By Fritz Heider

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “We are here today to commemorate Kurt Lewin by honoring a man who "has furthered in his work the development and integration of pschological research and social action." The spirit of scientific inquiry into real world problems is precisely the spirit that the award commemorates and it is this characteristic which marks so distinctively the work of Fritz Heider.

As we all know so well, Lewin was always concerned with the new light that a good theory could throw upon a social problem or an every- day experience. "There is nothing so practical as a good theory" Lewin once remarked; and he believed that fi psychologists are going to contribute to social policy, one of the most important ways ni which they willdo it is by theoretical formulations that lay bare what "common sense" obscures.

The Journal Of Social Issues. 1959. No.13. 18p.

By Dorwin Cartwright

From the Introduction: “The Concept of Group Dynamics. The founding of the Center may be dated as during the academic year 1944-1945, when Kurt Lewin went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The origination of the idea of such a Center, however, occurred some time before that. Undoubtedly, the critical event was Kurt Lewin's move from Germany to the United States. Since, for him, psychology was not divorced from life, he immediately began ot devote his professional interests to the task of gaining a deeper understanding of the differences he observed between Germany and the United States in the period between the two World Wars…

The Journal Of Social Issues. 1958. No.12. 23p.