Many core tenets of modern day social cognition have their roots in the Gestalt tradition. As an example, let us consider the matter of context. Theory and research within social cognition begins with the knowledge that humans do not exist in vacuums: at any given moment, there are multiple social forces impinging on the individual and these must be given adequate consideration. As such, the importance of context is a theme which runs throughout the entire field of social cognition. Yet this emphasis on context is by no means new. Gestalt psychologists had long recognized its importance decades before and it was their initial interest in this factor which was later built upon in social cognition.
Gestalt psychologists also fought strongly against the behaviourist view that mental processes should not be studied because they cannot be observed [Moskowitz, 2005]. They were among the first in the field to focus on cognition and though their emphasis was primarily on object perception, many of their principles [e.g. the principle of figure-and-ground] have been applied in social cognition to aid in our understanding of person perception. It is important to note also that the criticisms which Gestalt psychologists leveled against the behaviourists helped to spark the cognitive revolution which further paved the way for the development of social cognition. [showmyads]
Kurt Lewin was particularly instrumental in carrying Gestalt ideas over into social psychology and, by extension, social cognition [Barone, Maddux & Snyder, 1997]. In his famous ‘field theory,’ he incorporated the Gestalt principle of holism, stating that individuals’ behavior can only be understood within the context of the subjectively perceived ‘field’ in which they find themselves [Moskowitz, 2005]. Behaviour is therefore a reflection not only of the person but also of the situation, not merely a result of who we are but also where we are. Lewin was an advocate of the Gestalt method of phenomenology, arguing that researchers should seek to understand the individual’s construction of reality, their unique subjective world [Fiske & Taylor 1991]. These main tenets, which grew out of the Gestalt tradition, helped to lay the foundation upon which social cognition and research in the field was built.
Despite the valuable contribution made by Gestalt psychology to social cognition, that approach was not enough to stimulate the emergence of social cognition as we know it today. Gestalt theories were limited inasmuch as they related more to inanimate objects than to people and described mental processes as passive rather than active. The constructivist movement, however, picked up where the Gestalt tradition left off.
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References
Barone, D. F., Maddux, J. E., & Snyder, C. R. [1997]. Social cognitive psychology: History and current domains. New York: Plenum Press.
Two of the main philosophical influences of Gestalt are Kantian epistemology and Husserl’s phenomenological method.
Both Kant and Husserls sought to understand human’s consciousness and perceptions of the world, arguing that those mental processes are not entirely mediated by rational thought [Jorge, 2010].
Similarly, the Gestalt researchers Wertheimer, Koffka and Kohler observed that the human brain tends to automatically organize and interpret visual data through grouping.
They theorized that, because of those “mental shortcuts”, the perception of the whole is different from the sum of individual elements. This idea that the whole is different from the sum of its parts - the central tenet of Gestalt psychology - challenged the then prevailing theory of Structuralism.
This school of thought defended that mental processes should be broken down into its basic components, in order to focus on them individually.
Structuralists believed that complex perceptions could be understood by identifying the primitive sensations it caused - such as the points that make a square or particular pitches in a melody.
Gestalt, on the other hand, suggests the opposite path. It argues that the whole is grasped even before the brain perceives the individual parts - like when, looking at a photograph, we see the image of a face rather than a nose, two eyes and the shape of a chin.
Therefore, to understand the subjective nature of human perception, we should transcend the specific parts to focus on the whole.
Gestalt Psychologists
Max Wertheimer
The inaugural article of Gestalt Psychology was Max Wertheimer’s Experimental Studies of the Perception of Movement, published in 1912. Wertheimer, then at the Institute of Psychology in Frankfurt am Main, described in this article a visual illusion called apparent motion.
Apparent motion is the perception of movement that results from viewing a rapid sequence of static images, as happens in the movies or in flip books.
Wertheimer realised that the perception of the whole [the group of figures in a sequence] was radically different from the perception of its components [each static image].
Wolfgang Köhler
Wolfgang Köhler was particularly interested in physics and natural sciences. He introduced the concept of psychophysical isomorphism - arguing that how a stimulus is received is influenced by the brain’s general state while perceiving it [Shelvock, 2016].
He believed that organic processes tend to evolve to a state of equilibrium - much like soap bubbles, that start in various shapes but always tend to change into perfect spheres because that is their minimum energy state.
In the same way, the human brain would “converge” towards a minimum energy state through a process of simplification of perception - a mechanism that he called Pragnanz [Rock & Palmer, 1990].
Kurt Koffka
Koffka contributed to expand Gestalt applications beyond visual perception. In his major article, Principles of Gestalt psychology [1935] he detailed the application of the Gestalt Laws to topics such as motor action, learning and memory, personality and society.
He also played a key role in taking the Gestalt Theory to the United States, to where he emigrated after the rise of Nazism in Germany.
Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization
Gestalt’s principles, or Laws of Perception, were formalised by Wertheimer in a treaty published in 1923, and further elaborated by Köhler, Koffka and Metzger.
The principles are grounded on the human natural tendency of finding order in disorder - a process that happens in the brain, not in the sensory organs such as the eye. According to Wertheimer, the mind “makes sense” of stimulus captured by the eyes following a predictable set of principles.
The brain applies thes principles in a way that enables individuals to perceive uniform forms rather than simply collections of ununconnected images.
Although these principles operate in a predictable way, they are actually mental shortcuts to interpret information. As shortcuts, they sometimes make mistakes - and that is why they can lead to incorrect perceptions.