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 A chimpanzee uses sticks of different lengths to reach a piece of
fruit.
• Kohler’s studies provided evidence of insight
Yerkes Primate Research Center
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-YWrPzsmEE
 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-1920s: 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