...Gestalt Psychology Reflection PSY 310 January 11, 2016 Sam Ivory Dr. Fine Gestalt psychology Reflection The school of thought is what Gestalt psychology theory is about. Gestalt believes that all things and scenes are observed in the simplest forms. Also known as the 'Law of Simplicity,' the meaning behind the theory is that the whole of an object or scene is more important than its individual parts. When you observe everything as a whole it allows us to us find order in disorder and unity among outwardly unrelated parts and pieces of information (Cherry, 2015). Gestalt theories have implications for education focusing more meaningful learning and true understanding of principles, over the traditional structured approaches based on memory and recall (King, Wertheimer, Keller & Crochetiere, 1994). Gestalt psychology gave a unique way on human perception. According to Gestalt psychologists, you don't just see the world; what you see, depending on what you are expecting to see. The reason behind Gestalt psychology is that it encourages people to 'think outside of the box' and to look for patterns. Another contribution to Gestalt psychology is the development of our senses is capable of visual recognition of things as a whole and not just simple line and curves (Schamber, 1986). However the breakdown of the mental process wasn’t done until it was in their smallest forms. The psychologist believed that behavior must be studied in all of its complexities instead...
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...Gestalt Psychology Reflection April Cage Professor Katrina Ramos 3/16/15 INTRODUCTION Gestalt psychology means unified whole. The three main founders who established the school of gestalt psychology were Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka as well as Wolfgang Kohler. The foundations of the Gestalt psychology are perception, memory and learning. Some of the principles of Gestalt psychology are isomorphism, productive thinking as well as reproductive thinking. It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. Instead of approaching psychology as atoms or elements according to Wundt’s theory, Gestalt psychology on the other hand, focuses on human experiencing psychological events as a whole. Reflection Max Wertheimer used to study law but his interest soon shifted to philosophy and psychology. He developed a keen interest on perception after observing how the flashing of lights at train station created an illusion of movement. He was at the University of Frankfurt where he worked with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler and the three of them established a school of thought known as Gestalt Psychology. He pursued perceptual ideas through his studies with chimpanzees as director of the Canary Island Anthropoid Station in 1913. He became an American citizen and finally became the president of the American Psychological Association in 1959. Kohler contributed substantial literature work to the field of...
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...Gestalt Psychology Reflection Gestalt Psychology Reflection Gestalt psychology is known as the school of thought. It looks within human thought processing and human behavior as a whole rather than separately. The mind's ability to process and interpret the world. Gestalt psychology was formulated by the original works of Max Wertheimer and provided a substantial amount of information to formulate Wilhelm Wundt's theory of structuralism partially. Other contributors to Gestalt psychology are; Johann Wolfgang von Goeth, Ernst Mach, and Immanuel Kant. (Cherry, 2015) Gestalt psychology is also known as gestaltism and was continually referenced for idealists who were not in favor of Wilhelm Wundt's theory of structuralism. Gestaltism brought new understanding of what human abilities were capable of in terms of meaningful perceptions amongst complicated scenarios or ambitious world views. Max Wertheimer wrote, "There are holes, the behavior of which is not determined by that of their individual elements, but where the part-processes are themselves determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole. It is the hope of Gestalt theory to determine the nature of such wholes" (Cherry, 2015) Wertheimer saw Gestaltism as a rapid sequence of perceptual events. An example of this would be rows of flashing lights creating an illusion of an event in motion. This is also known as phi phenomenon, something that the movie field has processed into still pictures being presented...
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...Gestalt Psychology Reflection Yanko Abreu PSY 310 February 15, 2016 Dr. Fine Gestalt Psychology Reflection Psychology has always been an ever evolving discipline, popular ideas are constantly thought up and either disproved or developed. Early to mid-twentieth century the United States had become home to the behaviorist school of thought. Being able to conduct experiments in order to further ideas was more important than simply speculating on thought process. Behaviorism had essentially broken down thought to simple stimuli and reaction. This however way not the only school of thought at the time. In Germany, psychologist were having issue with this oversimplification of the human mind. There were those who believed that the mind could not be looked at as just the sum total of its parts this was to be known as Gestalt psychology. Instead the mind had to be studied as a whole in order to fully understand it, especially in regard to the more complex thought processes (Goodwin, 2015). The idea was sound but creating observable experiments to test many of the theories was beyond the capabilities of the time. This was a vulnerability that other psychologist would often exploited. Gestalt psychology stemmed from many different areas of study to include philosophy, physics, and even music. The idea that things had to be studied as a whole instead of its parts was in line with some of the concepts that these other areas were looking into at the time. Music played a surprising...
