ABSTRACT
Problem solving in the traditional accounts was described as "instrumentally guided," the process of a single "goal-directed act," or series of such acts, utilizing what "means" were available in the "situation," overcoming or going around "barriers" and leading to a single "goal." These were essentially the main elements included in the various theoretical descriptions of the time as to what constituted the "definition of the situation" by the actor. R. Lewin conceptual scheme of the "life space" was essentially the same scheme, with a few more refinements and complications, such as "level of reality." His famous bathtub-shaped diagram illustrates a problem-solving agent poised to move from one end of the tub-shaped field toward a specific goal at the other end. Social interaction consists of initial actions and subsequent reactions. In a very approximate way in most intact groups there is a tendency toward what might be called a "reasonable interactive continuation" between these two elements.
