AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Psychological Gestalt theory would maintain that the whole is something else or something different than the sum of its parts. Merely adding up the component parts is meaningless compared with the “part-whole” relationship (SYNERGETICS: Explorations of Thinking.

Detailed explanation-2: -Essentially, Gestalt psychology argues that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That means that one cannot understand the parts of something to understand the thing as whole. The word “Gestalt” is German, and it means the way the thing has been put together.

Detailed explanation-3: -Gestalt psychologists emphasize that organisms perceive entire patterns or configurations, not merely individual components. The view is sometimes summarized using the adage, “the whole is more than the sum of its parts.” Gestalt psychology was founded on works by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka.

Detailed explanation-4: -Take a lump of graphite-a bunch of carbon atoms-put it under enormous pressure for a long time, and you’ve got diamond, the hardest substance on Earth. That’s nature’s best example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Detailed explanation-5: -Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts. That is, the attributes of the whole are not deducible from analysis of the parts in isolation. The word Gestalt is used in modern German to mean the way a thing has been “placed, ” or “put together.” There is no exact equivalent in English.