what is gesalt theory?

Answer 1

your spelling are wrong.is Gestalt Theory____What is Gestalt?



Gestalt theory focused on the mind’s perceptive processes (Kearsley, 1998). The word "Gestalt" has no direct translation in English, but refers to "a way a thing has been gestellt ; i.e., ‘placed,’ or ‘put together’"; common translations include "form" and "shape" (EB: "Gestalt Psychology", 1999). Gaetano Kanizca refers to it as "organized structure" (Moore, Fitz, 1993). Gestalt theorists followed the basic principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, the whole (a picture, a car) carried a different and altogether greater meaning than its individual components (paint, canvas, brush; or tire, paint, metal, respectively). In viewing the "whole," a cognitive process takes place – the mind makes a leap from comprehending the parts to realizing the whole.



At the time that Gestalt theory emerged, associativist and structural schools dominated psychology and schools of thought. Essentially, they espoused "similarity and contiguity, whereby an idea of something is followed by an idea of a similar or related thing." (EB: "Thought", 1999). As for behaviorist theory, "connections among psychological contents are more readily and more permanently created on the basis of substantive concrete relationships than by sheer repetition and reinforcement." (SGTA: "What is Gestalt Theory?") In contrast to this "psychological structurism" (Moore, Fitz 1993), the "qualities of form, meaning, and value" (EB: "Gestalt Psychology", 1999) interested Gestalt theorists. Associative theorists broke down and analyzed individual stimuli, or the "elementary constituent parts" of the mind; for Gestalt theorists, the grouping of these stimuli, the viewing of the "organized wholes," (Moore, Fitz 1999) produced a different view. Grouping comprised:



proximity - elements tend to be grouped together according to their nearness,
similarity - items similar in some respect tend to be grouped together,
closure - items are grouped together if they tend to complete some entity, and
simplicity - items will be organized into simple figures according to symmetry, regularity, and smoothness.
These factors we re called the laws of organization (Kearsley, 1998)



Challenging the idea that "perceptual organization was the product of learned relationships (associations)," (eb perception) Gestalt theorists argued that "the percepts themselves were basic to experience." (EB: "Perception", 1999). For example, in an ellipse […], one does not only see individual dots, but a dotted line – the dots grouped together form something more meaningful than just a group of dots. In addition, Gestalt theorists asserted that memory structures information "based on associative connections" and a "tendency for optimal organization." (SGTA: "What is Gestalt Theory?") For example, motion pictures are just that: pictures in motion. The pictures themselves are static, but when played at 24 frames per second, the images onscreen appear to be in motion.



With these components of grouping and perception, Gestalt theory influences thinking and problem-solving skills by "by appropriate substantive organization, restructuring, and centering of the given ('insight') in the direction of the desired solution." (SGTA: "What is Gestalt Theory?") In other words, Gestalt theory introduces the idea of regrouping and restructuring the whole problem, or idea, in order to solve it or make sense of it. This is known as the "phi-phenomenon" (EB: "Gestalt Psychology", 1999).



The founders of Gestalt theory are Germans Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka. These theorists focused on different aspects of Gestalt that have, throughout the 20th century, continued to develop across multiple disciplines.



Wertheimer applied Gestalt theory to problem-solving (Kearsley, 1998). According to Wertheimer, the parts of the problem should not be isolated but instead should be seen as a whole. This way, the learner can obtain "a new, deeper structural view of the situation." (Kearsley, 1998) Wertheimer developed a concept titled "Pragnanz" (the German word for "precision"), which states that "when things are grasped as wholes, the minimal amount of energy is exerted in thinking." (EB: "Wertheimer, Max", 1999). In addition,



Directed by what is required by the structure of a situation… one is led to a reasonable prediction, which like the other parts of the structure, calls for verification, direct or indirect. Two directions are involved: getting a whole consistent picture, and seeing what the structure of the whole requires for the parts." (Kearsley, 1998)



Koffka applied Gestalt theory to applied psychology and child psychology. His research with infants led to a theory that infants "initially experience organized wholes" as opposed to discrete elements. (EB: "Koffka, Kurt", 1999). Kohler’s experiments with animal learning led him to conclude that they exhibited "insight," (Driscoll 1993), where relations among stimuli and responses were learned, rather than simple stimulus-reponse connections critical to behaviorist theory. In these experiments, apes were subjected to different trials of having to obtain food that was just out of their reach. They learned how to construct a way to get the food, whether standing on a box to get it, making a long stick to reach it, through trial and error. Kohler determined that the apes generated an "interconnection based on the properties of the things themselves" (Driscoll 1993) and thus developed insight on how to get the food based on the tools they had available at a given time.



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Answer 2

Your spelling is probably off: Check Wikipedia! Here is a short quote from it regarding what you probably are seeking:

Gestalt psychology (also Gestalt theory of the Berlin School) is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies.