Dr. spires talks with some students before psychology class begins. spires says, "i believe that mental experience is best understood as a whole, rather than in terms of its parts." her students recognize that spires describes which school of thought?
a. gestalt
b. humanism
c. psychodynamic
d. structuralism
e. functionalism

The correct answer is a. Gestalt.

Explanation: Gestalt psychology emphasizes the conception that living things perceive things not as mere individual components but instead as a whole. There is a saying in Gestalt that goes: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts".

In this particular example, Dr. Spire says "I believe that mental experience is best understood as a whole, rather than in term of its parts", which means that mental experiences and processes should not be conceived as separate entities existing in and of itself, but rather as a set of interconnected structures that work as a whole.

In conclusion, the school of thought being described by Dr. Spires is a. Gestalt.