History of Psychology

During the first decades of the twentieth century, Gestalt psychology provided a major alternative and challenge to structuralism (Chapter 5), functionalism (Chapter 10), and behaviorism (Chapter 13). Founded in Germany by successors to the psychologists discussed in Chapter 6, Gestalt psychology moved west in the 1930s and became an important influence on the development of American psychology. Gestalt is a German word that means shape or form. Initially the three founders of Gestalt psychology, Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler, were interested in perception. Later their interests broadened to include learning, problem-solving, and cognition. One of their colleagues, Kurt Lewin, adopted a Gestalt approach in an innovative field theory, which he employed to address a wide variety of topics and concerns in child development, industrial management, rehabilitation, and social psychology. The term Gestalt has entered the English language and is widely used by psychologists and non-psychologists to refer to the whole of something.1