Background
Back, Kurt Wolfgang was born on October 17, 1919 in Vienna. Arrived in the United States, 1938, naturalized, 1943. Son of Paul L. and Thekla E. (Fuchs) Back.
( Sensitivity training, T-Groups, and encounter groups ha...)
Sensitivity training, T-Groups, and encounter groups have become a way of life. Beyond Words traces the history of this movement, the background of its successes, its varieties, and its failures. Dr. Back's approach is neither one of wide-eyed admiration nor hostility. Instead, he has written a book that provides the first long, hard look at sensitivity training as a social phenomenon. From its fortuitous beginnings the movement is followed through its developments at Bethel, its growth across the country, its new centers in California, its spread to Europe. The novelty of this movement, an almost religious exercise based on the scientific ethos, is related to the peculiar conditions of the last quarter century. The movement has acquired its own mythos. Dr. Back examines the interplay of the conflicting aims of self-expression and change, and shows how these contradictory aims have affected the ramifications of the movement in theory, in management, in recreation, and in education. Results emerging from studies on effects of sensitivity training indicate a recurrent pattern of great immediate emphasis followed by little permanent beneficial effect. Finally, Beyond Words assesses the overall impact of the movement, its relation to science, its possible changes, and its portent as a symptom of the state of society. Dr. Back examines the interplay of the conflicting aims of self-expression and change, and shows how these contradictory aims have affected the ramifications of the movement in theory, in management, in recreation, and in education.
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Back, Kurt Wolfgang was born on October 17, 1919 in Vienna. Arrived in the United States, 1938, naturalized, 1943. Son of Paul L. and Thekla E. (Fuchs) Back.
Bachelor, New York University, 1940. Master of Arts, University of California at Los Angeles, 1941. Doctor of Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1949.
Statistician Aberdeen Proving Ground, 1946. Assistant study director Research Center Group Dynamics, 1946—1949. Social science analyst Bureau Census, 1949—1951.
Research associate Columbia University, 1951—1953, University Puerto Rico, 1953—1956, Conservation Foundation, 1955—1958. Research associate professor University North Carolina, 1956—1959. Associate professor Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 1959—1962, professor sociology and psychiatry, since 1962, James B. Duke professor sociology, since 1976, chairman department sociology, 1976—1981.
Served United States Army, 1943-1946.
( Sensitivity training, T-Groups, and encounter groups ha...)
( Sensitivity training, T-Groups, and encounter groups ha...)
Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science (chairman section K 1978-1979), Sociological Research Association (president 1981-1982), Southern Sociological Society, Population Association American, Southern Society Public Opinion Research 1983-1984, American Association Public Opinion Research, American Psychological Association, American Sociological Association.
Married Mary Louise Vincent, October 18, 1969. 1 child Allan T.