Presented by: Marry Jane R. Sioson

September 12, 2015

FIELD THEORY

CONTENTS

• Field theory

• Kurt Lewin’s Life Sketch

• Lewin’s Field Theory

• Edward Chase Tolman’s Life Sketch

• Tolman’s Cognitive Field theory

FIELD THEORY• Field theory in psychology bears some relation to the notions of

fields in physics,

• Field theory in psychology consider that an organism is affected by factors in the field which surrounds it.

• Proposed that behavior is the result of the individual and the environment.

• Had a major impact on social psychology

Born in Mogilno, German

Received his Ph.D in psychology at the University of Berlin in 1914.

In his early years he was associated with the Gestalt Psychologist Wertheimer and Kohler.

Began his early studies on associations, which was a significant departure from the Gestalt ideas.

KURT LEWINLife Sketch (1890-1947)

CONTINUATION….

• From the gestaltist, Lewin borrowed the concept of a field. This was not the isomorphic brain field which they stressed, but an environmental field containing one or more persons.

• When Hitler came to power, Lewin left Germany and came to the United States. He became a professor at Cornell University from 1933-1935 and then was at the University of Iowa Child Welfare Station for ten years.

• In 1945 he was appointed professor and Director of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until hid untimely death the following year at the age of 56.

LEWIN’S SYSTEM

Lewin considered to be a topological and vectoral psychology.

Topology- is a form of geometry in which the concepts of “inside, outside”, and boundary” are used.

However, his analogy to topology is rather superficial

Vectoral- describe resolution of forces

usually represented by an arrow

the length referring to the degree of force and the direction allowing for the line of application.

THE LIFE SPACE

• Was a psychological space in which the person moved. It constituted the totality of facts that determined the behavior of an individual at any one time.

• Behavior was a function of the Life space

B= f L

• The purpose of psychology was to determine the behavior of an individual from all the psychological facts that existed in the life space at any moment.

• Foreign bull - the facts that existed outside the life space.

• “The life space existed for the individual, and the individual existed within the life space.”

life space

quasi-physical, quasi-social, and quasi- conceptual.

This is psychological rather than physical field, although in some cases.

Psychological construct, one which was designed to account for all the events that influenced a person at the time of examination.

CONTINUATION…

• Life space could be divided into regions which were divided by boundaries. Each region might constitute a psychological fact was not merely an observable thing like a table instead they could be a social or intellectual event or something simply inferred.

P ce c Tm

i pr + G

Situation of Boy Who Wants to be a Physician

DIMENSIONS OF BOUNDARIES

• nearness-remoteness- In this figure establishing a practice and becoming a physician as the goal were near, while college was a more remote region.

• firmness-weakness- passing an examination could be a difficult task before allowing the person to move into the next region, that of medical school. The number of regions in the life space was determined by the number of facts that existed at any particular time.

Situation of Boy Who Wants to be a Psychologist

THE PERSON

• The person always existed in the life space and was usually designated by the letter P. Like the life space it could be subdivided into interconnected and interdependent units as indicated in the diagram below.

Motoric regions

Peripheral stratum

of the inner region Central stratum of the inner region

Diagram of a person, Showing the Inner-Personal and Motoric Regions

• The outer part represented the perceptual-motor region, that which had closest contact with the outside world. One perceived and reacted to it.

• There was an inner core called the inner-personal region. These internal cells could be thought of as traits or psychological characteristics.

• As one grew older, one became more differentiated– that is, one developed more separate modes of acting. This was represented by more inner cells. The new born was rather undifferentiated and would have few inner-personal regions.

HODOLOGICAL SPACE

• “hodos” meaning pathway.

• For Lewin, the characteristics of a given path varied according to the situation, and the direction depended on the properties of the entire field.

• Through Locomotion one might move from one region to another according to a given pathway.

• Ex. A college teacher might move from the region of instructor through assistant and associative professor and finally to the region of full professor.

Locomotion in Life Space

The figure shows the path of locomotion from region A to region G.

This could represent planning a trip where the regions B, D, and E represented places one might wish to visit before achieving one’s final destination at G.

The regions of C and F were other possibilities which the person had chosen to ignore

LEVELS OF REALITY

• Thus far we considered only a two- dimensional life space. This was what Lewin called the level of reality. But there were levels if “irreality” in which imaginary locomotion might take place.

