AP PSYCHOLOGY

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

BASIC CONCEPTS OF SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
The historical movement associated with the statement “the whole may exceed the sum of its parts” is:
A
Parapsychology
B
Psychophysics
C
Functional psychology
D
Gestalt psychology
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Gestalt psychology, school of psychology founded in the 20th century that provided the foundation for the modern study of perception. Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts.

Detailed explanation-2: -The historical movement associated with the statement “The whole may exceed the sum of its parts” is: Gestalt psychology. Figures tend to be perceived as whole, complete objects, even if spaces or gaps exist in the representation, thus demonstrating the principle of: closure.

Detailed explanation-3: -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-4: -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-5: -A group of early experimental psychologists known as Gestalt psychologists believed that perceptions are more than the stimuli that create them. By more is meant that a meaningful, whole pattern is created by the stimuli (that is, the total is more than the sum of its parts).

There is 1 question to complete.