Gestalt Theory on Connection between Theory and Research (Research Paper Sample)

Gestalt Theory
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Connection between Theory and Research
There exist a relationship between theory and research which can be brought out clearly using their definitions as well as functions of research and theory. The motivation behind any research work in academic context is to search for theory or for developing a theory. This is to mean that research depends on theory to come up with a problem and also theory relies on research work to ascertain its usefulness. Therefore theory always generates hypotheses which are subjected to being proved or disapproved by research and by the research work theory is being strengthened (Fook, 2001).
The Gestalt Theory
The Gestalt Theory was a theory developed and propounded in the 1920s by German Scientist and was an attempt to understand how the brain perceived objects. It held that if an objected were to be sighted by an individual, the brain would automatically and even at other times unconsciously simplify it, order and arrange as the whole would be considered greater than the total (sum) of its various parts.
Gestalt theory was also of the opinion that as human beings could see by ostensibly forming light, contours and even dark images into one whole image without even battling an eyelash. It is however noteworthy to acknowledge that the whole image that is perceived in the brain would be quite different from the sum of all the parts that came together. This meant that our brains usually summed up the way we recognize images and figures and forms a complete one instead of just viewing the image as an assortment of simple shapes, lines and curves.
This theory also has six principles, figure, similarity, proximity, closure, continuation and order. Figure principle is responsible for exposing the perceptual tendency we bequeath to differentiate images from their environment, similarity which looks into the likeness of visual characteristics, proximity refers to how objects that are each other always seem to appear as a group, closure when an encoded patterns which causes the recognition of satisfactory images, continuity suggests that the shapes have come no ending and never coming to an end, and the last principle being symmetry as the user perceives that the subject must not be give an impression that something is out of balance or missing 
Assumption of a Selected Epistemological Paradigm
The underlying epistemological paradigm that is the underlying foundation of this theory is logical positivism. This epistemological paradigm propounds that metaphysical arguments and philosophies should be rejected and individuals should only believe what has been proven to exist or be the way it is after there being scientific investigation. Metaphysical assumptions are ontological in nature and thus are rejected as they don’t lead to a practical realistic answer.
This empirical study done here thus proves a fact by the use of science and rejects any of the philosophical notions brought fourth that cannot be proven or verified scientifically. This theory attempts to prove why our brain chooses to perceive images the way it does by the use of science and thus giving an explanation that is ostensibly scientific in nature and also showing that reality does exist and I this case it is external to the particular researcher conducting the research to using the method of scientific inquiry.
Major Assumptions of the Gestalt Theory
In explaining the Gestalt Theory an example of the panda logo in World Wildlife Federation can be used. This logo contains an assortment of odd shapes that are put together to make an image that the human brain interpret as that of the panda. However, it is important to note that the image is in actual sense incomplete and the collection is just arranged in a way that makes our mind form the shape of a panda. To most, if not all people, the empty spaces in the outline of the collective image were ignored and the image perceived as that of a panda.
The ‘Bottom up-process’ as it was coined by a psychology professor by the name Philip Zimbar do was this process of us not having to think about it but the mind immediately decides to form the image in our heads. This theory is thus a proposition that the brain in its operations acts in a holistic nature together with its self-organizing predisposition and the individual ends up perceiving an incomplete image as a whole without even being aware of this fact and the connection of the various parts. This image can thus not be change when it is transposed in the image making process.
Methodology of Research Studies that Were Conducted Using the Gestalt Theory
A research was done by (Nesbitt & Wilkins, 2007) on the topic “The Gestalt Principles of Similarity and Proximity Apply to Both the Haptic and Visual Grouping of Elements” in the quest to analyse how people can use the sense of touch in grouping displayed elements. They hypothesised that people will use touch to group display elements in the very same way they group elements visually. In this research work, they found out that a significant proportion of the sample size they used in the research used colour or texture of different elements to group them when the spacing that was created between the elements were equal (Nesbitt & Wilkins, 2007). This result confirmed their hypothesis on touch.
In another clinical practice research by (Kelly & Howie, 2011) on the topic of “Exploring the Influence of Gestalt Therapy Training on Psychiatric Nursing Practice” which was a study done to explore the influence of Gestalt theory on therapy, they identified seven studies that they used in their research and two of the studies were used as controlled trials in their experiment. At the end of the study, they found out that six out of the seven studies they used reported that Gestalt theory of therapy resulted in an increased positive outcomes, in this case they were assessed alongside the comparators (Kelly & Howie, 2011).
According to research study conducted by Alawadhi ( 2010) on the perception on the Gestalt principles, the purpose of the thesis was to examine the four main principles of the Gestalt theory which were the motion of Gestalt, the art pad, the visual thinking, and the snowflake workshop. He found out that the Gestalt principles that he analysed had a direct and tangible effect on the quality of the design solutions.
Assumption of Epistemological Paradigm to Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods
Extensive research was done by scientist in to this theory and some researchers, such as Norbert .M. Steel explicitly studied the theory and its application outside of psychology in fields such as economics, music, art, mathematics and even sociology. The rise of basic assumptions of the Gestalt theory in psychology led to cognitive psychologists delving in the study of complex structures of knowledge which later came to be known as scripts, schemas or mental models. (Seel, 2011, p.70). The rise of the Gestalt Theory and its use in post-war Germany can be attributed to a Frankfurt institute professor by the name Edwin Rausch. He would give examples such as that of an adolescent and his mother in public where an individual who has prior knowledge of the two would comment about how the teenager has grown and how tall he has become, but in actual sense this concerns both mother and son. This would in essence mean that the mother who is a fully grown adult is being treated as a collection to the endpoint which is meaningful belongingness (Ash, 1998, p.196).
Some of the assumptions and approaches that are present in the Gestalt Theory have been used in modern times to actions such as image analysis, in which a probabilistic approach is employed. Gestalt psychology is usually in the quest to decipher psychological phenomena by the process of viewing them as organized and structured collective object rather than the sum of the various parts that it is constituted of. Agnes Desolneux attempts to explain the Gestalt Theory in her own way by applying its use in describing visual reconstruction (Bliss & Hamalainen, 2005). This is where the eye perceives an image as a whole and ignoring the various anomalies the image might be having. The retina perceives an image as a hole and the eye ignores the mathematical representation thus creating a full image at the retina while ignoring all other anomalies present (Desolneux, Moisan, & Morel, 2008, p.67).
Scope of Practice Theory and Its Appropriateness for Theory Building and Validation
There were researchers such as psychologist Edward C. Tolman propounded that it was the external stimuli that led to the change in cognition and it is this that the attention was to be paid. He is also of the opinion that cognition is responsible for our adaptation and acclimatization to a new experience through previous experiences. When such an animal is put in a new confusing situation, it is able to use its olfactory, auditory or visual cues to adapt to this new situation (Chang & Nebitt, 2005). For instance, if a herbivore that feeds on maize stalks is put in a new confusing situation, it will end up moving around in its blindness of information, but will finally find the food. Cognition for such an animal would come from the various experiences it has had in the past and this would enable it to finally end up where its food is (Burns & Dobson, 1984, p.201).
Research into the Gestalt theory was also responsible for the creation of the Visual Motor Gestalt Test by Lauretta Bender in the year 1938 and was also based on the evaluation of visual-motor functioning and the in adults and sometimes even children. This test was also used to assess the visual maturity, the reaction of the subject to stressful situations, their planning and ...