[B = f(P,E)] = The Lifespace

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Royal
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[B = f(P,E)] = The Lifespace

Post by Royal » Thu Aug 28, 2014 4:42 am

What is the best way to understand human personality and behavior? Is it by studying individual differences? Or should we think of a person in the context of his or her total life? Kurt Lewin chose the latter, stating that behavior (B) is function (f) of the person (P) and the environment (E): B = f(P,E). In 1936, influenced by German psychologist Martha Muchow, he published a paper in which he called the equation the formula for lifespace. Lewin was trained in the Gestalt tradition - that is, he was trained to always consider the parts in the context of the whole. He is well known for his statement that "There is nothing so practical as a good theory."

Lewin was at the University of Berlin until he left for the United States in 1933 (because of the Nazis). In Berlin, he and his students conducted an impressive and influential body of research, such as Bluma Zeigarnik's research on memory for completed and uncompleted tasks. Many women found places as graduate students with Lewin, which may have reflected a desire from early in his career, when he wrote that he wanted to liberate "woman from the conventional restrictions on their freedom".

After two years in the United States, at Cornelll, Lewin moves to the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station at the University of Iowa, where he studied group behavior. His studies of children working under different leadership types - authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire - found that the democratic group was the most productive. His interests in group behavior took on new importance after he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to set up the Research Center for Group Dynamics. He coined the term group dynamics to describe the active processes of groups in action. The studies of leadership in the context of groups led to the first encounter groups (small groups of individuals brought together to problem-solve and gain self-awareness), based on what Lewin called sensitivity training.

Lewin's legacy - the study of group dynamics, the field of organizational behavior, and social justice research and action - used psychology to make a more human world.


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Pigeon
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Re: [B = f(P,E)] = The Lifespace

Post by Pigeon » Thu Aug 28, 2014 5:04 am

It seems to me that our country started down a road less beneficial for the average person in 2001, the first year of the 21st century. So much for all the writings about the cool stuff to make life great in 21. It just eases the pain.

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Royal
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Re: [B = f(P,E)] = The Lifespace

Post by Royal » Thu Aug 28, 2014 5:29 am

In 2001, Economics teacher in Senior year of HS said "this event will change everything..."

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