Blog 2 - Gestalt

Gestalt Psychology
What is it? Explain the main ideas and principles using your own examples.


Gestalt is a German word that is not easily translated into a single English word. It embraces such a wide variety of concepts: the shape, the pattern, the whole form, the configuration. “It connotes the structural entity which is both different from and much more than the sum of its parts” (Perls, 1951). The idea of the family provides a useful example. A family is made up of separate members, each with his or her individual psychology. One could analyse each of them without seeing the others, but the way in which the family operates as a systematic whole is uniquely more than and different from, the sum total of the individual psychologies of the family members.

“Gestalt approach in counselling aims for a person to discover, explore and experience his or her own shape, pattern and wholeness” (Clarkson, 1999). Gestalt is the integration of all disparate parts of a person and their environment. In this way people can let themselves become totally what they already are, and what they potentially can become.
Gestalt is a very broad theory that entails many different aspects some of which are the phi phenomenon, the gestalt laws of pragnanz, closure, similarity, figure-ground, and proximity just to name a few. Though the aspects of Gestalt that will be discussed further are the effect of prior knowledge, unfinished situations, the sum of all parts theory and the relationship of the individual and their environment.

In 1926 by Dr Kurt Goldstein, an eminent neuropsychiatrist, focused on the organismic integrity of individual behaviour and its drive towards self-actualisation no matter how damaged the organism may seem. The principles of Gestalt psychological theory were largely based on experiments in perception which emphasised the holistic, organismic and biological theory of human functioning and growth (Clarkson, 1999). In gestalt theory the central human activity is viewed as people’s need to give meaning to their perceptions, their experience and their existence. The gestalt approach is therefore concerned with defining the nature of human lives in terms of meaningful wholes, whether these be biological or spiritual.
As mentioned earlier, for a Gestalt psychologist, "any whole is greater than the sum of its parts," which means that the whole has properties that cannot be understood by analysing it into its individual parts” (Perls, 1951). An example of this is the animal world would be a bee colony, whereby the queen and all her workers living and working in the hive make up the colony, so the whole colony is greater than the sum of all its parts (being the individual bees)(Boulay, et al.).

Gestalt psychologists "found perception to be heavily influenced by the context or configuration of the perceived elements" (Clarkson, 1999). Context is one of the most important concepts in teaching and learning.
Another key idea presented by Gestalt psychologists is that our prior knowledge greatly influences our current perception and memory for stimuli. Therefore, "when we remember something, we are reconstructing our perceptions of the event" (Cohen, 2002). An example of this is that of people suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Cohen (2002) also wrote that "PTSD is due to the inability of the individual to disengage from an experience and to absorb and digest it". Cohen saw symptoms of trauma as manifestations of attempts to assimilate experiences that are not able to be assimilated, repeated unsuccessful attempts at completion, dissatisfaction with the person's own responses to the unusual circumstances and an existential crisis.

Gestalt principles can be used in different areas in different workplaces, not necessarily just social work, counselling and psychology. Reb & Cropanzano (2007) stipulate that in work place evaluations, individuals who need to provide summary ratings, such as supervisors making semiannual performance evaluations, are faced with a demanding cognitive task. They need to process a relatively large amount of information that can be arranged in various shapes. This information can consist of objective performance data, such as the sales revenues, or in the subjective impressions derived from interacting with the subordinate, or a combination of both. Raters must then somehow integrate this information and represent it in a single score. As a result of limited cognitive resources, individuals may lack the motivation or the capability to process larger amounts of data in an optimal manner. Indeed, most ratings forms do not even provide instructions as to how dynamic scores should be aggregated. “So, rather than carefully weighing up each bit of available information, it is proposed that individuals use simple, less effortful heuristics that allow them to process information in a holistic manner. As such, they should rely on salient Gestalt characteristics of the experience profile when making their judgments and analysis” (Clarkson, 1999).

Clarkson (1999) states that researchers in Gestalt psychology such as Zeigarnik and Ovsiankina, documented the psychological tension which accompanies experiences which are incomplete or unresolved and the human attempt to close these ‘unfinished situations’. Most people are familiar with the kind of nagging discomfort associated with an uncompleted task such as a half written letter or an undelivered retort. Clarkson (1999) mentions the example of an ‘unfinished situation’, the fictitious story of a famous composer, sometimes Beethoven or Mozart, who tried but could not go to sleep because someone had played a concerto on the piano downstairs without playing the final chords. The composer could not rest until he had been downstairs and played the closing bars himself. Then having thus finished the incomplete auditory Gestalt, he had a peaceful night’s rest.