Representation of Different Degrees of Reality

R

I

Representation of Different Degrees of Reality

R, more real level; I, more irreal level P, person. In a level of greater reality the barriers are stronger and the person, P is more clearly separated from the environment

In the figure below the first level R, one might be asked to join a fraternity/ sorority and move directly into the appropriate region. The heavy line could represent a barrier, perhaps between the person and another fraternity/sorority to which the person was not invited.

The second level was usually one of thinking or planning. The regions at the second level were more flexible. The third level, that of greatest “irreality” might be pure fantasy.

THE TIME DIMENSIONTime Perspective in Planning

The figure represents the present and the future. Also, the two levels of reality was also represented. The sequences of events started from left to right. The two levels of reality came closer as one extended to the future. There was less differences between reality and irreality as something planned was more nearly achieved.

In the first stage, Present the plan made the person nearer to the goal on the irreality dimension but in the final stage.

Future reality and irreality were the same. The goal was reached in thought and act.

MOTIVATION

• Lewin’s concept of motivation, which perhaps the crux of his theories and the focus of most of its research, involved a number of constructs;

• Energy

• Tension

• Need

• Valence

• Force or Vector

• EnergyAs in other theorist, Psychoanalysis for example. Lewin

considered a person as a complex energy system, and like Freud, he felt the energy performed psychological work and was psychic rather than physical.

• Tensionsimply stated, tension was a state of disequilibrium between a

person and the environment. It arose when there was lack of balance the forces in his psychological environment.

One of the earliest examples to demonstrate tension and its reduction was found in an experiment by Zeigarnik. She presumed that first , tension were not relieved as would ordinarily occur if the task were completed, the presence of tension would result in greater recall of the incomplete tasks. The achievement of a goal relieved the tension.

• Back in her lab, Zeigarnik pursued this idea and ran some experiments (Zeigarnik, 1927) involving the completion of various tasks or puzzles. Some of the subjects performing the tasks were interrupted, then everyone was asked to describe what tasks they had done. Ratio of recalled unfinished tasks (RU) to recalled completed task was 1:9

• Like the waiters remembering what orders still needed to go to what tables, subjects were far more likely to recall the tasks they had started but hadn’t completed.

• NeedsNeeds gave rise to tension. Although Lewin preferred to keep his system of a

purely psychological level he did allow physiological conditions such as hunger, thirst and sex might arouse tension, but there were other purely psychological needs. The desire to do something, such as completing a task, could constitute a need.

A need was the result of some inner state in the tension system of a person, and it was general. A quasi need was a more specific intention, such as watching a particular TV show or a special restaurant.

• Valencereferred to the particular attractiveness or repulsion of an object in the life

space to which we were attracted had positive valences and were indicated by a + sign. The negative ones were indicated by a - sign. Some objects have no valence at all.

• A person would tend to move through his or her life space in the direction of positive valence. By contrast, those objects in a region in life space which the person moved away from had negative valences.

• Valences were coordinated with needs.

ex. If one were not hungry, food has no positive valence , but a very thirsty person, a glass of beer might have a strong positive valence. Lewin considered valence in a quantitative way. They could be strong, moderate or weak.

• Life space may contain several regions likewise with valences existing at the same time.

Ex. Two positive valences adient-adient conflict

Two negative valences avoidance-avoidance conflict

• In moving through the life space toward a region with a positive valence one might encounter a barrier, that is some object or event that obstructed the movement. In this instances, it was possible for the barrier that is some object or event that obstructed the movement.

Ex. Supposed we wished to enter a fashionable restaurant in front of which stood a fancy dressed doorman. Because we did not have a reservation or were improperly dressed, we were not allowed to enter. The doorman became a barrier and took on a negative valence which drove us away.

(negative valence produced by a barrier on a positive valence

According to Lewinian theory, as the distance between a person and an object is increased, the attractiveness of the valence is decreased. On the other hand as a child came closer to a toy, its positive valence is increased.

Another Lewinian hypothesis with regard to valence was that an obstructed goal (introduced barrier) developed a stronger positive valence for the object.

“ that is, the grass on the other side of the river looks greener”

VECTORS OR FORCES• Force or vector constituted the push which directed a person toward a goal. The force

might be directed toward or away from the object and was correlated with the object’s valence. Force was not the same as tension for it was an aspect of the psychological environment.

P

Three properties:

• Direction, as toward or away from an object

• Strength as correlated with the degree of attraction or repulsion of a valence

• Point of contact

The longer the line, the greater the strength of the vector. In a conflcit situation there were two opposing vectors.

