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Gestalt Psychology Reflection

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Gestalt Psychology Reflection
Michael A. Perkins
PSY310
January 26th, 2015
Dr. Shannon Kelly

Gestalt Psychology Reflection
The Gestalt psychology movement was fascinating within the time frame in which it started to develop. While other psychological movements strived to boil down psychology in almost simplistic, scientific terms, Gestalt psychology embraced complexities within the consciousness. Gestalt psychologists argued “that when we look out a window we really see trees and sky, not individual sensory elements such as brightness and hue” (Schultz & Schultz, 2011). There is more to what we experience and see that just the simple elements that make these things and experiences up.
Gestalt psychology owes much of its beginnings to the philosophical work of Immanuel Kant (Schultz & Schultz, 2011). Kant believed that experiences were created not from association, but through the perception of those experiences (Schultz & Schultz, 2011). There is a certain level of individuality in this statement, as individual perception is not something that can be simply classified in a way that was satisfactory to a more scientific model. For me, seeing the color green immediately leads me to reflect upon my grandmother and my great deal of pleasant experiences and memories. My perception of the color green, therefore, is wholly distinct from a simplistic explanation of the hue or tone of the color.
Another interesting influence of Gestalt psychology was physics professor Ernst Mach. Mach used his physics background to explain that perceptions of objects do not change, although the meaning of the object might (Schultz & Schultz, 2011). Going back to my earlier example, the color green is still perceived as the color green, but the meaning and the experience related to my perception of the color might in fact be different from another’s. Christian von

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