Kurt Lewin

Kurt Lewin (1890–1947) is often called the father of social psychology, although this can be disputed. Lewin established a reputation in Germany for his work on affect and motivation when these topics were considered to be outside the scope of psychological research. He escaped the Nazis and started work in social psychology at the University of Iowa. In 1945, he established the Research Center for Group Dynamics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with faculty and students who formed modern experimental social psychology. He also established the Commission on Community Interrelationships and helped to found the T Group movement. Lewinian Field Theory stressed that behavior is a function of the person and the environment, or B = f (p, e).