a heart attack. The body rests on the memorial cemetery of his hometown grave.Bibliography
- 1935 - "Dynamic Personality Theory"
- 1936 - "Principles of topological psychology"
- 1938 - "Conceptual representation and measurement of psychological forces"
- 1948 - "Resolution of social conflicts: Selected articles on group dynamics of 1935-1945"
- 1951 - "Field theory in social science"
- 1997 - "Resolution of social conflicts and field theory in social sciences"