Prescriptive Dimensions of Gestalt, Psychology: A Methodological and Experimental Evaluation

Abstract

For philosophical and methodological reasons, the question was raised whether r i watson's prescriptive dimensions (1967, 1971) actually characterize the essential features of the various schools of psychology (cf. marx and hillix, 1973). in a series of experiments, psychology students were asked to apply the prescriptive terms (18 pairs of opposing trends, e.g., empiricism-rationalism) to behaviorism, gestalt theory, and psychoanalysis, and to certain empirical studies of gestalt psychologists. the results suggest that the prescriptions are not appropriate to gestalt theory or its empirical investigations and may blind one to what has been written by gestalt psychologists.