Gestalt psychology views the mind and behavior holistically rather than as a collection of parts. It proposes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The key principles of Gestalt psychology are figure-ground, proximity, closure, similarity, continuation, and symmetry. While influential in its time, Gestalt psychology has been criticized for being too descriptive and lacking predictive power and explanations of emotion and personality.

2. MS (Education)

4.  Meaning Of Gestalt
 Definition of Gestalt Psychology
 Contributors of Gestalt Psychology
 Principles Of Gestalt Psychology
 Criticism Of Gestalt Psychology
 Conclusion

5.  Gestalt is a German word.
 Meaning is configuration or, more simply, an organized whole
in contrast to a collection of parts.
 When parts identified individually have different characteristics
to the whole.
 Example. describing a tree - it's parts are trunk, branches,
leaves, perhaps blossoms or fruit but when you look at an entire
tree, you are not conscious of the parts, you are aware of the
overall object - the tree . Parts are of secondary importance even
though they can be clearly seen.

6.  Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that looks at the human
mind and behavior as a whole not in parts.
 The essential point of gestalt Psychology is that in perception the
whole is different from the sum of its part.

7.  The most prominent members of this
school of thought is Max Wertheimer
(1880-1943), Wolfgang Köhler (1887-
1967), Kurt Koffka (1886-1941), and
Kurt Lewin (1890-1947).

8.  FigureAnd Ground
 Proximity
 Closure
 Similarity
 Continuation
 Symmetry or order

9.  This principle shows our perceptual tendency to separate
whole figures from their backgrounds based on one or more
of a number of possible variables, such as contrast, color,
size, etc.
 This figure appears to the eye as a square inside a circle, or as
donut shaped circle with a square hole.

10.  The figure can only be identified because of its background,
and the background is only because of its figure.
 Sometimes we can not properly differentiate or discriminate
between figure and ground.

11.  The Gestalt law of proximity states that "objects or shapes
that are close to one another appear to form groups". Even if
the shapes, sizes, and objects are radically different, they will
appear as a group if they are close together.

12.  The principle of closure applies when we tend to see
complete figures even when part of the information is
missing and when an object is incomplete or a space is not
completely enclosed.

14.  The principal of similarity states that things which share
visual characteristics such as shape, size, colour, texture, or
value will be seen as belonging together in the viewer’s
mind.
 In the graphic below, the viewer is likely to discern a shape in
the middle, though each individual object is the same colour.

15.  This Gestalt principle states that learners "tend to continue
shapes beyond their ending points".
 The edge of one shape will continue into the space and meet
up with other shapes or the edge of the picture plane.
 The example below illustrates that learners are more apt to
follow the direction of an established pattern
rather than deviate from it.

16.  Symmetry states that the viewer should not be given the
impression that something is out of balance, or missing, or
wrong.
 If an object is a symmetrical, the viewer will waste time
trying to find the problem instead of concentrating on the
instruction.

17.  Gestaltists maintained that the whole is always greater then
its constituents or parts.
 Gestaltists laid great emphasis on the role of motivation, and
definite goals and purposes in any type of learning.This has
resulted in providing a central role to motivation in any
scheme of learning and education.
 Gestaltism has a notable feature that it makes the task of
perception, learning and problem solving an intelligent task
rather then a piecemeal molecular function or a mere
stimulus-response mechanical process. It has provided a
scientific and progressive method of problem solving based
on the cognitive abilities of the learner.

18.  Gestaltism has necessitated research in the field of
orgnaisational climate, instructional planning, group
dynamics etc., for organizing the factors in the environment
of the learners into a meaningful whole so as to put in the
best efforts for managing the affairs of education and
welfare of the individuals.

19.  Gestalt theory was mostly criticized for:
 Being too descriptive instead of offering
explanations and models for described phenomena.
 Investigating subjective experiences like perception,
 Lack of precision in descriptions and just qualitative
description,
 Denying the basic scientific approach of
understanding a whole as a set of its parts.

20.  Gestaltism has little predictive power.
 A general criticism of gestalt theory has been that
it does not provide an explanation of emotion and
personality.
 The famous psychologists of their time piaget and
vygotsky highly valued the writings of gestalt
psychologists. Although piaget later developed one
central criticism of its structures under discussion.

21.  As a result we conclude that Gestalt psychology is that “The
whole is greater than the sum of the parts”.
 Gestalt psychology has impacted the field of psychology to a
huge extent mainly in terms of perception, memory and
learning.
 Principles of Gestalt psychology like isomorphism,
productive thinking and re productive thinking had proven to
be the few best psychological theories that have been
implemented to date. Since gestalt have progressed so
much till date.
 Gestalt therapy have been established and it aimed in
helping individual understand their internal self in order for
them to understand their actions, reactions as well as
behaviors.

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