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...Gestalt Psychology Reflection Jessica Flatequal PSY/310 11/09/2015 University of Phoenix Major contributors of Gestalt Psychology were Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler. The main observations, questions, and principles characteristics from Gestalt Psychology became part of every American Psychologists mental equipment. Mark Wertheimer wrote a paper on phi motion in 1912, which was known to start Gestalt Psychology. Throughout this paper I will review the main contributing events in Gestalt Psychology and its influences in America. Contributions Gestalt contributed to therapy known as Gestalt therapy which focuses on raising individuals boundaries, needs, and sensory. This therapy helps contribute to one’s own self-worth. Gestalt has always focused on whole rather than individuals. Gestalt psychology focuses on human experiencing psychological events as a whole. Wertheimer shifted his interest from law to philosophy and psychology. He had an influence on other things besides the school of thought such as sensation and perception. Kurt Koffka main interest of study was colors such as the difference of color with short and long wave lengths. As a professor at Smith College where he studied the principles of Gestalt, concentrating on focusing and memory. Wolfgang Kohler worked side by side with Werheimer and Koffka at the University of Frankfurt where he studied perceptual ideas through...
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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...
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...Gestalt Psychology Reflection The school of thought Gestalt psychology began in the late 19th century in Austria and Germany. Gestalt psychology is based on the idea that perception is experienced in larger wholes, or gestalts (Cherry, 2014). Psychologists that use this school of thought believe that instead of breaking down behavior and thoughts into small elements, behavior should be looked at as a unified whole experience (Kowalski, PhD. & Westen, 2010). The assumption behind Gestalt psychology is that an individual’s mind functions by recognizing structures when none is seen. Gestalt psychology was developed from the initial ideas of structuralism and functionalism regarding perception. The Antecedent Influences on Gestalt psychology accepted the value of consciousness and focused on the wholeness of perception. Immanuel Kant and Enst Mach proposed two different propositions regarding Antecedent Influences on Gestalt psychology. Kant proposed, “pieces of information are organized in meaningful ways through association and form a coherent perceptual experience," while Mach proposed “perception of an object does not change despite changing our orientation to the object (Schultz & Schultz, 2012).” According to Schultz & Schultz (2012), another early influence regarding Gestalt psychology was Phenomenology. Phenomenology was influenced by German philosophy and psychology. It is a doctrine based on the “unbiased description of immediate experience just as it occurs...
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...History of Psychology History of Psychology Paper Shirley L Nieves October 21, 2013 PSY/310 Prof. Kelle Daniels The roots of psychology date back to Egypt and the Egyptian mystery system. Psychology has evolved from philosophy, medicine, theology, and science. Psychology evolved out of coalescence of natural science, and also the branch of philosophy which is known as epistemology, which is also known in the theory of knowledge. Psychology in its early times was devote and mainly focused to understanding the mind, as well as measuring it. After this later on in time, psychology focused on understanding behavior. In the beginning the ancient Greek philosophers had learned a lot about their surroundings due to this they made an attempt to arrange the way they learn in a much organized way. As knowledge increased specialties were developed in the field. Psychology was then termed “Mental Philosophy”; this was concerned more with the principles in psychology. Psychology has evolved greatly in both the intellect and consciousness levels. It was in the late 19th century that psychology became an independent discipline which was divided separately. In Ancient Greek reasoning was referred to as rationalism which as we know is the search for the care essence of things. This is known today as the deductive method. In ancient Greek times they viewed the world in a macrocosm and man was viewed as a macrocosm. Amongst...
