1. Gestalt
in
psychology

4. Gestalt
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
IN
PSYCHOLOGY

5. Outline
1. Introduction
2. Major thinkers & their contributions
3. Gestalt Laws
4. Merits of Gestalt Psychology
5. Criticism
6. Conclusion

6. Introduction to Gestalt Psychology
• Gestalt is a German word that means “shape”, “form” or “whole”.
• Gestalt School of thought focus on unified or whole rather than breaking
down thought, mental process and behavior into small elements. Gestalt
psychologist believed that you must look at the whole experience. “The
whole is greater than the sum of parts”
• One of the most important theories of perception is the Gestalt Theory.
Gestalt Theory “The Whole is different from the sum of its part”. It was
developed about 1910 by Max Wertheimer and carry on by Wolfgang
Kohler and Kurt Koffka at Frankfurt University.

7. Major Thinkers of Gestalt psychology
1. Max Wertheimer – Father of Gestalt psychology
2. Wolfgang Kohler
3. Kurt Lewin

8. Max Wertheimer (1800-1943)
• He was an Austro-Hungarian psychologist and philosopher.
• He created the Phi phenomenon which forms the basis of Gestalt psy.
• His work created a foundation of psychological theory, and his findings
are presented in his book Productive Thinking.
Phi Phenomenon: It is a perceptual illusion in which people see motion
that is produced by a succession of immobile images.

9. Wolfgang Kohler (1887 –1967)
• He was a German Psychologist & phenomenologist.
• Insight learning is perhaps the greatest contribution Wolfgang
Kohler made to psychology. Building off the influence of
gestalt psychology, Kohler discovered that learning can occur when
we gain insight into an entire situation, as opposed to focusing only
on an individual part.

10. Insight Learning
• Wolfgang kohler was the first psychologist who developed the insight
learning in which he described an experiment with apes that could
use boxes and sticks as tools to solve the problem.
• Insight learning is the abrupt realization of a problem's solution.
Insight learning is not the result of trial and error, responding to an
environmental stimulus, or the result of observing someone else
attempt the problem. It is a completely cognitive experience, which
requires the ability to visualize the problem and the solution
internally, in the mind's eye so to speak, before initialing a behavioral
response.
• The important aspect of learning was not reinforcement, but the
coordination of thinking to create new organizations. Kohler referred
to this behavior as insight or discovery learning.

11. Wolfgang kohler’s Experiment & Insight Learning
• In his experiment, Kohler hung a piece of fruit just out of the reach of each chimp. He
then provided the chimps with either two sticks or three boxes, then waited and
watched. Kohler noticed that after the chimps realized they could not simply reach or
jump up to retrieve the fruit, they stopped, had a seat, and thought about how they
might solve the problem. Then after a few moments, the chimps stood up and
proceeded to solve the problem.
• In first scenario, the problem was solved by placing smaller stick into longer stick to
create one long stick which could be used to knock the hanging fruit down.
• In 2nd scenario, chimps would solve the problem by stacking the boxes on top of each
other, which allowed them to climb to the top of the stack of boxes and reach the fruit.
1 2

12. Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)
• He was a German American psychologist.
• Kurt Lewin contributed to Gestalt psychology by expanding on gestalt
theories and applying them to human behavior. He was also one of
the first psychologists to systematically test human behavior,
influencing experimental psychology, social psychology, and
personality psychology.
Kurt Lewin Theory
An individual has an inner and outer forces that effect his perception.
• Inner forces include his own motivation, attitude & feelings
• Outer forces include attitude & behavior of teacher & classmate.

13. Gestalt Laws
• Law of Proximity
• Law of Similarity
• Law of Closure
• Law of Good Continuation
• Law of Good Pragnanz
• Law of Figure/Ground

14. Law of Proximity
• The law of proximity states that when objects appear close to one another
they tend to be perceived as a group.
• Related concepts or lessons should be taught aligned or closely to each
other. This is the reason why subtraction is taught after addition,
multiplication after subtraction then division after multiplication. Imagine
teaching addition then jumping directly to polygons.

15. Law of Similarity
• The law of similarity captures the idea that when we look at objects that are
similar to each other, we tend to group them together. We are prone to
notice matching shapes, colors, and forms (as opposed to looking for what
isn’t similar). Our brains quickly identify patterns faster than the separate
parts of the pattern.
• Similar lessons or contents should be grouped together to make learners
develop understanding more efficiently and effectively. This is the reason
why lessons are grouped into units: Unit I is for human body, Unit II is for
energy and motion, so on and so forth.

16. Law of Closure
• The law of closure captures the idea that when we see incomplete
elements in a visual, our brains tend to fill in the gaps and see it as a whole.
• If students find a math algorithm confusing because a certain question is
left unanswered or a step isn't clear, they will tend to concentrate on that
confused part of the process rather than the total process as a whole. This
is why students get "lost". Thus, make the lesson complete. Present it
clearly, simply and always be ready for students' clarifications.

17. Law of Good Continuation
• The mind continuous visual patterns. The eye continues in the
direction it is going. The principle of continuity predicts the
preference for continuous figures.
• Lessons should be presented in such a way that learners will see
these as connected and continuous. Now you know why we have the
"Review" part of the lesson plan. This way, students will realize that
their new lesson actually has continuity and is related to what they
already know or to the previous lesson.

18. Law of Good Pragnanz
• The word pragnanz is a German term meaning "good figure." The law
of Pragnanz also referred as law of good figure or law of simplicity.
• This law holds that objects in the environment are seen in a way that
makes them appear as simple as possible.
• Pragnanz states that when things are grasped as wholes, the minimal
amount of energy is exerted in thinking. In short, make your lesson
holistic, complete and most of all simple.

19. Law of Figure/ground
• This law shows our perceptual tendency to separate whole figures from
their background based on one or more number of possible variables, such
as contrast, color & size etc. The figure can only be identified because of its
background & background is only because of its figure.
• For a figure to be perceived, it must stand out from the background.
Emphasis should be done on important aspects of the lesson. For example,
teachers should vary the tone of their voice or write boldly or underline the
important key words of the lesson.

20. Merits of Gestalt Psychology
• Gestalts laid great emphasis on the role of motivation, and definite
goals and purposes in any type of learning.
• Gestalts has a notable feature that it makes the task of perception,
learning and problem solving an intelligent task rather then a
piecemeal molecular function or a mere stimulus – response
mechanical process. It has provided a scientific & progressive method
of problem solving based on the cognitive abilities of the learner.
• Gestalt Psychology has impacted the field of psychology to a huge
extent mainly in terms of perception, memory and learning.

21. Criticism of Gestalt Psychology
• A general criticism of Gestalt theory has been that it does not provide
an explanation of emotion and personality.
• It has little predictive power.
• Gestalt theories of perception are criticized for being descriptive
rather than explanatory in nature. For this reason, they are viewed by
some as redundant or uninformative.

22. Message to all viewers
“ "‫ے‬‫ہ‬‫سے‬‫طرف‬‫کی‬ ‫ہللا‬‫رے‬‫می‬‫صان‬‫ف‬‫ن‬‫اور‬‫ع‬‫ف‬‫ن‬،‫ت‬‫ل‬‫ز‬‫اور‬‫عزت‬‫ک‬‫ش‬‫ی‬‫ب‬
Nadeem Shoukat
Clinical Psychologist

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