Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
gestalt psychology, its main influences and contributors/principles of perceptions
behaviorism and gestalt psychology
essays on gestalt theory
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Gestalt psychology was founded by German thinkers Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka. They mainly focused on how people interpret the world around them. The Gestalt perspective formed partially as a response to the structuralism of Wilhelm Wundt, who focused on breaking down mental events and experiences to the smallest elements. Structuralists had failed in explaining the concept of ‘apparent motion’ and ‘illusory contours’.
Gestalt psychologists further recognized that structuralism could not explain many perceptual phenomena. In response, they proposed that perception is based on the organization of stimuli into holistic and meaningful forms. They are well-known for the phrase "the whole is different than the sum of its parts." They proposed several "laws" (really heuristics or "rules of thumb") that are referred to as the Gestalt laws of perceptual organization. These are discussed in the module later on.
3. GESTALT APPROACH TO PERCEPTION
The most concise way to characterize Gestalt psychology is to say that it deals with wholes and its given data are what have been called phenomena. It is because of their strong phenomenological orientation, which explains that wholes are experienced by conscious man and not in parts. For example, in perceiving a melody one gets a melodic form, not a string or a note, a unitary whole that is something more important than the total list of its parts. This is the way experience comes to man, organizing it into significant structured form.
Lets first understand the historical perceptive, from where its role started. While behaviorism was becoming the dominant psychological theory in the US, along with Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, the Gestalt perspective gained influence ...
... middle of paper ...
...ncomplete form.
• Law of Proximity: this law states that items which are close together in space or time tend to be perceived as belonging together or forming an organized group.
• Law of Similarity: the law of similarity suggests that similar things tend to appear grouped together.
• Law of Continuity: holds that points that are connected by straight or curving lines are seen in a way that follows the smoothest path rather than seeing separate lines and angles.
• Law of Closure: according to the law of closure, things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity. Our brains often ignore contradictory information and fill in the gaps in information.
• Law of Pragnanz: is sometimes referred to as the law of good figure or the law of simplicity. This law holds that objects in the environment are seen in a way that makes them appear as simple as possible.
The psychodynamic perspective, as pioneered by Sigmund Freud, revolves around three main ideas. These ideas explain that an individual’s actions are essentially determined by their cognition – particularly the way that they think and the way that they feel. For example, the classic idea that a customer may be inappropriately rude to a staff member at their local grocery store may be due to the customer having a bad day. The customer enters the store feeling pessimistic and upset, and the action of belittling or abusing the staff member comes as a result of their feelings. The psychodynamic perspective also outlines that many of these cognitive events occur outside of an individual’s mental awareness, or, as Freud’s theory suggests, within an individual’s subconscious. Freud equated the idea of consciousness and mental awareness to the iceberg metaphor. That is, the visible tip of the iceberg represents an individual’s conscious mental processes which can be shown by observable b...
Both Gestalt theory and cognitive therapy are both anchored in phenomenology and are undogmatic in their attitude toward integration of elements from other therapeutic and scientific approaches, as long as such elements do not violate the phenomenological principles (Tonnesvang et al., 2010). Cognitive therapy has become increasingly respected and popular in academia where Gestalt therapy is lacking recognition in these areas. Better adaptability of cognitive therapy to training models for applied therapeutic approach compared to experiential models. Gestalt has been more or an oral tradition with a comparatively sparse production of written material and an almost nonproduction of traditional research.
This law is also often called “Inertia”. Inis the tendency for an object to resist the change in motion. Like, if you are moving and nothing happens to you, then you will keep moving. Forever. If nothing is happening to, and nothing is trying to put any type of force on you then nothing will happen .Forever. (Newton’s Three) There is a limit that must be met in order for the first law to be suitable to any given motion. The limit is represented by the phrase "... unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." As the long as the forces are balanced - the first law of motion
A severe economic depression, as well as the beginning of psychology as a social science, marked the 1890’s. Paranoia is known to be a thought process, heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid beliefs can also be associated with the feelings of powerlessness and victimization. When Christian von Ehrenfels founded gestalt psychology, William James also published “Principles of Psychology”, which introduces readers to four methods of psychology: analysis, introspection, experiment, and statistical studies. This period experienced a tremendous amount of growth within the scientific studies of the psychological mind, and can be known as the experimental stage of social sciences.
