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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Lesson 23

GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY

Wolfgang Kohler (1880-1943)

Wolfgang Kohler

Wolfgang Kohler was born in 1880 and he died in 1943. He was a German but is known mostly as

an American psychologist because he worked in America. From 1913 to 1920 he was director of a research

station at Tenerife, Germany. Later he served as both professor of psychology and director of the

Psychology Institute, Berlin. He came to the United States in 1934, where he became professor of

psychology at Swarthmore College. Köhler is best known for his experiments with problem-solving in apes

at Tenerife and the influence of his writings in the founding of the school of Gestalt psychology. His

writings include Gestalt Psychology and The Mentality of Apes.

Kohler's main contribution in the Gestalt School is his discovery of learning by insight. He

conducted experiments on monkey and saw that monkeys were able to solve their problems through

insight. He saw that monkeys were able to attach sticks together to reach far off objects which they thought

was food. They would also pile up boxes to reach high places if they wanted to. Kohler concluded that

learning takes place by insight. Monkeys thought about what to do first and then performed the action.

Based on this observation, Kohler concluded trial and error as a method of learning.

Kohler also postulated the concept of isomorphism which means that there is kind of a mental map

of the objects in environment, and this mental map helps in learning by insight. This means that in the mind

of individuals, there is a map which according to him is the explanation of the things around him. In other

words, the map is the individual's perception about the world around him. This concept was called

isomorphism by Kohler. These were some of the contributions of Wolfgang Kohler.

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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Kurt Koffka (1886-1941)

Kurt Koffka

The other prominent contributor in the Gestalt school was Kurt Koffka who was born in 1886 and

died in 1941. He was an American psychologist but was born in Germany. Before settling permanently in

the United States in 1928 as a professor at Smith, he taught at Cornell and at the Univ. of Wisconsin. With

Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Köhler he is credited with developing the theories that gave rise to the

school of Gestalt psychology. His book Growth of the Mind (1924) was considered responsible for

awakening much interest in Gestalt concepts.

Koffka's concept of field theory was an important concept of the Gestalt school. He distinguished

between the geographical field and the field of experience. Geographical field is the actual environment

while the field of experience is the mindset of the observer. Humans react to the field of experience and not

to the geographical field. The geographical field is the actual field which represents the real world around.

The field of experience represents the experiences or the dispositions of the person who experiences the

field. For example, if a person goes for a walk in the garden and he knows that there have been witnesses of

snakes in that garden, he is quite likely to confuse a twig with a snake. This means that the person has

actually considered only the field of experience and ignored the geographical field or the reality. This is what

Koffka tried to explain. In his views, an individual tends to ignore the geographical field in face of the field

of experience which dominates his understanding or perceptions. The field of experience in the above

example may have been established by someone telling the person that there are snakes in the garden or

some previous incidents of snake sighting that the person might have heard of. These were some of the

contributions of Kurt Koffka.

Productive or Problem Solving Thinking:

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

Productive thinking or problem solving thinking and learning by insight has been explained very thoroughly

by two psychologists, one in America and the other in the European Continent. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi,

born in 1934, is a psychology professor at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California and is

the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago. He is noted for his work in

the study of happiness, creativity, subjective well-being, and fun, but is best known as the architect of the

notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He is the author of many books and

over 120 articles or book chapters. He interviewed and studied over two thousand creative people and

discovered some common elements in them. Some of those were; smart and naïve, playful and disciplined,

humble and proud, having great physical energy etc. Martin Seligman, former president of the American

Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive

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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

psychology. He is one of the most widely cited psychologists today, in a variety of fields related to

psychology and business.

Edward De Bono

The European who is famous in this regard is Edward De Bono (born in May 19, 1933) who was at

Cambridge University and developed his theory of Lateral Thinking which is akin to creative or problem

solving thinking. He developed some exercises to inculcate lateral thinking. Some of his exercises are,

"question" "rotate," discover "dominant idea" etc. Edward de Bono is a psychologist and physician. De

Bono writes prolifically on subjects of lateral thinking, a concept he is believed to have pioneered. De Bono

is also a consultant who has worked with companies such as Coca-cola and Ericsson. In 1979 he co-

founded the School of Thinking with Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson.