In 1949, he was elected President of the New York State Psychological Association and that same year he co-authored (with Donald L. Snygg) Individual Behavior: A New Frame of Reference for Psychology. This book presented a comprehensive and systematic framework for making better sense of human experience, behavior, and the relationship between the two. Known as "Perceptual Psychology" and later "Field Psychology," its primary assertion was that people behave in accordance with personal meanings or perceptions, especially how they perceive themselves, the situations they are in and the purposes they are trying to achieve. More recent formulations were published as Perceptual Psychology: A Humanistic Approach to the Study of Persons (with Anne C. Richards & Fred Richards, 1976), and Being and Becoming: A Field Approach to Psychology (1999).