PSYC 312 Lecture Notes - Phi Phenomenon, Wilhelm Wundt, Kurt Koffka
Document Summary
German protest to wundt"s principles (same time as rise in behaviourism) Roots in kant, mach, ehrenfels (form qualities), stumf phrenomenology, js mill (mental chemistry), wurzburg, james (stream of consciousness) Experience things from top down, not bottom up. Nazi (1933) jewish professors dismissed, academics fled persecution/emigrated to us, lack of funds, theories published only if agreed with political authority. Gestalt goal: investigate organization of mental activity, exact nature of person environment interactions. Eventually called for intellectual revolution, although not readily accepted in mainstream psych. Led to influence on teaching/learning practices, humanistic and cognitive psych study Max wertheimer, kurt koffka (introduced gestalt to the us), wolfgang kohler (patterns; became spokesperson for gestalt in the states) Gestalt: no one english word=configuration, form, holistic structure, pattern, shape, whole Not about elements (wundt). , or pieces of sensations; it is about the total, the combination creating anew. The attempt to reduce the psych event to physiological components is loss of the psych event.
