Gestalt revolt Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gestalt revolt - Research Paper Example Thus, psychological considerations of the school were based on a holistic approach, i.e. experience analysis by means of configuration of the whole pattern (Embree). The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Â ­- this is the main principle for Gestalt psychology. Functionalists made emphasis on experience analysis of an individual on the basis of his attitude to the learning process, because in such a way an individual is getting accustomed for the environment. Structuralists claimed that not the whole, but an element is crucial for the mind’s structure. Their favorite method, introspection, is in contradiction with the methods implied by Gestalt psychologists (Kohler). Thus, Gestalt psychology occurred in 20s in Germany and it was a new vision of psychological analysis. Germans started invading America and attracting the American psychologists. In Germany this school has substituted structuralism and in America it started its struggle against behaviorism, which was ver y popular those days. Thus, popularity of Behaviorism impeded Gestalt psychology from expansion in America. Gestalt psychologists started protesting against behaviorism. The main criticisms of behaviorism made by Gestatltists were reductionist and atomist nature of Behaviorism; artificial associations implied in Behaviorism (S-R) prevented natural development of mental processes (Kohler).