Gestalt Psychology

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Gestalt Psychology

• Cognitive Field

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Gestalt

• Embraces frames of reference
• Behavior is more than a conditioned response
• Perception and memory need to be added to ones
  external observations

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Gestalt

• Gestalt is a German word that means the whole or
  the totality

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Perception

• Refers to the act of becoming aware of something
• To take notice of.
• The portion of the world that you grasp through
  sight, hearing, touch, and smell.

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Gestaltist

• Sees perception as an active process rather than
  a passive process like the behaviorist.
• Your perception of an event or an object is
  influenced by the context in which you become
  aware
• Home vs. hospital
• Your perception is also influenced by your life
  experiences

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Vases-39

• Can you see both possibilities?
• In many situations, people cannot see more than
  one possibility.

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A few Illusions

• http//www.skytopia.com/project/illusion/illusion.
  html

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Same EventSame Time

• Even if you and I witness the same robbery or
  accident at the same time, it is likely that our
  perceptions/recollections will differ.
• Do you assume that others see things the same way
  you do?

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Example

• 23-year-old Hispanic femalegave birth to 2nd
  child.experienced kidney failure. On 5th day of
  dialysis, she asks what the doctor has left
  inside of her that he is trying to wash out. She
  did not understand the tx. Or why it was needed.
  Clearly, her perceptions were different from
  those of the MD. Did the MD assume she saw
  things from his perspective?

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Lewin

• Your environment, as you interpret it, may not
  necessarily correspond with reality.

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Piaget

• Studied the thinking process of children.
• Thinking and learning are active processes.not
  just trial and error (behaviorist).
• Intellectual development is a gradual process
  that develops over time.
• Learning is transactional

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Two types of Learning

• Assimilation and accommodation
• Assimilation Taking what you know, your ideas,
  memories and concepts.listen to someone elses
  view points and assimilate them into your
  beliefs.
• For instance Lets say you are used to country
  living and you are forced to move to the city.
  You have to try and fit in.

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Examples

• Orthink of the millions of immigrants in the US.
  They have their own customs and beliefs yet to
  fit in they have to adjust to the ways of this
  countryour laws, schools, rules/regulations,
  etc. It does not mean that they give up their
  heritage.

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Accommodation

• More difficult
• Individuals need to GIVE UP a former belief.
• Example Religionyou are raised a Catholic yet
  after years of studying Buddhism you can no
  longer deny that the Buddhist beliefs fit your
  lifestyle and your way of thinking betterso you
  give up the Catholic religion and become a
  Buddhist.

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Paradigm Shift

• Occurs in the process of accommodation
• A total change in your thoughts/beliefs and
  views.
• Example No one believed that the world was
  roundwe all thought it was flat. A major
  paradigm shift occurred in order for us to
  understand that the world was round.

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Life Transitions

• We all go through major life transitions
• How will we handle them?
• Life transitions may force us to address
  preconceived notions of ourselves and what we
  think is important.
• Examples Birth, death, job change, loss of a
  body part, etc.

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Humanistic Psychology

• Renaissance

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What is it?

• Humanistic Psychology is characterized by an
  interest in a person and his/her capabilities.
• Humanism is an extension of Gestalt Psychology.
• It is more concerned with the achievements and
  interests of human beings rather than theories.

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Most Recognizable Humanist

• MaslowMaslows Hierarchy of Needs

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The Third Force

• Higher level of consciousness
• Love, creativity, self growth, joy, play, humor,
  etc.
• Humanism is a holistic way to view human behavior.

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Maslow

• Father of humanistic psychology
• Human beings strive to self actualization (third
  force)being all that they can be.

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Three Beliefs

• Learners should be involved in their education
  (self-directed and motivated)
• Humanistic educators value affective learning as
  much as cognitive learning.
• Education should teach people to learn and value
  learning for its own sake.

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Humanist

• Learning is the development of your full
  potential in the direction of self actualization.

