The Lewin Legacy: Field Theory in Current Practice

ISBN-13: 9780387963525 / Angielski / Miękka / 1986 / 282 str.

Eugene Stivers; Susan Wheelan

Opis

I have attended quite a few conferences and meetings devoted to the ideas of Kurt Lewin. Among these the 1984 conference at Temple was out standing for its high quality. What made it so successful? Several things. The conference included a stimulating mix of generations. The first generation of women who obtained their Ph. D. 's in psychology in Berlin in the 1920's strike me as a remarkable group. Now in their 80's, they are characterized by enormous vigor and energy. They are still professionally active. Two of them - Tamara Dembo and Maria Rickers Ovsienkina - joined us. Other participants in the Temple conference had been in Iowa in the 1930's and 1940's, or at MIT. Of course there were many who had learned about Lewin from their own teachers, and in some cases, their teachers' teachers. There was a good mixture of ap plied psychologists and academics. Father said on several occasions that he did not want to found a school of psychology as such. Rather he wanted to introduce the field theoretical viewpoint and approach. I think he would have been stimulated by and enthusiastic about the many diverse areas to which Lewinian analy ses, ideas, and concepts are applied today, as illustrated by this volume. He would have been pleased to see so many people applying basic theoreti cal concepts to important social problems. Father loved to discover new things about America."

Spis treści

I: Lewin, then and now.- Approach as a description of the nature of scientific activity: Some reflections and suggestions.- Kurt Lewin and American psychology: An ambivalent relationship.- Lewin’s sphere of influence from Berlin.- The man in transition: Kurt Lewin and his times.- Kurt Lewin’s influence on social emotional climate research in Germany and the United States.- Theoretical positions of Kurt Lewin and Egon Brunswick — controversial or complementary points of view?.- Lewin and current developmental theory.- Lewin and social science: A theoretical note.- II: Practical Theory.- A. Therapy-mental health-interpersonal relations.- Kurt Lewin’s influence on the field of mental health.- Understanding enrichment and therapy in marriage: The legacy of Kurt Lewin.- Lewinian theory in clinical practice.- Kurt Lewin: Intergroup relations and applications in current action research.- Application of Lewin’s life space concept to the individual and group-as-a-whole systems in group psychotherapy.- B. Edúcation.- Action research as a guiding principle in an educational curriculum: The Lincoln University Master’s Program in Human Services.- Kurt Lewin’s influence on business education.- Children in cooperation and competition: The role of entitlement and deservedness.- Participants as consultants to themselves.- C. Organizational and human resources development.- The quality circle phenomenon.- Using graduate students as consultants to teach action research to residence hall staff.- Teaching force field analysis: A suggested training design.- Utilizing Lewinian principles for an institutional planning process within a medical school.- Organizational processes in a University department: A report of an action research and organizational development project.- D. Community psychology and community action.- Environmental psychology and action research: Lewin’s legacy.- Community action research in North Philadelphia.- Report of an action research project: The Hunting Park community leaders survey — problems and prospects for park preservation.- A practical theory for optimal intergroup-initiated encounters: The Arab-Jewish case.- E. Research lines.- Support, reference, and gatekeeping functions within the interpersonal field: Lewin contributions.- A continuation of Lewinian research in the study of cooperation and competition.- New paradigm research.- A neo-Lewinian action research method.- The effects of affirmative action on minority persons: Research in the Lewinian tradition.