Lewin’s field psychology more preci

Lewin’s field psychology more precisely was called topological and vector psychology. In developing his psychology, he borrowed ideas and concepts from other disciplines, they key ones being topology from geometry and vector from physics. However, in using these and related concepts, he did not adhere rigidly to the definitions of their mother sciences but, instead, construed them in a manner most useful to his system of psychology. (The meanings of these concepts are developed in pages 193-195.)
The basic thesis of cognitive-field psychology is that each person, in keeping with his attained level of development and understanding does the best that he (she) knows how for whatever he thinks he is. In this process they “engage in behaviors which lead to the most valent goals.” One’s person, as used here, includes everything that one is involved in taking care of; it consists of every thing, idea, or principle with which one identifies one’s self and to which one gives one’s allegiance. The cognitive field theory of learning is closely related to, and derived from, cognitive and field psychological theories. The term cognitive is derived from the Latin verb cognoscere, which rheans “to know.” The cognitive aspect of cognitive field theory deals with the problem of how people gain an understanding of themselves and their environments and how, using their cognitions, they act in relation to their environments. A psychological field consists of the simultaneous concurrent interrelationships of a person and his psychological environment in any one situation. Hence, field theory in psychology centers on the idea that all psychological activity of a person, at a given juncture of time, is a function of a totality of coexisting factors that are mutually interdependent.
An astronomer uses field to describe the universe and predict the orbits of stars. A biologist relates the function of cells to their location in a growth field. A physicist uses field in his study of the structure of an atom. Similarly, a cognitive field oriented psychologist uses field to mean the total psychological world in which a person lives at a given time. It includes a psychological past, present, and future, and also a certain concrete or imaginative level of psychological reality—all interpreted as simultaneous aspects of a current situation.

What is the purpose of Cognitive-Field Learning Theory?
The purpose of cognitive-field psychology is to formulate tested relationships that are predictive of the behavior of individual persons in their specific life spaces os psychological situations. In order to understand and predict such behavior, one must consider a person and his psychological environment as a pattern of interdependent factors and functions. Cognitive field psychology is an interpersonal, social psychology that constitutes an effective vehicle for understanding people as interacting persons. In the interactive process a person and his psychological environment are construed as independent of, his environment. Likewise, a person’s environment is neither made by nor independent of him.
Within cognitive field theory, learning, briefly defined, is an interactional process within which a person attains new insights or cognitive structures or changes old ones. To promote learning effectively, teachers must concern themselves with other people. Therefore, the ideas of cognitive field psychology have been developed with the hope and expectation that they will help teachers do a better job of understanding other persons, but it may also help teachers understand themselves better. Because of its unique purpose, cognitive field psychology makes no attempt to describe some absolute reality that is just there independently of our experiencing it. Instead, it develops a psychological system that is fruitful in dealing with children and youth in learning situations. It has been formulated in an attempt to construct scientific principles that are highly applicable to classroom situations. Advocates of cognitive field psychology are convinced that in light of the present stage of scientific development, it is more likely than any other of which they are cognizant to lead to the most productive results in classroom procedures.
Within cognitive field psychology, one starts with a model of a person and the world around him as it is pertinent to that person. Learning is a modification of development of insight into the nature of the person’s world as represented by the model. Life space the psychological model contains the person himself; his psychological environment; the goals that the person is seeking; the negative “goals” that he (she) is attempting to avoid; the barriers between himself and his goals, which restrict his psychological movement toward them; and the potential and actual paths to his goals. (Psychological paths are way of achieving goals.) The purpose of the life space model is to enhance the prediction of psychological behavior that which is related to goals. As our knowledge of a child’s or youth’s life spaces increases, our ability to predict his behavior accurately also increases.
A cognitive field theory of learning describes how a person gains understanding of himself and his universe in a situation so construed that both his self and his psychological environment compose a totality of mutually interdependent, coexisting factors. It involves the kind of generalizations about learning that may be applied to actual persons in school situations and is associated with the knowing and understanding functions that give meaning to situations. It is built around the purposes that underlie behavior, the goals that are involved in behavior, and the person’s means and processes of understanding themselves and their environments as they function in relation to their goals. Any understandings that persons gain in regard to themselves and their worlds are generalized insights.