Kurt Lewin: The Tough-Minded and Tender-Hearted Scientist

This paper presents a personal account of my experience with Kurt Lewin and attempts to characterize why he was such an effective scientific leader. Key points are Lewin's personal leadership style, his approach to theorizing and research, the substantive and methodological innovativeness of th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of social issues 1992-07, Vol.48 (2), p.31-43
Main Author: Deutsch, Morton
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Lewin, Kurt
Lewin, Kurt J
Personal profiles
Psychology
Science
Social research
Social Science
Theory
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper presents a personal account of my experience with Kurt Lewin and attempts to characterize why he was such an effective scientific leader. Key points are Lewin's personal leadership style, his approach to theorizing and research, the substantive and methodological innovativeness of the research done by Lewin and his students, his intense commitment to developing psychological knowledge that would be relevant to important human concerns, and his persistent attempt to develop ways of applying psychological knowledge to make the world a more humane habitat. The paper concludes by summarizing how my career in social psychology has been affected by Kurt Lewin.
ISSN:0022-4537
1540-4560
DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1992.tb00881.x