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...Allen Covington HUM 201-001 Prof. C. Lincoln Self-Reflection Essay Introduction Self-reflection has been defined in a number of ways, but for the purpose of this thesis I will use it in a contemplative manner, toward the end of, relating how my experiences; ‘could affect my career as a Social Worker’. This self-reflection paper is personal. It shares the impact that HUM 201 has had on me, and my understanding of; what will be expected of me as a person and professional. As I understand the goals of the essay, it is to have someone consider and think about future uses of this knowledge being acquired. As part of my preparation for this paper, I looked back on the course from the beginning of the semester. I looked at my goals as a future educator in the field of ‘Human Services’, and thought about how this semester has changed my perspective (this coming from someone not unfamiliar with human services) on what it takes, to truly be effective as a leader in the field of social work as a result of this course. Through this self-reflection I’ve noticed the inter-play between my personal knowledge and what is being taught, the ‘role’ of ‘social worker’ first came to my attention at a very young, I lived in a family constantly in need of social services. The most striking realization I came away with is, the sway the psychological and sociological perspectives relate to each other (in very complex ways), more than you’d acknowledge without serious training to ferret out...
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...Gestalt psychology reflection Paper Barrie Bogatov Psy/310 14 March, 2015 Since its inception, psychology has taken many twists and turns from the theories of Skinner, Thorndike, experiments from Watson, Pavlov etc. and from them we have learned a great deal. Nevertheless, according to Schultz & Schultz (2012) “at approximately the same time the behaviorist revolution was gathering strength in the United States, the Gestalt revolution was taking hold of German psychology” (Schultz & Schultz, 2012 pg 262). When it comes to Gestalt psychology, one can say that this field had many influences from many different founders with many different views and theories. Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, Ernst Mach, and Kurt Koffka are some of the ones that had a huge impact on the development of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt psychology as we know is “the study of perception and behavior from the standpoint of an individual's response to configurationally wholes with stress on the uniformity of psychological and physiological events and rejection of analysis into discrete events of stimulus, percept, and response” Max Wertheimer was a young scholar who was going to school to study law. But during his time at the University of Prague he decided to change his major to a field of study that he found rather interesting and that field was philosophy and psychology. As per different students, who took his lectures or had been to his office said that the way he saw...
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...Foundations of Psychology PSY/300 Nov. 2, 2015 University of Phoenix Foundations of Psychology What is psychology? Simply speaking it is the study of behavior and mind. Psychology is the exploration into the understanding of behaviors, thoughts and emotions. The word psychology is of Greek origin meaning ‘psyche’, or “the soul, mind, or personality of a person or group” ("Psyche." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015). Psychology has many different fields of study that include social behavior, human development, and cognitive procedures, just to name a few. One name that often comes to mind when the word psychology is mentioned is Sigmund Freud. Freud is often thought of as the most influential, as well as controversial, figure in the study of psychology. His theories and views set the standard for the understanding of the human mind and its functions. There are six major schools of thoughts in psychology; functionalism, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanistic psychology, cognitivism and Gestalt psychology. This paper will identify three of those schools and examine the basis of each. Functionalism The first psychological school of thought I want to explore is Functionalism. Functionalism is “a late 19th century to early 20th century American school of psychology concerned especially with how the mind functions to adapt the individual to the environment” ("Functionalism." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 27 Oct...
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...Gestalt Psychology Reflection Paper PSY/310 Desirèe Ray 2/1/16 Melody Thompson The word Gestalt means a unified whole. Based on that understanding, Gestalt psychology looks at things as a whole versus in pieces or parts. The thoughts of Gestalt psychology is that we are processing the world around us, we don’t just focus on the small, seemingly insignificant things. Instead our mind perceive our surroundings as parts of a greater whole. The Gestalt psychology school played a major role in the study of human perception and sensation. The guiding idea behind Gestalt psychology is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Gestalt psychology was found by 3 principle psychologists. Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler. Max Wertheimer initially studied law, but took an interest in perception after noticing flashing train lights at a train station gave the illusion of motion. From there he went on to change his focus from law to psychology. While at the University of Frankfurt's Psychological Institute, he began to work with two assistants named Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka. The three colleagues and would go on to form the school of thought known as Gestalt psychology. Thanks to his work during his time at the New School for Social Research in New York City, it became one of the leading schools of psychology during the early part of the twentieth century. Psychologist Solomon Asch wrote of Max Wertheimer the “thinking of Max Wertheimer has penetrated...