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Maslow

• Physiological needs
• Safety and security
• Love and belonging
• Self-esteem
• Self actualization (very few arrive)
• You can get knocked down the ladder at any time.

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Information Processing
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Information Processing

• Relatively new theory
• The way we learn is sort of like a computer
• We decide if we are going to notice a stimulus or
  not
• Stimuli can come in the form of sight, sound,
  touch, hearing, flavor, etc.

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Remembering

• If I asked you to describe a stimulus immediately
  after you experienced it, you would likely be
  able to do sobut, if I wait..chances are you
  will not be able to describe it.
• This is especially true if I bombard you with
  stimulioverload

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Short term Memory

• You can only hold 5-7 thoughts in your short term
  memory thereforeyou have to decide what is
  important to store and what needs to goyou
  process the informationif you decide to keep
  it..it is stored in long term memory.
• Chemicals in your brain allow you to reconstruct
  information into memories

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Recognition

• You are walking along the street and you see
  someone.You look familiar to me.
• You cant remember their name but you remember
  their face.chemicals in your brain are allowing
  you to recreate the face.or a voice.or a
  smell.etc. Smells can take you back

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Principles of Learning
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Focusing Intensifies Learning

• Distance Educationnot right for some.
• Many students learn better if they are able to
  focus on the instructormake eye contact.watch
  the teacher present an example.
• In otherwordsbeing able to focus and use your
  senses intensifies the learning experience.

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Repetition Enhances Learning

• Simply put The more you do it, the more you will
  understand it and the better you will be at the
  task.
• New job.overwhelmed at first.until you get into
  a routine (repetition). Then you can do it with
  your eyes closed.

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Learner Control Increases Learning

• You do better when you feel like you are in
  control.
• If you can control the pacegreat. If you think I
  am going too fast and you feel out of control,
  you may not learn as well.

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Active Participation is needed for learning

• Learning is an active process.
• You cannot learn by osmosis.
• You get out what you put in.
• I cannot crack open your head and pour it in
  (Elementary school teacher saying).

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Learning Styles Vary

• Remember Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor
  domains.

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Organization Promotes Learning

• When you highlight, summarize, ask questions,
  teach a classmate, you are organizing material.
• Each domain may have an organization preference
• Affective low risk-high risk
• Psychomotor simple-complex
• Cognitive chronology

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Association is needed for learning

• You must be able to associate what you are
  learning with something you already know.

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Imitation is a method of learning

• Very useful for psychomotor skills.
• Donning sterile gloves
• Giving an injection

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Motivation strengthens learning

• If you anticipate benefits from the effort you
  are more likely to grasp the facts.
• Goal setting is a part of motivating your client.
• Common motivators Decrease in pain, fear of
  consequences, curiosity, hope of living longer,
  etc.

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Spacing New Material Facilitates Learning

• You cant cram and learn.
• You cant wait until the night before a 5 chapter
  test to read all five chapters.

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Recency Influences Retention

• You have heard me say I have slept since then.
• In otherwords.it has been a while since you told
  me and I forgot.
• The more recent an event, the more likely you are
  to recall it.

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Primacy Affects Retention

• You learn the first few items best.
• You are limited to 5-7 new bits of information
  and I have exceeded your threshold today.

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Arousal Influences Retention

• Noveltynewchanged.
• Arousal comes in many formspain, pleasure, fear,
  anger, anxiety.they can all enhance or impede
  learning.
• Fearimpediment
• Painimpediment
• Pleasureenhancement

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Accurate and Prompt Feedback Enhances Learning

• Ten minutes after a test Do you have our grades
  yet?
• Learners want to know how well they have met
  goals.
• Self-scoring tests--

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The more places you can use the material the
better

• Teach a skill that they can use in more than one
  arena. For instance Learning how to use a home
  PC can help at home and on the job.

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A learners biologic, psychologic, sociologic and
cultural .etc.

• We all bring baggage
• Health, self-esteem, previous experiences, etc.
  All impact our ability to learn.