Another area of his research was in pursuit of finding out why groups are so unproductive. Kurt Lewin is perhaps best-known for developing Force Field Analysis, using Force Field Diagrams. Usually, there is a planned change described at the top, and two columns below. Driving forces are listed in the left column, and restraining forces in the right column. Arrows are drawn towards the middle.
Longer arrows indicate stronger forces.
The idea is to understand and make explicit all the forces acting on a given issue. Kurt Lewin was one of the first to conduct a systematic analysis of an issue fundamental to social and personality psychology, namely the relative contributions of personality and social environment to human behavior. Additionally, Lewin strongly emphasized the complementarily of basic and applied research. An immigrant from Germany, Kurt Lewin was born in 1890. In 1933, after receiving a Ph. D. from the University of Berlin in 1916 and serving in the German Army, he came to the United States.