Chapter 4 – Wilhelm Wundt and the Founding of Psychology

Origin of Third Degree The classification of the qualities of objects by degree - heat and cold, moisture and dryness etc. - was commonplace in the middle ages. Henry Lyte's translation of Dodoens' Niewe herball or historie of plantes, 1578 includes a description of rue: "Rue is hoate and dry in the thirde degree." Shakespeare went on to apply the degree classification to drink, in Twelfth Night, 1602: "For he s in the third degree of drinke: hee's drown'd: go looke after him.” Present Meaning “The third degree” is well-known to all US crime- fiction enthusiasts as “an intensive, possibly brutal interrogation” appearing as early as Forbes (1900) In Masonic lodges there are three degrees of membership: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. When a candidate receives the third degree in a Masonic lodge, he is subjected to some activities that involve an interrogation and it is more physically challenging than the first two degrees. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xjs6iTjdJc&feature=player_embedded CHAPTER 7 – GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY IN GERMANY & THE UNITED STATES Dr. Nancy Alvarado Gestalt Psychology This was the major alternative and challenge to structuralism during the early 20th century. Founded by the successors to the people in Chapter 6. Gestalt means “shape” or “form.” Major proponents: Max Wertheimer – developed Gestalt principles Kurt Koffka – developed laws of perception Wolfgang Kohler – worked with apes on insight Kurt Lewin – developed “Field theory” Conceptual Foundations Gestalt Psychology grew out of the perceptual theories of physicist Ernst Mach and the experimental work of Christian von Ehrenfels. Mach described properties of spatial and auditory forms (squares, circles, simple melodies). As perceptual wholes these forms have qualities that distinguish them from their elements (parts). Its form quality gives an object perceptual or psychological permanence despite changes in sensation A song sung by different voices remains the same song. Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) Wertheimer studied under Stumpf in Berlin, then Kulpe in Prague (psychology of legal testimony). Fascinated by the apparent motion of objects outside a train window, he bought a stroboscope to study “where does movement come from?” Schumann loaned him a tachistoscope and introduced him to Koffka and Kohler (students of Stumpf). Apparent motion of a white stripe from horizontal to vertical was demonstrated. Phi Phenomenon Demos http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/mot_reverse- phi/index.html http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/George_Mat her/TwoStrokeFlash.htm Early stroboscopic entertainment devices Four Principles of Gestalt Thinking Holistic thinking – the whole is always more than the sum of its parts, called supersummativity. Phenomenological basis – analyzing the essence of phenomena is the subject matter of psychology. Methodology – lifelike experiments using small numbers of subjects. Isomorphism – psychological processes are directly related to biological (brain) processes. Tactile Phi Perceptions Benussi showed that when two points on the skin are stimulated the stimulus appears to move in an arc through space, like a flea hopping. Von Bekesy produced a tactile phi perception of a vibration jumping from knee to knee or between. Geldard & Sherrick produced a progression of jumps up the arm from wrist to elbow (like a rabbit). In all of these, the perceptual experience had a property (movement) not present in the components. Rubin’s Vase The figure emerges as a whole, not piecemeal, demonstrating that perceptions are active, lively and organized, not passive receivers of stimuli. Gestalt Principles of Perception proximity similarity good closure continuation (good gestalt) Good Gestalts Poor performance on perceptual closure tests (right) has been associated with right hemisphere impairment. Generality of Gestalt Principles Closure applies to memory, not just visual stimuli. Waiters can remember checks until the bill is paid. Zeigarnik Effect -- she gave 18-22 tasks but interrupted half part-way through. Later, interrupted tasks were 90% more likely to be recalled. TV cliff-hanger episodes generate tension. Alpha the chimp filled in the missing wedge of a pie-shaped figure. Results with other chimps produced inconsistent results, perhaps because they were too young. Illusions and the Physical World Koffka distinguished between the geographic environment and the behavioral environment. The man in the snowstorm who crossed a lake not a plain without knowing it. His behavioral environment was plain, not lake. In both cases, the horizontal line seems shorter than the vertical one, yet they are the same lengths. Ascendancy of Gestalt Psychology Despite