Question

1. a) What were the influences of behaviorism and of Gestalt psychology on physiological and comparative psychology?

b) How do the fight-or-flight response and homeostasis relate to evolutionary theory?

c) What are the similarities and differences between James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories of emotion?

d) Lashley said, “I sometimes feel, in reviewing the evidence of the localization of the memory trace, that the necessary conclusion is that learning is just not possible.” What did he mean by this?

e) How were Garcia's experiment results on rats in disagreement with behaviorism?

Please answer each of the part of above question and quality matters a lot. Please write professionally and don't plagiarise from anywhere. Please write the answer to the point.

Answer 1

a.

Both Behaviorism and Gestalt psychology revolted against Wundtian analytical psychology. But their revolt was inspired by different reasons.

(1) Both the above schools rejected introspective method. Behaviorists rejected introspection, because according to them, there is no mind or consciousness over and above body. But the Gestalists did not reject introspection. They pointed out that introspection was analytical and thus it would not be possible to grasp the nature of experience which was a whole with such method. Gestalists rejected the analytical type of introspection.

(2) Behaviorists rejected sensation. Sensation is nothing but the response of the body to a stimulus. Gestaltists also rejected sensations, because they are elements or atoms of experience.

(3) behaviorists rejected association of ideas, because it presupposes the existence of mind, and substituted association of stimulus and response in its place. The Gestaltists, on the other hand, rejected the notion of association, because to them every experience is a whole which cannot be analysed into elements.

Salient features of Gestalt school :

(1)Gestalt psychology has laid particular stress on organized wholes. Whenever we perceive something, we perceive it as an organized whole or unit, and not as mere sum or aggregate of parts. The object of perception is always a whole, a gestalt. The perception of a gestalt depends upon the total activity going on in the brain. The objects which lie close to one another or which resemble one another are perceived as a unit, a single whole or pattern.

(2) Gestalt psychology has also attacked the problem as to how we perceive apparent movement. If through a vertical aperture light is thrown at short regular intervals upon a screen in a dark room, we shall perceive a series of flashing white lines against a dark background. Now, if a second beam of light is projected through a second aperture, slightly to the right of the first one and somewhat later in time we shall see first one and then the other of the two parallel lines. If the time interval between the two lines is relatively long, we shall see two lines. But, if the second line is flashed after 1/15^th second of the first line, we see not two lines, but a single line oscillating or jumping from side to side. Instead of a simple addition of a stimulus, what we perceive in this case is a complex fusion which cannot be analysed into two separate lines. Thus the Gestaltists’ contention is that our experiences do not correspond point-for-point with physical stimuli. Our experiences, on the other hand, fall into a coherent and meaningful pattern which cannot be separated into elementary sensations.

(3) Various objects moving in the same direction are perceived as a single series and not as different objects. We, for example, perceive a train of motor cars. Here we do not perceive the motor cars separately.

(4) The Gestalt psychologists distinguish between figure and ground in perception. We always perceive a figure in a background. Every gestalt exists as a figure against a more general, and usually vaguer background. An ant moving on the skin stands out as a figure against the background of a general mass of cutaneous sensations.

(5) The way in which an organism adapts itself to changed environment is not mechanical, as has been held by the Behaviorists. The correct adaptation requires the understanding of the total situation. When an animal is placed in a new environment, it learns the situation by insight, and not by mechanical trial-and –error method. Insight is the power of ‘seeing the point’. It is an understanding of the whole situation which is necessary for the animal to learn a new movement for mastering a new situation. Gestalt psychology has laid special stress on the role of insight in learning.

(6) Closure and the law of Pragnantz are used by Gestalt psychologists as explanatory principles in learning as well as perception. Human behavior cannot be explained by the stimulus-response formula. There is an inherent tendency toward “form” and meaning in all our perceptions. This tendency is so strong that when the external situation is incomplete, we strive to complete it. Closure is a special case of the law of Pragnantz or the principle of equilibrium. According to this principle, every experience tends to complete itself and be as good as possible. Learning consists in performing a new act by which the gap between the present situation and the goal may be filled up. Insight into the situation as a whole helps us to close such gaps.