CHAPTER 12 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY Ms Wilson MS LPC

CHAPTER 12 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY Ms. Wilson, MS, LPC

TOPICS 1. Max Wertheimer (1880 -1943) 2. Kurt Koffka (1886 -1941) 3. Wolfgang Köhler (1887 -1967) 4. Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization 5. Gestalt Studies of Learning: Insight and the Mentality of Apes 6. Criticisms of Gestalt Psychology 7. Contributions of Gestalt Psychology

THE GESTALT REVOLT • At the same time as behaviorism was flourishing in the U. S. , Gestalt psychology was gaining popularity in Germany • Gestalt psychologists accepted the value of consciousness while criticizing the attempt to reduce it to atoms or elements • Gestalt psychologists maintained that when sensory elements are combined, the elements form a new pattern or configuration • They advocated a molar approach rather than a molecular approach • The Changing Zeitgeist in Physics • Physicists were describing fields and organic wholes • Fields of force: regions or spaces traversed by lines of force, such as of a magnet or electric current

MAX WERTHEIMER (1880– 1943) • University of Berlin (1920’s): Wertheimer carried out some of his most productive work for the development of Gestalt psychology • 1921: founded the journal Psychological Research • Became associated with the New School for Social Research in New York City • Influenced Maslow Max Wertheimer with apparatus for visual imagery experiments. Archives of the History of American Psychology/University of Akron

THE PHI PHENOMENON: A CHALLENGE TO WUNDTIAN PSYCHOLOGY • Max Wertheimer: conducts an experiment about seeing motion when no actual motion exists • Koffka and Kohler served as subjects for this experiment • Referred to it as the “impression” of movement • Called into question Wundt’s position: all conscious experience could be analyzed or broken down into its sensory elements • Phi phenomenon: the illusion that two stationary flashing lights are moving from one place to another • Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler are considered the cofounders of Gestalt psychology.

KURT KOFFKA (1886– 1941) • Associated with Wertheimer and Köhler at the University of Frankfurt • His article entitled, “Perception: An introduction to Gestalt-theorie, ” was believed to provide a misrepresentation that Gestaltists were only interested in perception. • Gestalt psychology was more broadly concerned with cognitive processes, with problems of thinking, learning, and other aspects of conscious experience

WOLFGANG KÖHLER (1887– 1967) • Most prolific promoter of the Gestalt movement • Books became the standard works of Gestalt psychology • Suggested that Gestalt theory was a general law of nature that should be extended to all the sciences • Spent seven years studying the behavior of chimpanzees

PERCEPTION • Perceptual constancy: a quality of wholeness in perceptual experience that does not vary even when the sensory elements change • Brightness, size, angle all remain constant even when the stimulus itself changes • Perception is a whole, a Gestalt, and any attempt to analyze/reduce it to elements will destroy it

GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION • Gestalt principles: rules by which we organize our perceptual world • Premise: perceptual organization occurs instantly, and is spontaneous and inevitable • The brain is a dynamic system in which all elements active at a given time interact • The elements that are similar or close together tend to combine, and elements that are dissimilar or farther apart tend not to combine

GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION • Principle of continuation

GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION • Principle of Pragnanz

GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION • Principle of similarity

GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION • Figure-ground principle A B

GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION • Principle of Closure Principle of Proximity

A SUDDEN INSIGHT • Wolfgang Köhler studied apes on Tenerife • Goal: observe how the animal solve problems • Put his apes in large cages • Gave them implements that they could use to obtain the food that was placed in plain view • Sat back to watch what they did • Apes used the tools to get the food • Movements were goal-oriented, purposeful, and deliberate

GESTALT STUDIES OF LEARNING: INSIGHT AND THE MENTALITY OF APES • Köhler’s research with chimps: • He interpreted the results of his animal research in terms of the whole situation and the relationships among the stimuli • Problem solving is a matter of restructuring the perceptual field • Study 1: Banana placed outside the cage • Situation 1: A string attached to the banana led to the cage • Situation 2: Several strings lead from the cage to the banana • Another study (as shown in picture) a restructuring of the perceptual field was necessary for the chimp to solve the problem • Kohler’s studies provided evidence of insight • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=6 -YWr. Pzsm. EE A chimpanzee uses sticks of different lengths to reach a piece of fruit. Yerkes Primate Research Center

PRODUCTIVE THINKING IN HUMANS • Wertheimer: applied Gestalt principles of learning to creative thinking in humans • Thinking is done in terms of wholes • Found evidence to support the idea that the whole problem must dominate the parts • Organization of problems into meaningful wholes lead to students’ insightful grasp of problems and solutions • Challenged traditional educational practices, such as mechanical drill and rote learning • Add the numbers from 1 -10 and report the sum.

ISOMORPHISM • The word isomorphism comes from the Greek iso (“similar”) and morphic (“shape” ) • Gestalt psychologists shifted their focus to the brain mechanisms involved in perception • The cerebral cortex was depicted as a dynamic system • Wertheimer suggested that brain activity is a configural, whole process • Isomorphism: the doctrine that there is a correspondence between psychological or conscious experience and the underlying brain experience

THE SPREAD OF GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY • Mid-1920 s: Gestalt movement was a coherent, dominant, and forceful school of thought in Germany • 1930’s: the core of Gestalt psychology shifted to the United States • Difficulty in advancement: • Behaviorism on the rise in the U. S. • Language barrier • Psychologists believed Gestalt psychology dealt only with perception

CRITICISMS OF GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY • The organization of perceptual processes, as in the phi phenomenon, was not approached as a scientific problem to be investigated • The Gestalt position was vague; basic concepts were not defined with sufficient rigor to be scientifically meaningful • Köhler’s notion of insight has been questioned • Psychologists considered Gestalt psychologists to be using poorly defined assumptions

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY • Influenced work on perception, learning, thinking, personality, social psychology, and motivation • Focus on the conscious experience during the years when behaviorism was dominant