Unsolved childhood situations are also experienced as unfinished situations. These unfinished situations can continue to disturb the person in adult life. Clarkson (1999) asserts that these unfinished situations have been found to interfere with behaviours, perceptions and thinking related to effective functioning in the now. This interference ‘blinds’ psychological energy and drains it away from effective functioning in the current reality. Pathology may be caused when an unfinished or incomplete Gestalt is inappropriately or prematurely closed under stress. This closure may take physiological, affective, cognitive or behavioural form. For example, when the parents divorced and the situation is not sufficiently explained to the child, he then experiences the tension of an incomplete Gestalt. He needs to give meaning to the experience, and may decide with his three year old logic that the parents split up because he was not born a girl. This would be an example of inappropriate cognitive closure. For the child it was appropriate at the time, since it made sense or meaning out of his existence then. It becomes inappropriate however, when the thirty year old man still experiences at some level of awareness that he is of the ‘wrong sex’.

A German psychologist Kurt Lewin was a founder of Field Theory in psychology and he postulated that it is impossible to view a person except in the context of his or her environmental field. This interrelationship with the environment is a central principle of the Gestalt approach. Clarkson (1999) explains how Lewin was convinced that behaviour was determined by the psychological present more than by the past or the future. A Gestaltist would always work within the matrix of the person with needs in a sociocultural context. Perls (1951) stated that, “Only the interplay of organism and environment... constitutes the psychological situation, not the organism and environment taken separately”. Gestalt is one of the earliest psychotherapeutic approaches to incorporate a system’s perspective on human problems. In some psychoanalytic theories the person is often referred to in terms of object relations. In Gestalt, “organisms and organismic, are the terms that are frequently used to refer to the person. This is to emphasise the dynamic nature of people as biological beings (with animal, social and spiritual needs) systematically interdependent with their environment, a particularly ecological approach” (Clarkson, 1999).

In summary, the Gestalt principle has many facets that try to explain how people do the things they do and interpret the world around them. The sum of all parts aspect of Gestalt has many examples in the world where it is evident, such as families and animals that work in colonies towards a particular goal, particularly bees. Prior knowledge and past experiences affect one’s perceptions on situations and can have detrimental effects, as mentioned earlier the example of people suffering PTSD where they cannot get over their past experiences. Also, the holistic approach to evaluation is also important in being more efficient and effective in the workplace. Lewin’s theory on the individual and their environment needing to be considered as one rather than separate and unrelated. Finally, the theory of ‘unfinished situations’ where a person has not had closure in regard to an aspect of their life in the past, which sometimes creates recurring anxiety which can drain energy from effective functioning in current reality.


References

Boulay, R., Katzav-Govansky, T., Vander Meer, R., & Hefetz, A. (2003). Colony insularity through queen control on worker social motivation in ants. Journal of Biological Sciences. Pp.971-977.

Clarkson, P. (1999). Gestalt counselling in action (2nd Ed.). London: SAGE Publications.

Cohen, A. (2002). Gestalt Therapy and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: The potential and its (lack of) Fulfilment. Gestalt!, Vol.6; No.1 N.P.

Perls, Hefferline and Goodman (1951). Gestalt Therapy. Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality. New York. Dell Publishing Co., Inc

Reb, J. & Cropanzano, R. (2007). Evaluating dynamic performance: The influence on salient Gestalt characteristics on performance ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology. Pp. 490-499.

APPENDIX

Theory:

In my blog I have definitely established an analysis of the theoretical literature relating to my topic of Gestalt, and understood it thoroughly.

Research:

There was a considerable amount of research that I came across as i was preparing for the essay, as the topic is so broad. The word limit for this assessment task seems particularly short as the topics that have an incredible amount of information and research done on them. I have made an effective use of the research findings related to my essay topic.

Written Expression:

The essay I have submitted is readable and flows like any good essay should as i have used the appropriate essay structure. My APA style is perfect as it is up to the standards of the APA referencing requirements.
In this particular essay I did not feel that any tables or concept mapping would be any benefit to the reader in trying to explain the concepts that I have covered in my essay. The lay out and style of my blog has been set out for ease of reading for the audience.

Online Engagement:

My online engagement on blog 2 has improved leaps and bounds from my first blog. Learning how to post links and finally getting the hang of the different set out of the Social Psychology site has been helpful.
I have made comments on a couple of blog sites
http://www.socialpsychology-ali.blogspot.com
http://www.mrsfreud.blogspot.com

I have improved my engagement for this blog, although I do feel that I should keep familiarising myself with the whole blog scene as to improve my engagement score in the future. I do feel that a pass grade on enegagement should be awarded as I have made much more of an effort this time around :)