2. Antecedent Influences on
Gestalt Psychology
The ideas of Gestalt psychology can be traced back to several antecedent influences.
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, emphasized the wholeness of perception
and argued that the mind actively organizes sensory elements into a coherent
experience.
Franz Brentano, a critic of Wilhelm Wundt's focus on conscious experience
elements, advocated for the study of the act of experiencing.
Ernst Mach, a physics professor, discussed space-form and time-form sensations as
independent of their individual elements, suggesting that perception remains
consistent despite changes in orientation.
Christian von Ehrenfels elaborated on Mach's ideas and proposed "form qualities"
that cannot be explained by combining sensory elements. He argued that the mind
can create form out of elementary sensations. William James, a philosopher and
psychologist, opposed the reduction of consciousness to elements and emphasized
perceiving objects as wholes.
The founders of Gestalt psychology, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler, were
influenced by James's work. Additionally, the movement of phenomenology in
German philosophy and psychology, which focused on unbiased descriptions of
immediate experience, also played a role in shaping the ideas of Gestalt psychology.
These antecedent influences contributed to the development of the Gestalt protest's
emphasis on the wholeness and organization of perception.
3. Max Wertheimer
Max Wertheimer, one of the founders of Gestalt psychology, conducted
research on the perception of apparent movement, known as the phi
phenomenon. This phenomenon involved perceiving motion when
there was no actual physical movement. Wertheimer's research
demonstrated that the phi phenomenon could not be explained by the
prevailing atomistic view of psychology, which aimed to break down
conscious experience into its sensory elements.
Wertheimer argued that the phi phenomenon could not be reduced to
simpler components and existed as a holistic experience. This
challenged the separate element and association based psychology of
the time, which focused on breaking down experiences into discrete
elements. Wertheimer's research marked the formal beginning of the
Gestalt psychology school of thought.
4.
5. The influence of the changing Zeitgeist in physics was also evident in the
personal connection between Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Köhler and
physicist Max Planck. Köhler viewed Gestalt psychology as an
application of field physics to essential aspects of psychology.
However, not all psychologists at the time embraced the changing
Zeitgeist in physics. John B. Watson, the founder of behaviorism,
adhered to a reductionistic approach, emphasizing the analysis of
behavior into its elemental components. Watson's behaviorist
perspective aligned more with the older atomistic approach in physics.
6. Perceptual Constancy:
Perceptual constancy refers to the quality of wholeness or
completeness in perceptual experience that remains consistent even
when the sensory elements change. The Gestalt psychologists used
examples like the perception of a window as a rectangle regardless of
the retinal image shape to support their view that perception cannot
be reduced to individual sensory elements.
7. Gestalt Principles of
Perceptual Organization
The Gestalt psychologists presented principles of perceptual
organization that explain how we perceive objects as unified wholes.
These principles include proximity (parts that are close together appear
to belong together), continuity (we tend to perceive elements as
flowing in a particular direction), similarity (similar parts are seen as
forming a group), closure (we fill in gaps to complete incomplete
figures), simplicity (we perceive figures as simple and symmetrical), and
figure/ground segregation (we organize perceptions into objects and
their background).
8.
9. Gestalt Studies of Learning: Insight
and the Mentality of Apes
Köhler conducted studies on chimpanzees' problem-solving abilities and
interpreted the results based on Gestalt principles. He observed that
chimpanzees restructured their perceptual field to solve problems.
Examples include pulling a banana into a cage using a string, using a
stick to reach fruit outside the cage, and combining two sticks to
retrieve a distant banana. Köhler emphasized the individual differences
and personalities of the chimpanzees in his observations, focusing on
their learning processes.
10. The Spread of Gestalt
Psychology
The rise and dissemination of Gestalt psychology as a dominant school of
thought in Germany, its shift to the United States due to the rise of Nazi
power, and the challenges faced in gaining acceptance in the American
psychological community.
Battle with Behaviorism: The conflicts between Gestalt psychology and
behaviorism, with Gestalt psychologists arguing against behaviorists'
reductionist approach and denial of consciousness in psychology.
Gestalt Psychology in Nazi Germany: Despite the founders leaving
Germany, some adherents of Gestalt psychology continued research during
the Nazi era, focusing on vision and depth perception. The Psychological
Institute at the University of Berlin remained operational, albeit under Nazi
control.
11. Productive Thinking in Humans: Wertheimer's book on productive
thinking applied Gestalt principles to human creative thinking,
emphasizing the importance of perceiving situations as wholes and
problem-solving from a global perspective.
Isomorphism: The concept that there is a correspondence between
conscious experience and the underlying brain processes. Gestalt
psychologists believed that brain activity is a configural, whole process
and advocated for a dynamic view of the brain's role in perception.
12. Criticisms of Gestalt Psychology:
- Critics argued that Gestalt psychology did not approach the organization of
perceptual processes scientifically but instead accepted their existence without
investigation.
- Some psychologists claimed that the Gestalt position was vague and lacked rigor in
defining basic concepts, making them scientifically meaningless.
- Critics accused Gestalt psychologists of being too focused on theory at the expense
of empirical research, although the Gestalt school did emphasize experimentation
and conducted significant research.
- It was suggested that Gestalt experimental work was inferior to behavioral
psychology research due to inadequate controls and unquantified data that were not
amenable to statistical analysis.
- Kohler's notion of insight was questioned, with studies failing to provide substantial
support for the role of insight in learning.
- Some psychologists believed that Gestalt psychologists relied on poorly defined
physiological assumptions, although Gestalt researchers considered their
speculations to be a useful addition to their system.
13.
14. Contributions of Gestalt
Psychology
- The Gestalt movement had a lasting impact on psychology, influencing various
areas such as perception, learning, thinking, personality, social psychology, and
motivation.
- Unlike behaviorism, Gestalt psychology maintained a separate identity and its
major principles were not fully assimilated into mainstream psychological thought.
- Gestalt psychology fostered interest in conscious experience as a legitimate topic
for psychological inquiry during the dominance of behaviorism.
- The Gestalt focus on conscious experience followed a modern version of
phenomenology, which is recognized as a legitimate subject of study by
contemporary adherents of the Gestalt position.
- While a phenomenological approach is more widely accepted by European
psychologists, its influence can be seen in the American humanistic psychology
movement and various aspects of contemporary cognitive psychology trace their
origins back to Gestalt psychology.
