Human Development
Cultural science psychology
Description:
The creation in the early 20th century in Germany of an objective, logical foundation for the cultural sciences, apart from the natural sciences, led to the use of the term [Geisteswissenschaftliche psychologie] to describe psychological trends which concentrate on the investigation of meaningful individual experiences, value factors and purposes in the mental or spiritual sphere. As such experiences never occur as isolated phenomena but are part of a complex psychic structure, the concepts of ganzheit (wholeness) and gestalt (configuration) were developed to understand and describe feelings, aspirations, motives and character. Geisteswissenschaftliche psychologie uses of understanding, re-experiencing, description and interpretation in studying the confrontation of the ego with the environment.