Gestalt psychology slideshare
- 3. Wolfgang Köhler (22 January 1887 – 11 June 1967) He was a German Psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Kofka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt Psychology During the Nazi regime in Germany, he protested against the dismissal of Jewish professors from universities, as well as the requirement that professors give a Nazi salute at the beginning of their classes. In 1935 he left the country for the United States, where Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania offered him a professorship. He taught with its faculty for 20 years, and did continuing research.
- 4. Max Wertheimer (April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) He was an Austro-Hungarian-born psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. Wertheimer obtained his PhD in 1904 under Oswald Kϋlper, and then began his intellectual career teaching in Frankfurt. For a short time he left Frankfurt to work at the Berlin Psychological Institute, but returned in 1929 as a full professor. Wertheimer eventually ended up at the New School for Social Research in New York, a position he held until his death. Max Wertheimer is known for his work Productive Thinking, as well as his idea of Phi Phenomenon. Both contributed to his collaboration on Gestalt Psychology.
- 5. Kurt Koffka (March 18, 1886 – November 22, 1941) He was a German psychologist. He was born and educated in Berlin. Along with Max Wertheimer and his close associates Wolfgang Köhler they established Gestalt psychology. Koffka’s interests were wide-ranging, and they included: Perception, hearing impairments in brain-damaged patients, interpretation, learning, and the extension of Gestalt theory to development psychology. During the First World War, he worked for the Military in a position that later lead him to a Professorship in Experimental psychology. In 1927, he accepted a position at the Smith College in Norththamton, Masschusetts where he remained until his death in 1941 from Coronary thrombosis.
- 6. It is a school of psychology founded in the 20th century that provided the foundation for the modern study of perception. Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts. That is, the attributes of the whole are not deducible from analysis of the parts in isolation. The word Gestalt is used in modern German to mean the way a thing has been “placed,” or “put together.” There is no exact equivalent in English. “Form” and “shape” are the usual translations; in psychology the word is often interpreted as “pattern” or “configuration.”
- 7. Gestalt psychology Gestalt theory was the initial cognitive response to behaviorism. It emphasized the importance of sensory wholes and the dynamic nature of visual perception. The term Gestalt, means “form” or “configuration.”
- 8. Psychologists Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka who studied perception, concluded that; Learners were not passive, but rather active. Learners do not just collect information as is but they actively process and restructure data in order to understand it. Factors like past experiences, needs, attitudes and one’s present situation can affect their perception.
- 9. II. Gestalt Principles According to the gestalt psychologists, the way we form our perceptions are guided by certain principles or laws. These principles or laws determine what we see or make of things or situation.
- 10. Law of Proximity Elements that are closer together will be perceived as coherent object.
- 11. Law of Similarity Elements that look similar will be perceived as part of the same form. There seems to be a triangle in the square. We link similar elements together
- 12. Law of Closure We tend to fill the gaps or “close” the figures we perceive. We enclose a space by completing a contour and ignoring gaps in the figure.
- 13. Law of Good Continuation Individuals have the tendency to continue contours whenever the elements of the pattern establish an implied direction. People tend to draw a good continuous line.
- 14. Law of Good Pragnanz The stimulus will be organized into as good as figure as possible. In this example, good refers to symmetry, simplicity, and regularity. The figure is perceive as a square overlapping a triangle , not a combination of several complicated shapes. Based on our experiences with perception, we “expect” certain patterns and therefore perceive that expected pattern
- 15. Law of Figure/Ground We tend to pay attention and perceive things in the foreground first. A stimulus will be perceived as separate from its ground.
- 23. The idea of insight learning was first developed by Wolfgang Kohler in which he describes experiments with apes where the apes could use boxes and sticks as tools to solve problems.
- 24. III. Insight Learning In each of these problems, the important aspect of learning was not reinforcement, but the coordination of thinking to create new organization (of material. Kohler referred to this behavior as insight or discovery learning. Kohler proposed the view that insight follows from the characteristics of objects under consideration. His theory suggested that learning could occur when an individual perceives the relationships of the elements before him and reorganizes these elements and comes to a greater understanding or insight. Learning could occur without reinforcement, and once it occurs, no review, training, or investigation necessary.
- 26. Kurt Lewin’s Theory An individual has inner and outer forces that affect his perceptions. Inner forces include his own motivation, attitudes, and feelings. Outer forces may include the attitude and behavior of the teacher and classmates.
- 27. Kurt Zadek Lewin (September 9, 1890 – February 12, 1947) He was a German American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. Lewin is often recognized as the "founder of social psychology" and was one of the first to study group dynamics and organization al developments.
- 28. Relevance of Gestalt Psychology to education according to Marion Polito. Gestalt psychology is focused on the experience of contact that occurs in the here and now. It takes interest in the complexity of experience, without neglecting anything, but accepting and amplifying all that emerges. It stimulates learning as experience and the experience as a source of learning. Knowledge is conceived as a continuous organization and rearrangement of information according to needs, purposes and meanings. Autonomy and freedom of the student is stimulated by the teacher. The contact experience between the teachers and students is given value: an authentic meeting based on sharing ideas and affections.
- 29. Gestalt is a theory of learning that focuses on the minds perspective. It is useful as a behavioral tool as it enables the teacher to channel the pupil’s energy into thinking of an item or subject as parts of a whole, e.g. a car, being metal, paint, wheels etc. By thinking of components and breaking down a situation it enables for a more psychological process to take place and over time will broaden a pupils mind into thinking of the sum of the whole rather than just a complete thing of situation.
- 31. Reference/citations: Facilitating Learning: A Meta Cognitive Process Lucas and Corpuz (Pages 106 – 109) Google Images Wikipedia.org youtube.com answers.com