Wolfgang Köhler: Biography Of This German Gestalt Psychologist
Research regarding the way in which human beings learn and are able to understand the world has led a large number of researchers to develop different models and theories. Not only in the human being, but we also find great interest in understanding the animal’s ability to adapt to the environment and solve problems those they encounter.
In this sense, a large number of comparative analyzes and experiments have been carried out throughout history with different species, one of the closest to humans being chimpanzees.
One of the most important and renowned researchers in this area, who became one of the main pillars of the Gestalt school, describing learning by insight and who would even lead the American Psychological Association was Wolfgang Köhler, whose biography you can find in summary below.
Wolfgang Köhler was born on January 21, 1887 in the port city of Reval (now known as Tallinn), in Estonia, then part of the Russian Empire. His family was of German origin, his parents being Franz Köhler and Wilhelmine Girgensohn (school principal and housewife, respectively) and having a brother and several sisters.
Köhler would live his first years of life in Estonia but when he was six years old he moved with his family to his parents’ country of origin, Germany, settling in the town of Wolfenbüttel. His father having been the director of a school, education was very important in his family, and at the Köhler school He would begin to discover a great interest in science, field work, and classical music.
Training
Köhler’s university education took place throughout various universities. He would first be accepted into the University of Tübingen in 1905, studying there until a year later. After that he would go on to study at the University of Bonn between 1906 and 1907, and finally enter the University of Berlin in this last year.
In this last university he would study subjects such as biology, physics and chemistry, being influenced by figures as relevant as Planck and Nernst in the field of physics, and meeting and studying with the person who would be his thesis tutor, Carl Stumpf. He received his doctorate in psychology from this university in 1909 with the dissertation “Akustische Untersuchungen”, a thesis referring to psychoacoustics.
Some great contributions
Shortly after receiving his doctorate, specifically in 1910, Köhler I would go to work at the Psychological Institute in Frankfurt, where he would first act as an assistant and later become a professor. He would work alongside Wertheimer and Kofka in different experiments linked to perception, a work that would lead to the creation of the well-known Gestalt school, which focused on the study of forms and considered that the whole was more than the sum of the parts. .
In October 1912 he married the artist Thekla Achenbach, and a year later he would be recommended and hired as director of the Prusiona Academy of Sciences of Tenerife, in what was known as Casa Amarilla. There Köhler would carry out different research with chimpanzees, analyzing their cognitive abilities and discovering what would be called insight learning. From this he would write works such as The Mentality of Apesdeveloping different theories regarding learning and the existence of intelligence in non-human apes.
The first World War
During Köhler and his family’s stay in Tenerife, different events took place, among which the First World War stands out. Although initially Köhler He wanted to participate in his country’s military service, this was not possible due to the impossibility of navigating through waters controlled by the British. She would remain on the island during the war.
However, there are theories and different suspicions arose about the possibility that Köhler acted as a spy for his government regarding British activity on the island. These suspicions ended up provoking protests from the British consulate, which would finally ensure that the activity of the Yellow House was transferred to another location. After that, Köhler He returned to Germany in 1920.
Back in his home country, Köhler was hired at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Berlin, of which he would be named director in 1921. He divorced his first wife and would remarry Lily Harleman in 1927.
He would also work as a professor of philosophy and participating directly in research on Gestalt theory, re-entering contact with Koffka and Wertheimer. During these investigations he would come to analyze and criticize introspection due to its subjectivity and would seek the use of more empirical and objective methodologies.
However, it would not be favorable to behaviorism because it is based only on directly observable behavior and ignores covert behavior. He would also travel and work in the United States, alongside William James and at the universities of Harvard and Chicago, although he would return to his homeland.
The arrival of the Nazis and emigration to the United States
The rise to power of the Nazis was another turning point in Köhler’s life. Although he did not initially openly show his opposition to the regime, he would end up publishing a criticism of him (in fact, it is considered the last criticism published in Germany towards his regime until his fall) after Planck’s resignation was forced and he would begin to act. much more critically.
However, although he was apparently not detained, the regime was imposing more and more restrictions in the academic field and he lost more and more autonomy at the university, to the point that he had to resign and emigrate to the United States in 1935.
Once in north america, He worked as a psychology professor and researcher at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania where he would practice until his retirement in 1955. He would also carry out various research in Hannover, at Dartmouth College.
Köhler, due to his multiple contributions to psychology during his career, would be elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1959. He had previously received an award from the same institution in 1956.
Death and legacy
Wolfgang Köhler died on June 11, 1967. His death occurred at his home in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
The legacy of this important psychologist remains valid today and is part of many current theories. The concept of insight, for example, is still present as well as his important participation in the Gestalt school.
Furthermore, the analysis and study of the cognitive abilities of primates allowed them to be developed and reformulated. different theories of learning and the consideration of cognitive abilities of apes and other animals (also including chickens). Finally, he would also contribute to the research of cortical processes, in aspects such as visual or auditory perception.
