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Gestalt psychology (German: gestalt — image, form) is a direction in Western psychology that arose in Germany in the first third of the XNUMXth century. and put forward a program for studying the psyche from the point of view of integral structures (gestalts), primary in relation to their components.
Representatives: Wolfgang Köhler, Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, Kurt Lewin
Gestalt psychology arose from the study of perception. Its focus is on the characteristic tendency of the psyche to organize experience into an intelligible whole. For example, when perceiving letters with «holes» (missing parts), consciousness seeks to fill in the gap, and we recognize the whole letter.
Gestalt psychology opposed the principle put forward by structural psychology of dismembering consciousness into elements and constructing complex mental phenomena from them according to the laws of association or creative synthesis. Representatives of Gestalt psychology emphasized that perception is not reduced to the sum of sensations, and the properties of a figure are not described through the properties of parts. In the human mind, parts are assembled into a whole, organizing a gestalt.
Gestalt (German: Gestalt — form, image, structure) is the central concept of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt is the quality of form, a functional structure that organizes the diversity of individual phenomena. Gestalt is a spatially visual form of perceived objects, whose essential properties cannot be understood by summing up the properties of their parts. One of the clearest examples of this, according to Köhler, is a melody that is recognizable even if it is transposed into other keys. When we hear a melody for the second time, we recognize it through memory. But if its key changes, we still recognize the melody as the same one.
“If the similarity of two phenomena (or physiological processes) is due to and proportional to the number of identical elements, then we are dealing with sums. If there is no correlation between the number of identical elements and the degree of similarity, and the similarity is due to the functional structures of two integral phenomena as such, then we have a gestalt,” wrote Karl Dunker.
Representatives of Gestalt psychology suggested that all the various manifestations of the psyche obey the laws of Gestalt. Parts tend to form a symmetrical whole, parts are grouped in the direction of maximum simplicity, closeness, balance. The tendency of every psychic phenomenon is to assume a definite, complete form.
Starting with the study of the processes of perception, Gestalt psychology quickly expanded its subject matter, including the problems of the development of the psyche, the analysis of the intellectual behavior of higher primates, the consideration of memory, creative thinking, and the dynamics of the needs of the individual.
Gestalt principles
The integrity of perception and its orderliness are achieved due to the following principles:
- proximity (stimuli located nearby tend to be perceived together),
- similarity (stimuli that are similar in size, shape, color or shape tend to be perceived together),
- integrity (perception tends to simplify and integrity),
- closedness (reflects the tendency to complete the figure so that it takes on a full shape),
- adjacency (proximity of stimuli in time and space. Adjacency can predetermine the perception when one event causes another),
- common zone (Gestalt principles shape our everyday perception along with learning and past experience. Anticipatory thoughts and expectations also actively guide our interpretation of sensations).
The psyche of man and animal was understood by Gestalt psychologists as an integral «phenomenal field», which has certain properties and structure. According to Gestalt psychology, the main properties of perception are the law of constancy of perception and the figure/ground relation.
Phenomenal field — a set of phenomena experienced by the subject at a given moment in time. A construct used in Gestalt psychology and other phenomenological areas of psychology. A phenomenon is both sensation, and perception, and representation, and thought.
Figure and background
The main components of the phenomenal field are figure and ground. Some of what we perceive is clear and meaningful, while the rest is only dimly present in our consciousness. The first is the figure, the second is the background. Brain cells receiving visual information react more actively when looking at a figure than when looking at the background (Lamme, 1995). The figure is always pushed forward, the background is pushed back, the figure is richer than the background in content, brighter than the background. And a person thinks about the figure, and not about the background. However, their role and place in perception is determined by personal and social factors. Therefore, the phenomenon of a reversible figure becomes possible, when, for example, during prolonged perception, the figure and the background change places.
Perception constancy
The law of constancy of perception says that . You see the world as stable, despite the fact that your position in space, lighting, etc. is constantly changing.
is that the perceived size of an object remains constant, regardless of the change in the size of its image on the retina. The perception of simple things may seem natural or innate. However, in most cases it is formed through one’s own experience. So in 1961, Colin Turnbull took the pygmy, who lived in the dense African jungle, to the endless African savannah. The pygmy, who had never seen objects at a great distance, perceived herds of buffaloes as crowds of insects until he was brought closer to the animals.
is that the perceived shape of an object is constant as the shape changes on the retina. It is enough to look at this page first directly, and then at an angle. Despite the change in the «picture» of the page, the perception of its form remains unchanged.
is that the perceived brightness of an object is constant under varying lighting conditions. Naturally, subject to the same object and background.
Gestalt Psychology and Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy developed by Fritz Perls is not closely related to Gestalt psychology. If Gestalt psychology is an independent direction in academic psychology, then Gestalt therapy is a synthesis of psychoanalysis, bioenergetics, psychodrama and some ideas of Gestalt psychology. The indication that Gestalt therapy allegedly arose in the depths of Gestalt psychology, as some sources say, is only an advertising ploy. The Gestalt approach has used the respected word «Gestalt» to give its name seriousness and solidity. The founders of Gestalt psychology reacted negatively to Perls’ approach and his interpretation of the concept of «Gestalt».