Gestalt Psychology: The Big ThreeThe Gestalt RevoltSlide 3Slide 4Slide 5Antecedent Influences on Gestalt PsychologySlide 7Slide 8Antecedent Influences of Gestalt PsychologyThe Changing Zeitgeist in PhysicsThe Changing Zeitgeist of PhysicsThe Phi Phenomenon: A Challenge to Wundtian PsychologyThe Phi PhenomenonWhy was this important?So how did he explain it?Speaking of “form,” what does Gestalt actually mean?Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) “The Originator”Max WertheimerSlide 19Kurt Koffka (1886-1941) “The Writer”Kurt KoffkaGestalt PsychologyWolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) “The Learning Theorist”Wolfgang KohlerSlide 25Slide 26Slide 27The Nature of the Gestalt RevoltSlide 29What does this perception have to do with psychology?Discussion QuestionsSlide 32Slide 33Slide 34Slide 35WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1ST, 2015GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY: THE BIG THREETHE GESTALT REVOLT•Titchener brought structuralism to the United States, where it inspired functionalism, applied psychology, and the behaviorist movement that quickly became contaminated with a return to cognition•Meanwhile in Germany, psychologists were having their own advances in combatting structuralismTHE GESTALT REVOLT•Both American and German developments opposed studying the sensory elements of the mind•While functionalists were attacking the utility of structuralism and inability to apply it to the function of the mind, the Gestalt revolt attacked structuralism’s emphasis on reductionism•Gestalt psychology is basically looking at the wholeness of consciousness experience, not its partsTHE GESTALT REVOLT•Gestalt psychology was happening independently but at about the same time as the behaviorist movement – both opposed structuralism•Gestalts differed from behaviorists because they accepted the value of consciousness as a whole – Gestalt psychologists opposed the reduction of consciousness to atoms or elements•Behaviorists, of course, were morally opposed to studying consciousness and liked components of behavior (stimulus/response)THE GESTALT REVOLT•Basically, Gestalt folks thought there was more to the human experience than sensory elements and the associations that hold them together•Instead, any sensory elements that combine become something new that did not exist in them before•Things are more than the sum of their parts = creative synthesis!ANTECEDENT INFLUENCES ON GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY•German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) proposed that humans do perceive sensory elements, but that we organize them into something meaningful–Not through passive mechanism, but through actively perceiving a whole experience•Franz Brentano (remember him?) thought psychology should be more than studying the elements of experience, but also include the act of experiencing the worldANTECEDENT INFLUENCES ON GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY•Physicist Ernst Mach (1838-1916) wrote The Analysis of Sensations (1885), in which he wrote about how we perceive patterns that are independent of their component parts•He also argued that we tend to perceive things as what they are, even when our view of the components changesANTECEDENT INFLUENCES ON GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY•Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932) followed up on Mach by proposing that Gestalt qualitaten (form qualities) are more than their individual sensations–Max Wertheimer, one of three Gestalt psych founders, worked with von Ehrenfels–Melody example•William James emphasized the wholeness of experience over and above component parts–Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler learned about James when they studied under Carl StumpfANTECEDENT INFLUENCES OF GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY•Remember Carl Stumpf?•Phenomenology: describing the way things are actually experienced from observation, as they occur •No analysis or reduction to component partsTHE CHANGING ZEITGEIST IN PHYSICS•Physics was becoming less mechanistic as well in the late 19th century, particularly with emerging knowledge about force fields surrounding magnets, etc.•It seemed that many physical phenomena involved some kind of creative synthesis as well that couldn’t just be explained using components•Max Wertheimer would say that Gestalt psychology was an application of field physics to essential parts of psychologyTHE CHANGING ZEITGEIST OF PHYSICS•Wolfgang Kohler saw this first hand, thanks to his friendly neighborhood physicist, Max Planck•John Watson had no training in modern physics, thus we can understand why he favored an older, atomistic approachTHE PHI PHENOMENON: A CHALLENGE TO WUNDTIAN PSYCHOLOGY•Gestalt psychology began with Max Wertheimer on a train•He got that feeling like he was moving when he wasn’t actually moving yet•He got off the train and continued to pursue this study with a stroboscope – projects a series of pictures on the eye to make them look like they’re moving•He was joined in his research at the University of Frankfurt by two other psychologists, Koffka and Kohler (they actually served as his research subjects)THE PHI PHENOMENON•He replicated this apparent motion using light – think movie theater marquis •The Phi Phenomemon: the illusion that two stationary flashing lights are moving from one place to anotherhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2-swEdDXscWHY WAS THIS IMPORTANT?•This had actually already been figured out by motion picture films and other fields of science, so the discovery itself wasn’t so new•But it couldn’t be explained using structuralism •The elements were stationary lights – how could we perceiving them as moving?•Thus, we are perceiving something that is completely different from just the elementsSO HOW DID HE EXPLAIN IT?•It is what it is!•Brilliantly, he didn’t try to reduce it or explain it as something besides the experience of apparent motion•There was nothing structuralists could do about it•Thus, the Gestalt movement began with his 1912 publication of “Experimental Studies of the Perception of Movement”SPEAKING OF “FORM,” WHAT DOES GESTALT ACTUALLY MEAN?•Kohler said that Gestalt was used in two ways in German•1. denotes shape or form as a property of objects; general properties that can be described (triangularity in a figure, etc.)•2. denotes a whole or concrete entity that has a specific shape or form (triangles, as opposed to triangularity, etc.)•Thus, Gestalt describes the characteristics, as well as the form (which can be generalized beyond perception, to things like learning, thinking, etc.)MAX
View Full Document
Unlocking...