Kurt Koffka’s excerpt from “Perception: An Introduction to Gestalt-Theorie” was an attempt in 1922, to introduce the then new and becoming German school of thought in psychology, Gestalt-Theorie, to America. The gestalt-theorie is rooted in the field of perception and Koffka aimed to prove how more efficient their theory has proven to be. Perception under this school of thought denies any theoretical meaning, the concept does not suggest anything that is brought fourth through the imagination or through mere thought it bears a concrete definition. He explores three psychological principles, sensation, association, and attention. And he points out a key feature of how their theory introduces a statistical method to predict infinite amount of associations that can be made. Furthermore, attention under the gestalt-theorie is ambiguous. Essentially, the theory explains how those three principles are not sufficient enough to explain the vast amount of mental abilities. Koffka pushes for Wertheimer’s phi-phenomenon and encourages American psychology to abandon their perception, if-you-will...
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The reading for week three focuses on analyzing the information uncovered by Ehrenreich. The purpose of the Evaluation was to highlight key social problems apparent in the field findings of the three cities Ehrenreich visited. In this week’s reading section, the author focuses strongly on her Minneapolis and Portland experiences. The main points Ehrenreich writes about are unionization, wage, and housing costs. Walmart, one focal point of the section, embodies many of the social and economic problems that Nickel and Dimed brings to question. Ehrenreich notices while at Walmart that workers are unaware of the indignities taking place in the workplace. Many employees lack the education, confidence, and opportunities
Rationalism and empiricism were two philosophical schools in the 17th and 18th centuries, that were expressing opposite views on some subjects, including knowledge. While the debate between the rationalist and empiricist schools did not have any relationship to the study of psychology at the time, it has contributed greatly to facilitating the possibility of establishing the discipline of Psychology. This essay will describe the empiricist and rationalist debate, and will relate this debate to the history of psychology.
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009). An introduction to the history of psychology (6th ed., p. 224,
Alfred Adler was the founder of Adlerian Counseling. He was born in 1870 in the country of Austria. who gave his theory the name Individual Psychology, because he wanted people to see that his theory and methods were designed to help clients help themselves. He believed that everyone had and internal need to be a part of society, and a desire to contribute to that society. That everyone strives for perfection, and everyone initially feels inferior to everyone else. He believed that when that feeling is not overcome, inferiority complexes develop, and if a person tries to overcompensate for inferiority, the develop superiority complex.
We are all influenced by our schema, which is an expected situation structure formed from cultural background and past experiences. We expect certain scenarios to have certain structures, but that may not always be the case. In the given scenario, I am an interpreter that is contacted by the interpreter referral service and I am asked to interpret a performance review for a Deaf man. The Deaf man works on the production floor of the Gillette Company and I have never met him before.
Abercrombie states that the human brain plays an active role in shaping the information presented to us, based on one’s past experiences. Kahneman claims that the human mind uses two systems of thinking, System 1 and System 2, where System 2 is more active and effortful than System 1. I attempt to illustrate how Abercrombie and Kahneman's ideal concepts of the perception of reality are applicable to real situations, by referring to the following three readings: Jung’s “The Personal and the Collective Unconscious,” Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” and Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The three readings relate to Abercrombie and Kahneman, considering the overlapping concepts of reality, that words and metaphors structure our understanding of what is real, reality can be altered from different perspectives, and that ignorance can actually be bliss.
Jaegwon Kim thinks that multiple realizability of mental properties would bring about the conclusion that psychology is most likely not a science. Several functionalists, specially, Fodor, take up the opposing stance to Kim, supporting that the multiple realizability of mental states is one of the reasons why psychology is an autonomous and justifiable science. Essentially, Kim think that in order for mental states to be multiply realizable then psychology must be fundamentally broken; with human psychology encompassing properties realized for humans and alien psychology encompassing those mental states realized in the alien way etc. I will demonstrate that even if one supports and allows the principles behind Kim’s argument they do not result in his final conclusion of psychology failing to be a science. By attacking his principle of Casual Individuation of Kinds I will show that Kim has failed to find the correct conclusion. Furthermore, I will consider a possible objection that Kim might have to my stance and give a short rebuttle. I will conclude by explicating Jerry Fodor’s account of what is Kim’s essential problem is. By showing that Kim’s conclusion fails it will entail that Fodor’s conclusion is more viable in reality.
Titchener, who was a one student of Wundt, on the other hand, described his system as structuralism, which involves the analysis of the structure of the mind. Tichener broke down consciousness into elemental feelings and sensations. Wundt held the belief that consciousness was vital in scientific psychology, thus dependent on structuralism. He used introspection to study the functions of the mind occurring in active experience. It is however, imperative to note that Wundt’s introspection could not be used to establish higher functions of the mind. He divided the active experiences as feelings and sensations (Titchener, 1915).
Gestalt psychology was founded by German thinkers Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka. They mainly focused on how people interpret the world around them. The Gestalt perspective formed partially as a response to the structurilism of Wilhelm Wundt, who focused on breaking down mental events and experiences to the smallest elements. Structuralists failed to explain the concept of ‘apparent motion’ and ‘illusory contours’. Gestalt psychologists further recognized that structurilism could not explain many perceptual phenomena.
The mental and physical processes that work together is what creates the ability for the mind to properly perceive the information that is received. The brain and the senses interact in such a way that gives the mind freedom to interpret this information into the individual’s own reality. Without this combination of influences, it would mean that the mind does not go beyond the information given because it would simply be a biological function and the unique interpretation of events could not happen. But since the mental and physical processes do work together the mind takes the information that is received and the mind constructs different interpretations of the sensory information. There are many ways where this can be advantageous. In one way, the mind creating interpretations of information is what allows for individuality and for different opinions in situations. Without the interpretations it would seem that human perception of events would be identical in every way. But besides the advantages there are also disadvantages, such as the fact that there are many ways in which th...
Leslie, A. M. 1987. Pretense and representation: The origins of" theory of mind.” Psychological review, 94 (4), p. 412
The cognitive revolution in psychology was a period during the 1950’s and 1960’s which involved radical changes to two major concepts in psychology, consciousness and causality. It was also a period that saw the abolishment of traditional science values of dichotomy and the worship of atomisation in science, replacing reductive micro deterministic views of personhood with holistic top-down view (Overskeid, 2008). The aim of this essay is to give an account of what constitutes the cognitive revolution, and also assess the contributions that the cognitive revolution has made to the scientific study of psychology. The cognitive revolution represents a diametric turn around in the century’s old treatment of mind and consciousness in science, such as the contents of conscious experience, whose subjective qualities were being discarded as mere causal epiphenomena (Sperry 1993). This paradigm shift brought with it alternative beliefs about the ultimate nature of things, thereby bringing forth new answers to some of humanity's deepest questions.
The development of psychology like all other sciences started with great minds debating unknown topics and searching for unknown answers. Early philosophers and psychologists such as Sir Francis Bacon and Charles Darwin took a scientific approach to psychology by introducing the ideas of measurement and biology into the way an indi...