Sigmund Freud, a physiologist, health physician, psychologist and husband of psychoanalysis, is ordinarily appreciated as one of the most influential and commanding thinkers of the twentieth century. Freud’s most meaningful and frequently reiterated allegation, that with psychoanalysis he had invented a novel science of the mind, however, this still remains the focus of much severe controversy and controversy.
The psychodynamic approach lends itself to being a controversial yet highly influential theory in the history of psychology. The theory has become one of the most significant psychological approaches and its originator, Sigmund Freud, has become a major influence in modern psychology. The psychodynamic approach largely focuses on motivation and past experiences which develop and individual’s personality. Freud used the iceberg metaphor to outline the three states of consciousness and argued that only twenty percent of the mind represents the conscious. In addition he theorised that there was a pre-conscious mind which represents general memory. Finally, the unconscious mind which is essentially the reservoir of repressed or hidden experiences and desire.
Psychology comprises of two words originally used by the ‘Greeks’, ‘psyche’, defining the mind, soul or spirit and lastly ‘logos’ being study. Both words define together the ‘study of the mind’. Psychology perspectives evaluate the normal and abnormal behaviour and how persons’ deal with different concepts of issues and problems. Psychology theories’ are based on ‘common sense’, but its scientific structure, everything needs to be evaluated and tested, therefore, promoting different psychological theories’.
Gestalt therapy is a type of therapy used to deepen our awareness of ourselves. According to O’Connor and Braverman, (2009) “Gestalt" implies wholeness. “Gestalt therapy is a process-oriented, experiential therapy that is concerned with the integrated functioning of all aspects of the person: senses, body, emotions and intellect.”
Psychology is the investigation of the mind and how it processes and directs our thoughts, actions and conceptions. However, in 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Nevertheless, the origins of psychology go all the way back thousands of years starting with the early Greeks. This foundation is closely connected to biology and philosophy; and especially the subfields of physiology which is the study of the roles of living things and epistemology, which is the study of comprehension and how we understand what we have learned. The connection to physiology and epistemology is often viewed as psychology, which is the hybrid offspring of those two fields of investigation.
Psychology formerly integrated with the subject philosophy; these two formerly considered as one. Philosophy was the center of all learning but many academicians focus more on mathematics, physics, and biology. By the late 1800s, many philosophers created their own disciplines and the era of modern psychology slowly emerged. They soon began calling themselves psychologist. Authors have varying opinion about the founding fathers of the said science; some traces its roots as far as Aristotle and Plato (Benjafield 1996). Other authors believe that modern psychology started at the introduction of experimental psychology and for this reason, several experimental psychologist were also named the father of psychology including, Wilhelm Wundt and Gustav Fechner (Matson, 2009). However, one thing is for sure about psychology – it originated in Europe and introduced in the United States sometime in the late 1880s. Prior to this period, psychology crosses the realms of the paranormal because many practitioners at that time engaged themselves in psychic healing and spiritual quest. They were known as pseudo-psychologists and they were particularly popular in Germany. At the onset of modern psychology in the United State, the discipline focused more on the academics. American psychologists at that time put more emphasis on teaching rather than engaging themselves in research. It was at this period when several schools of thoughts emerged to explain behavior, cognition, and consciousness. In this paper, two of the earliest school of thoughts will be discussed. These are Structuralism and Functionalism. These two will be compared and contrasted.
The Intuitive Psychology is linked to the greater capacity exhibited by some people regarding their desires, motives, and beliefs of others, moreover being able to more accurately anticipate reactions as well as behaviours, an intuitive person is a person who has feelings or seemingly acquires knowledge about events, circumstances, or other information, mainly without ordinary sensory input or previous training.
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”(Harper Lee). Every human being tends to view certain things in their own different and unique way. Perception is one of the most antique aspects of human interaction and behavior. How we perceive things is different than others, some will see the glass either half empty or as half full it just depends how we look at things.
Gestalt therapy is existential, phenomenological, and process-based approach created on the premise that individuals must be understood in the context of their ongoing relationship with the environment. Awareness, choice and responsibility are the cornerstone of practice (Corey, 2013).
The first theory Psychodynamic theory presented by Sigmund Freud, is based on how a person’s self-awareness and understanding of the past on present behavior. Psychody...
408), Each person perceives and interprets events by means of conceptual structure of generalizations or contexts, postulates about what is essential, assumptions as to what is valuable, attitudes about what is possible, and ideas about what will work effectively.