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Gestalt Psychology Reflection

Jasmine Owens
Psy 310

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History
History shows that psychology has been through so many different paths especially when it was
shaped/formed from the theories of the great psychologists, Skinner and Thorndike, along with
the experiments from Watson and Pavlov, who were also great psychologists. With that being
said, (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 P. 262)

Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology is such a large field because of all its different influences,
contributors with all of their different theories and views, as I learned this week, Wertheimer had
a grand impact when it came to developing Gestalt Psychology. We know Gestalt Psychology to
be the study of perception and behavior from the stand point of an individuals response to
configurational wholes with stress on the uniformity of Psychological and Physiological events
and rejection of analysis into discrete events of stimulus, perceptions, and response. (MerriamWebster Dictionary,2014)
Max Wertheimer
Max Wertheimer initially was going to school in hopes of becoming a lawyer. Studying
law was boring for him, he became disinterested. Because of this Wertheimer decided to change
his major to Philosophy and Psychology. Wertheimer was what myself along with many students
who he taught and sat in on class lectures would be considered a stimulus. He changed the
settings of his learning atmosphere. He believed that bright colors kept the students intrigued and
inspired to work better. I can relate to this because I feel that bright colors help me learn and

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remember information better than something thats just black and white things. I create flash
cards and highlight the perimeter of the cards with a bright and vibrant color to help me
remember important facts. Max Wertheimer played a role in starting the journal of publication
of the Gestalt psychology school of thought. (Schultz & Schultz, 2012. P.267)
Wolfgang Kohler & Ernst Mach
Wolfgang Kohler was another player in creating Gestalt Psychology. He did seem to take
s liking and interest in monkeys (chimpanzees) so he later created a book called Mentality of
Apes In which it became a renowned book. He believed that Gestalt theory was a general law of
nature that should be extended to all of the sciences. (Schultz &Schults,2012. p.267) Ernst
Mach had more of a direct approach to Gestalt psychology. He believed that our perception
doesnt change the way we see things. Even though we may not realize it or think about it, the
perceptual organization principles of Gestalt are what we as people come in contact with and
interact in our day to day life. What Schultz & Schultz (2012), the Gestalt principles of
perceptual organizations are continuity, closure, proximity, similarity, figure/ ground, and
simplicity. (Schultz & Schultz, 2012, p. 272-273

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References

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Footnotes
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