Deck 15: Gestalt Psychology

Question 1

The term Gestalt is close in meaning to

A) molar behavior.
B) pattern or configuration.
C) dynamics.
D) the unconscious.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The Gestalt system advanced by Wertheimer was

A) concerned largely with applied psychology.
B) limited essentially to the fields of thinking and perception.
C) a worldview with implications for psychology, philosophy, science, and education.
D) restricted to the field of philosophical psychology.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Some of Wertheimer's views undoubtedly grew directly out of the physical theories set forth by

A) Isaac Newton.
B) Albert Einstein.
C) Hermann von Helmholtz.
D) Thomas Hobbes.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

_______ preceded Wertheimer in arguing that there are form qualities given immediately in experience and
That the form qualities may persist even when all the elements change.

A) Thomas Hobbes
B) Christian von Ehrenfels
C) John Locke
D) James Mill

Question 5

Michael Wertheimer stated the radical Gestalt view that the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts, but

A) the whole is equal to the sum of its parts.
B) no whole emerges from an aggregate of parts.
C) the whole is prior to and radically other than the parts.
D) the whole emerges after the parts.

Question 6

The Phi Phenomenon provides a particularly elegant demonstration of the idea that

A) short-term and long-term memory are different things.
B) insight is itself conditioned.
C) productive thinking can be learned.
D) the quality of the whole is different from the sum of the parts.

Question 7

The classic work on figure and ground was reported by

A) Max Wertheimer.
B) Wolfgang Köhler.
C) Edgar Rubin.
D) Kurt Lewin.

Question 8

Perceptual organization tends to be as good as it can under prevailing conditions. This is a statement of the

A) Law of closure.
B) Principle of isomorphism.
C) Law of Prägnanz.
D) Principle of good continuation.

Question 9

The earliest Gestalt orientation of Max Wertheimer is found in the psychology of

A) thinking.
B) learning.
C) motivation.
D) the unconscious.

Question 10

If one went to Max Wertheimer for advice about how to become a productive thinker, Wertheimer would most
Likely encourage the individual to

A) take a course in formal logic.
B) stick with the tried and true principles of association and begin always with simple things before working
To more complex problems.
C) become aware of unconscious conflicts.
D) work on the capacity to grasp structural organizations within the larger context and attempt to see the
Whole problem.

Question 11

Learning, from a Gestalt perspective, involves

A) the connection of a response with an absolute stimulus value.
B) connections that are "hard wired" between stimuli and responses.
C) cognitive structures and the patterns of relationships.
D) trial and error acquisitions of complex relationships.

Question 12

A major challenge to S-R theories of learning and to the concept of blind trial and error came out of the work
Done by on the Island of Tenerife.

A) Kurt Koffka
B) Wolfgang Köhler
C) Kurt Lewin
D) Max Wertheimer

Question 13

In his book The Mentality of Apes, Kohler describes observing chimpanzees learning to solve a problem through

A) trial and error
B) approximation
C) incremental learning
D) insight

Question 14

The Gestalt psychologist most noted for extending Gestalt principles into the field of development was

A) Kurt Koffka.
B) Max Wertheimer.
C) Wolfgang Köhler.
D) Kurt Lewin.

Question 15

Three kinds of learning, according to Koffka, include

A) S-R Learning, Operant Conditioning, and Insightful Learning
B) Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning and Insightful Learning
C) S-R Learning, S-S Learning, and S-O-R Learning
D) Sensorimotor Learning, Imitation, and Ideational Learning

Question 16

The Gestalt approach to methodology was

A) pluralistic.
B) based on exclusive use of field studies.
C) similar to Titchener's with a powerful emphasis on introspection.
D) similar to Watson's with an emphasis on wet lab studies.

Question 17

The Gestalt view of the mind-brain problem is called

A) interactionism
B) isomorphism
C) epiphenomenalism
D) material monism

Question 18

Isomorphism, in Gestalt psychology, refers to structural correspondence between _____ and_____.

