Concept ReviewHistory of Modern Psych, 3e: Study Guide, Chapter 99-1
Print out this document. After you finish reading and studying each main section of the chapter, answer the questions to test your comprehension.
- The Origins and Early Development of Gestalt Psychology
- Gestalt psychology emerged from a number of influences. What was the influence of Mach and von Ehrenfels? (pp. 280-281)
- What effect did Brentano and Stumpf have on the eventually development of gestalt psychology? (pp. 281-282)
- What is apparent motion and what are the traditional explanations for it? (p. 283)
- Explain why Max Wertheimer’s apparent motion study is considered the founding event for gestalt psychology. (p. 284)
- What were Kurt Koffka’s contributions to gestalt psychology? (p. 285)
- Describe the evidence for and against the idea that Wolfgang Köhler was a German spy during World War I. (pp. 286-287)
- Gestalt Psychology and Perception
- Describe the principle of figure-ground. How do figures tend to be different from grounds? (pp. 288-289)
- Draw examples illustrating the gestalt organizing principles of good continuation, and grouping by proximity and similarity. (p. 289-290)
- Describe the gestalt principle of prägnanz and how it applies to the principle of closure. (p. 289)
- Use the Lake of Constance story demonstrate the difference between geographic and behavioral environments. (p. 291)
- The Gestalt Approach to Cognition and Learning
- How did Köhler define insight? (pp. 291-292)
- Describe the two-stick problem, Sultan’s initial failures with it, and how he eventually solved it?(p. 292)
- Describe how Köhler and Thorndike would differ over the explanation for Sultan’s solution to the two-stick problem. (pp. 292-293)
- Describe how Wertheimer tried to teach children to solve geometry problems productively (insightfully). (pp. 293-294)
- Describe how the gestaltists George Katona and Hedwig von Restorff influenced research on memory. (p. 295)
- Describe Karl Duncker’s work on problem solving. How did he demonstrate functional fixedness? (pp. 295-296)
- Kurt Lewin (1890-1947): Expanding the Gestalt Vision
- Describe how Lewin’s article on “The War Landscape” had a distinctly gestalt tone to it. (p. 297)
- Why did Lewin call his theory a field theory. What is (a) the life space and (b) the foreign hull? (p. 298)
- Describe the significance of Lewin’s formula B = f(P,E). (p. 298)
- Use the child desiring a cookie to illustrate the Lewinian concepts of equilibrium, valence, and vector. (p. 299)
- Give examples of approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, and approach-avoidance conflicts (p. 299)
- What is the Zeigarnik effect and how was it investigated? (p. 300)
- In Lewin’s terms, what is the significance of the film he showed in 1929, in which a child tries to sit on a rock? (p. 301)
- Describe the method and conclusions of Lewin’s study on frustration and regression. (p. 302)
- Describe the method and conclusions of Lewin’s study on leadership. (pp. 303-304)
- Describe any two examples of Lewin’s “action” research. (pp. 304-305)
- In Perspective: Gestalt Psychology in America
- Why did gestalt psychology fail to become America’s mainstream psychology? What was its overall impact in the U.S.? (pp. 306-307)
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