P

CONFLICT

Approach-approach conflict the person is placed in a situation in which a choice must be made between two objects or conditions both of which have equal positive valence (=) and whose vectors are pushing the person in opposite directions.

Example: while dining at a restaurant a person might have to choose either chicken or steak, both of which are equally desirable

• Avoidance- Avoidance conflict, a choice must be made between two obejcts or situations, both which have negative valences (-) or a person may be pushed in opposite directions by two unequally unattractive or unpleasant conditions.

example: supposed a boy is invited in a birthday party given by a girl whom he dislikes, if he refuses to attend, his mother will spank him severely.

• Approach-avoidance conflict the obejct or situation has both positive and negative valences at the same time, so the person is both attracted and repelled by it.

example: One could be offered an attractive job, but its location is in the middle of nowhere. “ Lobster is my favorite dish, but look on the menu, the price is $25 per serving.

DIFFERENTIATION• Both Life space and inner-personal regions became more differentiated through time.

• The adult had many more inner tensions system as well as more possible life space regions. If a person regressed in his behavior, his personality became differentiated.

A research was conducted to children to measure differentiation through child’s play.

Children are first placed in a free play situation where they where presented various toys. They were allowed to play, and the general characteristics of their lay were rated as to age. Then the children were introduced to a much elegant play situation. After playing in the new situation a screen was lowered and the children returned to their original play setting. This constituted a situation of frustration in which a barrier had been introduced. As a result of the frustration, the regression represented a dedifferentiation of the personality.

LEWIN’S CONCEPTION OF THE INNER- PERSONAL REGIONS OF A NORMAL AND RETARDED CHILD

Normal child has more cells, because she has developed more traits and behavioral characteristics while the retarded child has fewer cells and the boundaries are firmer and thicker indicates that there is less communication between the systems.

GROUP DYNAMICS• In his later years Lewin directed his attention to problems of social psychology.

• Just as the person life space constituted the psychological field, the group and its environment formed the social field. One of the fundamental characteristics of the social field was the relative position of the members who constituted the group.

• The group was subject to cohesive and disruptive forces. Disruptive forces arose out of two strong barriers between members which hampered communication or out of conflict between an individuals goals and those of the group.

• When the relations between members were attractive, cohesive forces were operating, as when the group was in a position to satisfy the needs of its members.

MIND AND BODY PROBLEM

• Lewin was not concerned with the mind body problem in the same manner as the earlier theorist. In his system the problem took much more sophisticated form. Nevertheless, the system was dualistic. Life space was both physical and mental. A clear distinction between the two was difficult to make.

• Further, Lewin delighted in using hypothetical, mentalistic constructs some as psychic energy, tension systems, valence and vector. The vector was some kinf of hidden force which somehow pushed a person towards a path. Likewise, the tension states and needs were purely hypothetical. The solution seemed to be one of psychophysical interaction, all of which took place in a psychophysical life space.

• Started his career as an engineer, studying at the M.I.T. however, he changed to psychology and received his Ph.D at Harvard in 1915.

• May text on theories and systems in psychology treat Tolman in chapters or section devoted to behaviorism.

• Tolman consider himself a “purposive behaviorist.” However, as he began to develop his ideas greater emphasis was made on cognition-how the organism perceives and knows.

• Tolman was influences by a number of theorist namely: Watson, Mcdougall, Woodworth, Kurt Lewin and even Sigmund Freud.

TOLMAN’S COGNITIVE FIELD THEORYLife Sketch 1886-1959

CONTINUATION..

• He developed a distaste for Watson’s behaviorism because he disliked “mechanistic behaviorism reductionistic perspectives” He believed individuals do more than merely respond to stimuli; they act on beliefs attitudes, changing conditions and they strive toward goals.

• His purposive behaviorism is often considered the bridge between behaviorism and cognitive theory. Based on Tolman’s theory of Sign Learning and organism learns by pursuing signs to a goal that learning is acquired through meaningful behavior.

• Tolman’s Theory has had a number of names, in addition to purposive behaviorsm. These latter terms express how he viewed the ways an organism learns.

• For Tolman, learning was a cognitive matter a matter involving the whole organism rather than a simple chain of reflexes.

TOLMAN’S SYSTEM• Tolman considered behavior to be purposive, That is, it was goal oriented.

