Schools of Psychology

Gestalt School of Psychology

MAX WERTHEIMER

• Gestalt School of Psychology was originated in Germany. The views of this school was against Structuralism, Functionalism and Behaviourism, the other schools of Psychology.

• Most prominent members of this school were Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), Kurt koffka (1886-1941), Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) and Kurt Lewin (1890-1947).

WOLFGANG KOHLER

• This school believes that the psychology should study the pattern or whole of behaviour or experience. According to them an individual perceives the thing as a whole and not as a mere collection of its constituents or elements.

• The word Gestalt means 'form', 'pattern', 'figure' and 'configuration'. This school regards man as a unitary whole and insists that the discovery of behaviour can be successful only to the extend that it emphasises the entire reacting organism and not merely its parts.

KURT KOFFKA

• An individual perceives the situation as a whole and after seeing and evaluating the different relationship in relation to the available environment, takes the proper decision in an intelligent way although quite often he does so impulsively.

• This means that when we look at  a tree we perceive whole of it as a tree, even though a tree consists of colour, brightness and a form, but when received by the mind all these components becomes a pattern or gestalt.

KURT LEWIN

• Thus psychologist termed this as 'insight' to describe the human behaviour and summarised the process by saying that the perception of the situation as a whole is the first step, while judging the relationship between various factors involved in the situation is the second one and taking an immediate decision and behave accordingly is the final stage of human behaviour.

Contribution of  Gestalt Psychology to Education

1. Gestalt laid emphasis on principles of unity or integrity and environment while studying human behaviour.
2. This school made valuable contribution to the field of sensation and perception by saying that teachers and parents should give emphasis on the whole in the class and at home.
3. This school suggests experimental procedure to study human behaviour.
4. They realised that for successful teaching-learning process in school there is a need of integration of teachers, students and principle . If there is a proper coordination among the subjects and work as an organised whole , then improvement in the teaching-learning process in school is inevitable.