Gestalt psychology is a theory of perception emphasizing that psychological phenomena are processed as whole, organized patterns rather than as a sum of individual components, under the maxim that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It arose as a reaction against structuralism's decomposition of experience into elements. Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler founded it in the early 20th century, with Wertheimer's 1912 publication marking its beginning.
Facts
Central QuestionWhy is perceived experience organized into whole, structured patterns rather than assembled from independent sensory components? 1 Founded Year Connections
Associated With
Kurt Lewin trained within the Berlin school of Gestalt psychology under Wertheimer and Kohler before extending its holistic, configurational approach from perception into motivation and group behavior as field theory. Lewin himself is not yet a live psychologist entity in this atlas; filed as a gap above rather than left unrecorded.
Held Differently
Gestalt psychology arose as a direct reaction against structuralism, offering a different account of how perception is organized (as wholes) rather than structuralism's decomposition into elemental sensations.
Source Wikipedia: Gestalt psychology
Founded By
Source Wikipedia: Gestalt psychology
In Branch
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Gestalt psychology
Wikimedia Foundationlead
emphasizes psychologically processing entire patterns
History section
Wertheimer's publication of these results in 1912 marks the beginning of Gestalt psychology.
Introduction
Gestalt psychology is a school of psychology, and a theory of perception, that emphasizes psychologically processing entire patterns (and configurations), not merely individual components of situations or events separately.
Lead section
Gestalt psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology, and a theory of perception.
Associated With: Structuralism, History/Overview section
psychological phenomena as organized, structured wholes
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