The direction an organism depended on the perception of the goal and the totality of the situation, along with the expectancies one developed with regard to the situation.

• LEARNING

He presumed an organism moved along a path guided by various stimuli both internal and external. The alternative which Tolman proposed was that one learned by signs. He put forth on the notion that there are three parts to learning which work together as a gestalt. These are the “significant” or the goal of the behavior, “sign” or signal for action, and “means end relations” which were internal processes and relationships.

COGNITIVE MAP • A visual/spatial representation of the environment.

• Tolman believed learning is an accumulation of these signs gestalt, and that they are then configured, which is ongoing, also influences behavior in that in causes certain gestalts to be selected or not, in relation to the individuals purpose or goals and other factors.

• Reinforcement has more impact on performance than learning.

Experiments

The sunburst maze (after Tolman et al. 1946). Rats were initially trained on the maze shown on the left. Rats were released at the starting point S and rewarded at the maze end R. After training, the rats were tested on the maze shown on the right. The original path out of the circular area was closed and forced the rats to select another arm. Rats primarily selected arms oriented toward the original reward location.

• Procedure

• In their study 3 groups of rats had to find their way around a complex maze. At the end of the maze there was a food box. Some groups of rats got to eat the food, some did not.

• Group 1: Rewarded

• Day 1 – 17: Every time they got to end, given food (i.e. reinforced).

• Group 2: Delayed Reward

• Day 1 - 10: Every time they got to end, taken out.

• Day 11 -17: Every time they got to end, given food (i.e. reinforced).

• Group 3: No reward

• Day 1 – 17: Every time they got to end, taken out.

In the experiment, they found that most of the rats picked a tunnel close to the original reward tunnel that led in the direction of the food, instead of one close to the original reward tunnel. The evidence supported the idea that rats navigate using a mental map

But if the rats were navigated through stimulus response, Tolman reasoned that they would choose the tunnel regardless of where it led, since that was closest to the stimulus with the pay-off.

• Results• The delayed reward group learned the route on days 1 to 10 and formed a cognitive map

of the maze. They took longer to reach the end of the maze because there was no motivation for them to perform. From day 11 onwards they had a motivation to perform (i.e. food) and reached the end before the reward group.

CONCLUSION

• This shows that between stimulus (the maze) and response (reaching the end of the maze) a mediational process was occurring the rats were actively processing information in their brains by mentally using their cognitive map.

• Reinforcement has an impact on performance not on learning.

• Learning may take place but not be revealed, without reinforcement. There is a difference between acquisition and performance.

ANALOGYHow to go to PUP Graduate School if your way is blocked?

SIX TYPES OF CONNECTIONS OR RELATIONS CAN BE LEARNED1. CATHEXES

Referred to an energy charge with which an actvity was invested. This was also equivalent to Lewin’s concept of valence. It amounted to an acquired relationships between a motivating situation and an object. Ex. A child developed a relationship between hunger and an ice cream cone.

2. EQUIVALENCE BELIEFS

Here, an organism reacted to a sub-goal (secondary reinforcement) in the same way it would to the actual goal.

3. FIELD EXPECTANCIES

These referred to the signs gestalt of the earlier statement.

4. FIELD COGNITION MODES

These were “higher order” modes of expectancy. They were dependent on previously learned field expectations. This amounted to a readiness to acquire new field expectancies in the areas of perception, memory and inference.

5. DRIVE DISCRIMINATION

Here. Tolman borrowed from Hull and Leeper. This involved of the movement, such as whether an animal were hungry or thirsty involved the directions of its activity.

6. MOTOR PATTERNS

Because he was basically not an S-R theorist, Tolman, needed some principle to account for his motor patterns, so he accepted Guthrie’s account of conditioning by contiguity.

INTERVENING VARIABLES• Tolman introduce intervening variables and defined it as inferred or non-observable

factors which intervened between the independent and dependent variables. For Tolman, they constituted the determination of behavior. Example is the cognitive map.

• KINDS OF INTERVENING VARIABLES:

1. the need system- inferred state of drive which could be physiological and psychological.

2. belief value system referred to inferred motives or a kind of preference for particular goal objects. As in Lewin’s theory, one could consider the objects as having a kind of valence or strength.

3. the behavior space was the space in which locomotion took place toward the objects. It was very similar to Lewin’s life space. Objects in space might attract or repel the organism. Thus, an object was

perceived as it was expected to be perceived.

Thank you!