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...Gestalt psychology Reflection Paper Shenique Harmon-Anthony Psychology 310 PATRICIA LAFOUNTAINE December 14th 2015 Erving Polster, in the book Gestalt Therapy Integrated: Contours of Theory & Practice attempted to give his own version of an analogy that in his thinking summarizes a portion of the theory in question. He says, “When a person has swum, traveled, run a lathe, planted flowers, ridden a motorcycle, made wine, painted a picture, parachuted, he has increased the fund from which he may draw for new figural developments. In other words, as the background of his experience becomes more diversified, it also becomes potentially more harmonious with a whole range of happenings.” This description briefly encapsulates why Gestalt psychology is considered as a whole. Gestalt psychology believes that things should not be looked at individual elements but as a whole. It is a school of thought in psychology that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole. It is noted that they are three founders who are responsible for establishing the school of gestalt psychology. Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka as well as Wolfgang Kohler. However, its moorings are anchored in the work of Max Wertheimer and was formed partially as a response to the structuralism of Wilhelm Wundt. Gestalt psychology has some foundations and those are perception, memory and learning. The major principles of Gestalt psychology are isomorphism, productive thinking and reproductive thinking. The main...
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...Family Therapy: A Systemic Integration, 8th Edition PART 1 THE SYSTEMIC FRAMEWORK Chapter 1: Two Different Worldviews The Framework of Individual Psychology The Framework of Systemic Family Therapy Basic Concepts of Systems Theory and Cybernetics Family Therapy or Relationship Therapy? Summary Chapter 2: The Historical Perspective Planting the Seeds: The 1940s Cybernetics Development of Interdisciplinary Approaches Gregory Bateson Putting Down Roots: The 1950s Bateson (Continued) The Double-Bind Hypothesis Nathan Ackerman Murray Bowen Carl Whitaker Theodore Lidz Lyman Wynne Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy John Elderkin Bell Christian F. Midelfort Overview of the 1950s The Plant Begins to Bud: The 1960s Paradigm Shift The MRI Salvador Minuchin Other Developments Blossom Time: The 1970s Psychodynamic Approaches Natural Systems Theory Experiential Approaches Structural Approaches Strategic Approaches Communication Approaches Behavioral Approaches Gregory Bateson Connecting and Integrating: The 1980s Other Voices The Limits of History Controversy, Conflict, and Beyond: The 1990s The Feminist Critique Family Therapy and Family Medicine Integration and Metaframeworks Managed Care The Twenty-First Century: Continuing Concerns and Emerging Trends Summary Chapter 3: The Paradigmatic Shift of Systems Theory A Cybernetic Epistemology Recursion ...
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...Nature of Thought Shofrin Ali April 5, 2015 University of Phoenix Abstract “You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think. ” ― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles" Nature of Thought What is thinking? Thinking is a mental behavior whereas ideas, pictures, cognitive symbolizations, or other hypothetical components of thought are experienced or manipulated. In this sense, thinking is inclusive of imagining, recalling, solving problems, and a variety of other procedures. (Psychology Dictionary, 2015) An example would be to picture a checkers player mentally trying out several moves before actually touching a checkers piece. What makes human thinking unique? Our intelligence and the ability to “think” makes us humans unique. Yes, animals can also think but they cannot verbalize their thoughts in a complex commutative language. Our thoughts give us ambition and curiosity that leads the human race to expand our culture, art, music, sports, and politics. When we think, we feel, and that makes us human. We can fight and die for the things that we believe in (freedom to pursue happiness, for example). How and why do humans express their thoughts? We use images, concepts, and languages to communicate our thoughts...
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