Question

1.    What were the contribution of Koffka and Kohler and why do you think the Gestalt movement did not last?

Answer 1

The main tenets of Getsalt psychology is that-

‘The whole is more than the sum of its parts.’

This means that psychological phenomena cannot be interpreted as combinations of elements rather parts derive their meaning from the whole, and people perceive complex entities rather than their elements. This is also known as a holistic approach towards perception. Koffka and Kohler along with Max Wertheimer put forth this important holistic approach.

Koffka also argued that infants initially experience organized wholes in their barely differentiated world around them. This means that infants look at the world as a composite entity and then discriminate among individual events, objects and situations.

Kohler did his experiments on chimpanzees and came up with the idea of ‘learning by insight’. It means that learning occurs when we gain insight about the whole situation and not when we focus on individual elements.

Basically, gestalt psychologists focused on the uniqueness of the experience in totality. They also propagated the view that any event loses its sanctity when observed in the more elemental manner. They also put forth the various principles of perceptual organization, like that of pragnanz, similarity, continuity, law of good figure etc.

The gestalt psychologists lost their fizz because they emphasized too much on the fact that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It is true that things and events have to be looked in totality but that does not mean that single events should be overlooked. Moreover, they have been criticized for not being comprehensive enough. Another limit of Gestalt theory is that it is difficult to distinguish between what provides an explanation and what must be explained. This indicates that elements are as important to focus as is the sum total. Although the gestalt theorists have put forth relevant points yet the above reasons led to the downfall of the gestalt psychology.