Recording-2025-02-26T17:44:54.167Z

Gestalt Psychology

• Definition: Gestalt psychology posits that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

• Max Wertheimer's Contributions:

  • Argued that psychological events like perceiving and sensing cannot be broken into smaller components for proper understanding.

  • Suggested that individuals naturally seek out patterns in sensory information.

• Importance of Gestalt:

  • Established a new perspective in psychology termed Gestalt or "whole psychology".

  • The principles of Gestalt psychology significantly contribute to the field of cognitive psychology today.

Gestalt Therapy

• Influence: Gestalt psychology has shaped therapeutic techniques, notably Gestalt therapy.

Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis

• Overview of Freud's Theory:

  • Sigmund Freud, a neurologist, identified a psychological origin for many nervous disorders lacking physical causes.

  • Proposed the existence of an unconscious mind where threatening urges and desires are repressed.

  • Suggested that these repressed urges contribute to nervous disorders in patients.

• Key Aspects of His Theory:

  • Asserted that the unconscious mind controls much of conscious behavior.

  • Emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in personality formation during the first six years of life;

  • Significant psychological issues likely began early in childhood.

• Notable Followers:

  • Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Karen Horney, and Anna Freud.

  • Anna Freud initiated the ego movement in psychology, impacting personality development studies and contributed to the work of Eric Erikson.

• Freudian Psychoanalysis:

  • Formed the foundation for modern psychotherapy.

  • Psychotherapy involves a trained professional helping an individual gain insights into their behavior to instigate change.

Ivan Pavlov and Behaviorism

• Pavlov's Experiments:

  • Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist, discovered that reflexive reactions could be conditioned through associated stimuli.

  • Conducted experiments with dogs, finding that dogs salivated not just to food, but also to unrelated stimuli, like a metronome after conditioning.

  • This phenomenon was identified as "conditioning".

• John B. Watson's Contributions:

  • By the early 1900s, Watson aimed to reestablish psychology as a scientific discipline focused on observable behavior.

  • Argued against abstract concepts like consciousness, emphasizing observable behavior instead.

  • Developed 'behaviorism', a science centered on stimulus-response relationships based on Pavlov's findings.

• Little Albert Experiment:

  • Watson and Rosaline Rayner demonstrated that fear could be conditioned in children.

  • Conditioned an infant, "Little Albert", to fear a white rat by associating it with loud, frightening noises.

  • The infant developed a broader fear of fuzzy objects, demonstrating the reach of conditioned responses.

• Mary Cover Jones' Counterconditioning:

  • Demonstrated that fears could also be alleviated through counterconditioning techniques, using another child known as "Little Peter".

Legacy of Behaviorism

• Influence:

  • Behaviorism remained a prominent perspective in psychology and influenced the development of other perspectives, including cognitive psychology.