Chapter 8: Psychology in Europe Between The World Wars

Gestalt psychology (theory; Wertheimer)

the study of the relationship between the part and the whole in terms of perception and cognition

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

used the germ “Gestalt” to mean wholeness that fit within German beliefs in the unity of the people, community, and nation

Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932)

argued in his paper “On Gestalt Qualities” that in regard to human perception, we perceive in terms of wholes (Gestalt)

Kurt Koffka (1886-1941) and Wolfgang Köhler (1887-1967)

sought to develop an approach that would articulate the psychological richness of life in an era in which wholeness in personal and national life were important in the German experience

phi phenomenon

a Gestalt wasn’t reducible to individual elements and thus wasn’t explicable in terms of associations.

law of Prägnanz (simple formation)

human perception had a tendency to organize any whole or Gestalt into the simplest structure given the conditions (the most general principle)

Karl Duncker (1903-1940)

argued that the perceiver is a part of the perceptual field, not outside it, and that this changes the dynamics of perception. in his monograph, he reported on the phenomenon of “functional fixedness”

Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)

argued that actions were structured wholes, not reducible to individual elements. the person acted within a physical and social space that was part of the action whole.

lifespace (Lewin)

an indicator that personality is a totality that includes the organism and its psychological environment at a given moment

Bluma Zeigarnik (1901-1988)

developed the Zeigarnik effect, which states that the uncompleted tasks fostered tension in participants, which made them remember the task; the tension was only released by completing the task

Tamara Dembo (1902-1993)

found that the frustrations were cumulative and involved the total situation—the participant, researcher; their actions, interactions; and the physical space they inhabited

Wilhelm Stählin (1883-1975)

promoted the connection of psychology and religion.

Karl Girgensohn (1875-1925)

grew a conclusion based in Gestalt theory that religious experience is a whole configuration (gestalten) of thought, feeling, and will and can’t be understood as a series of experiences added together

Carl Schneider (1891-1946)

discovered two types of people in terms of their religious experience: the mystical and the rational

Karl Bühler (1879-1963) and his wife Charlotte (1893-1974)

proposed that children’s development was an evolutionary progression from controlling instincts to the mastery of sensorimotor skills, then to true intelligence through language. their theory was supportive of active learning in the classroom

Paul Lazarsfeld (1901-1976) and his wife Marie Jahoda (1907-2001)

found that the strongest attitudes and emotions among unemployment were ones of resignation and withdrawal

Henri Wallon (1879-1962)

suggested that the development of children is often discontinuous die to competing demands

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)

argues that reality and experience only occur in human interactions and shared spaces

Frederik J. J. Buytendijk (1887-1974)

fostered the development of existential phenomenology

Konstantin Kornilov (1979-1957)

focused on the psychology of language, and moved the study toward a sociological approach—and a Marxist psychology—so that social interaction became the focus of the study

Charles S. Myers (1873-1946)

coined the term shell shock to describe men whose behavior was disoriented and who appeared to be hysterical.

Frederic Bartlett (1886-1969)

best known for his pioneering research on memory and early cognitive psychology.