Why did some people mistakenly assume that Gestalt psychology dealt only with perception?
Gestalt psychology explains perceptions as a whole experience, and not as bundles of elementary sensations. This theory proposes that entirety is more important than the individual tendencies. The perception of a visual scene as a whole helps in finding order and unity, among the unrelated parts. It considers learning process as a whole, not just the external stimulus response. . According to this philosophy, the whole of an experience has more significance rather than the individual parts.
There are different concepts involved with Gestalt theory. These are the principles of perceptual organization, and perceptual constancy. Perceptual constancy can be referred to, as the constancy in the perceptual tendencies regarding familiar objects, or stimulus, which does not alter with changing sensory elements. The perception remains constant because the learning process is based on retention of patterns associated with an element
The principles of perceptual organization were put forward by Wertheimer. He believed that perception of an object is done as a whole, not in the form of clusters of the individual sensations. These principles work in harmony with the Gestalt theory. The brain following mechanical association connects the various sensory elements. The elements which are similar combine, and those which are different from with each other do not show such tendency.
Gestalt theory was mistaken to be all about perception by various critics. It was because the views and concepts accepted, and put forward by Gestalt’s majorly revolved around perception. They explained learning behaviors on the basis of the way one perceives things. They did not seem to give importance to other elements regarding human behavior, such as personal variables.