A) brain processes . . . behaviors
B) brain processes . . . experience
C) behaviors . . . experience
D) behaviors . . . environment

Question 19

__________ broadened the base of Gestalt psychology into the fields of motivation, personality, and social
Psychology

A) Kurt Koffka
B) Kurt Goldstein
C) Rudolf Arnheim
D) Kurt Lewin

Question 20

Kurt Lewin viewed behavior as a function of

A) the individual.
B) environmental effects on the individual.
C) the person and the environment.
D) reinforcement.

Question 21

The expression life space refers to

A) the physical area within which a social group is free to operate.
B) the span of life.
C) every psychological fact that is influential in the life of an individual at a given time.
D) estimated time that the earth will support human life.

Question 22

According to Kurt Lewin, the task of education is to

A) reinforce a more socially acceptable repertoire of behaviors.
B) build general skills by teaching specific disciplines.
C) extend the life space so that we can strive for goals further and further into the future.
D) increase the educator's ability to control the educated.

Question 23

Better recall for uncompleted compared with completed tasks came to be known as the

A) Zeigarnik effect
B) Prägnanz effect
C) illumination effect
D) Koffka effect

Question 24

The expression Group Dynamics characterizes some of the social psychological work of

A) Muzafer Sherif.
B) Kurt Lewin.
C) Kurt Koffka.
D) Karl Duncker.

Question 25

The Karl Duncker's work on functional fixedness demonstrated that many people seem to have

A) an inability to find productive solutions to new problems.
B) the capacity for truly productive thinking.
C) symptoms of minimal brain damage.
D) astigmatism.

Question 26

Isolated or unusual items in a list are typically recalled better than homogeneous items. This has been called
The

A) Zeigarnik Effect.
B) von Restorff Effect.
C) Phi Phenomenon.
D) law of heterogeny.

Question 27

_____ assisted with the editing of Productive Thinking and helped bring Gestalt theory to social psychology with his classic studies on judgment of line length.

A) Muzafer Sherif
B) Solomon Asch
C) Kurt Koffka
D) Karl Duncker

Question 28

According to the text

A) Gestalt therapy grew directly and logically out of Gestalt psychology.
B) The Gestalt psychologists had no interest in psychotherapy.
C) there is probably no conceptual relationship between Gestalt therapy as advanced by Fritz Pearls and
Gestalt psychology as advanced by Wertheimer, Köhler. and Koffka.
D) a true Gestalt psychotherapy would have many similarities with psychoanalysis.

Question 29

Which of the following statements best characterizes the Gestalt position on scientific analysis?

A) Analysis should never be performed.
B) Analysis should only be used in extremely rare cases.
C) Analysis should be used to investigate legitimate parts of a whole.
D) Analysis should always be used to investigate the smallest divisions our technology allows us to create.

Question 30

In his book Organizing and Memorizing, _____ applied Gestalt problem solving research to educational
Psychology.

A) Solomon Asch
B) Rudolf Arnheim
C) Catherine Stern
D) George Katona

Question 31

The Gestalt position with regard to clinical psychology is best characterized by which of the following
Statements.

A) Gestalt psychology is best expressed in the system of Gestalt therapy.
B) Gestalt psychology should not be applied to clinical settings.
C) The Gestalt model can serve as a fruitful resource for clinical psychology.
D) Gestalt psychology is primarily a clinical theory.

Question 32

According to Gestalt psychology, natural events, left to themselves

A) show latent order within apparent disorder.
B) produce nothing but chaos.
C) show no semblance of order.
D) cannot even be said to act in lawful ways.

Question 33

The Gestalt views on science are

A) most consistent with the Newtonian views.
B) more consistent with 19th century thought rather than 20th century thought.
C) more consistent with the recent scientific world view than with that advanced in the 1940s.
D) by now largely irrelevant.