the turmoil in Germany after WWI, Gestalt Psychology flourished in the 1920’s. Wolfgang Kohler succeeded Carl Stumpf as director of the Berlin Psychological Institute. A decade later, the Nazi’s wrecked it. In 1933, Jewish professors, including Wertheimer, Kohler & Koffka, were expelled from the university (27 psychologists). Many were assisted in finding jobs in the USA, some at the NYC New School for Social Research (Univ. in Exile). Nazi Collaboration & Heroic Opposition Germany’s most celebrated philosopher, Heidegger, supported the Nazi’s anti-intellectualism & Hitler. Under Nazi leadership, Wundt’s lab became a folk- cell or center for ultra-nationalistic activities. Kohler (not Jewish) vigorously opposed the Nazis. He wrote the last anti-Nazi article published, mocked the Hitler salute and gave an anti-Nazi lecture. He refused to take a loyalty oath to Hitler and agitated for reinstatement of Jewish colleagues. He emigrated in 1935, going to Swarthmore. The University in Exile Wertheimer studied human thought and education at the New School for Social Research (1933). Fromm’s interviews with major scientists at the New School was lost until republished in 1997. Wertheimer wrote “Productive Thinking” (1945) recommending a Gestalt approach to teaching. He developed new methods of teaching math and thought insightful productive thinking could be cultivated in all children (not just math geniuses). Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) Kohler studied with Stumpf, then went to the Canary Islands (Tenerife) to study primates and was stranded there for 7 years by WWI. Kohler questioned the S-R learning approach of Thorndike (trial & error), arguing that animals are capable of reasoning in the right context. He said animals were unable to demonstrate higher level reasoning in puzzle boxes. He devised situations that animals could solve using insight. Barrier Problems (Umwegen) G Dogs and one-year-old children could do this task Barrier easily but chickens could not. S House Wall Experiments with Chimps Chimps seemed to use insight to solve more complicated problems involving combining tools or using objects to reach bananas, with transfer. They seemed to have moments of insight, jumping up with inspiration after giving up on a problem. Animals were tested in social situations where they learned by observation and imitation. Kohler reported his results descriptively without numbers and statistical interpretations. British intelligence thought he was a spy. Transposition I II In both tasks the chicken pecks the square on the right. II Predicted by Predicted by III S-R theory Gestalt theory Are chickens recognizing a particular gray stimulus or are they making a comparative judgment? Other Studies Apes were able to find buried food immediately but not after a delay – ape memory is limited. He demonstrated that fear is not a learned response by showing that apes reacted with fear to novel stimuli such as camels or masks not paired with punishment. Sample devil masks used in Sri Lankan dancing (Ceylon) where the Cingalese people live. Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) Lewin studied in Berlin under Stumpf but found Wundtian psychology irrelevant and dull. He organized a series of workers classes to teach basic skills -- considered subversive by the university. He volunteered for WWI winning an Iron Cross, then published “The War Landscape” describing the soldier’s experience of the war. He used terms like life space, boundary, direction and zone, which became important in his later topological theory & described depersonalization of the enemy. Kurt Lewin Applied Interests Returning to the Berlin Psychological Institute, he found Gestalt psychology interesting but had a more applied focus. Two papers on the laborer in agriculture and industry. In 1919 he returned to the idea of life space, comparing agricultural and industrial spaces. He criticized the time-and-motion studies of Frederick Winslow Taylor (Principles of Scientific Management), arguing work has life value and must be humanized. He inspired Zeigarnik’s research on waiter’s recall. Topological Psychology An individual is a complex energy field, a dynamic system of needs and tensions directing behavior: B f (P, E) where behavior (B) is a function f of a person (P) interacting with an environment (E). Each person moves in a life space that contains goals with positive or negative valence. Goals create vectors that attract or repel. He used non-quantitative geometry to represent this Lewin’s Eggs (Potatoes) Nonpsychological E (P) E Nonpsychological Lewin used diagrams like this to describe life spaces Studies of Child Behavior Lewin criticized statistical approaches to child behavior and conceptions of “the average child.” The totality of a child’s life must be studied and since

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