Psychology chapter 7
Nature of thinking:
- Thinking is the base of all cognitive activities and is unique to human beings, it involves
manipulation and analysis of information received from the environment .
- Therefore, thinking is a higher mental process through which we manipulate and analyse the
acquired or existing information, such manipulation and analysis occurs by means of problem
solving, judging, imaging, reasoning, and decision making.
Building block of thoughts:
1. Mental Image
2. Concept
Image:
- A mental representation of a sensory experience
- It can be used to think about things, places and events
Nature of Concept and its importance:
- A concept is a mental representation of a category, it refers to a class of objects, ideas or
events that share common properties
- Concept formation helps us in organising our knowledge so that whenever we need to access
our knowledge, we can do it with less time and e ort.
Steps of problem solving:
1. Identify the problem
2. Represent the problem
3. Plant the solution —> set sub-goals
4. Evaluate all solutions
5. Select one solution and execute it
6. Evaluate the outcome
7. Rethink, rede ne problems and solutions
Obstacles of problem solving:
The two major obstacles to solving a problem are mental set and lack of motivation
1. Mental set: tendency of a person to solve problems using tried and tested steps, prior
success with a particular strategy would sometimes help in solving a new. However, this
creates a mental rigidly that obstructs the problem solver to think of any strategies.
2. Lack of motivation: having skills to solving a skill is only useful if someone is invested into
solving that certain issue.
Functional xedness:
- This is occurs when people fail to solve a problem because they are xed in a thing’s usually
function.
Reasoning
- The process of gathering analysing information to arrive at conclusions. Therefore, reasoning is
also a form of problem solving
- The goal is to determine what conclusions can be drawn from certain given information
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Deductive Reasoning:
- A kind of reasoning that begins with and assumption
- This, it begins with making by a general assumption that you believe to be true and then
drawing speci c conclusions based on this assumption
Inductive Reasoning:
- Reasoning that is based on sliding facts and observation called inductive reasoning
- Inductive reasoning is drawing a general conclusion based on particular observation
Types of thinking:
1. Convergent
2. Divergent
Convergent thinking:
- Refers to thinking that is required to solve problems which have only one correct answer
Divergent thinking:
- Refers to an open ended thinking where the individual can think of di erent answers to the rst
question or problem in terms of his/her experiences
Important of Divergent thinking:
1. Fluency: the ability go produce many ideas for given task
2. Fluency: Indicates clarity in thinking
3. Originality: ability to produce ideas that are rare by seeing new relationships, containing old
ideas with new ones, looking go at this from di erent perspectives etc.
4. Elaboration: ability that enables a person to go into details and workout implications of new
ideas
Creative thinking and its characteristics:
Creative thinking refers to originality and uniqueness of ideas or solutions that did not previously
exist
Characteristics:
1. Originality
2. Appropriateness
Process of creative thinking
1. It begins with the preparation stage that requires one to undertake the problem in hand,
analyse the problem, and become aware of the background facts, and related information
2. When the person is trying to generate alternative ideas and trying to view the problem from an
unusual perspective, there may be a feeling of getting stuck, one may even get disgusted with
failure and may leave the problem for some time. This is the stage of incubation
3. Then next stage is illumination, it refers to the ‘Aha !’ Or ‘I Found It’ moment, we usually
associate it with emergence of creative thinking
4. Then we come to the nal stage of veri cation, when the worth of solutions are tested and
judged. Here, convergent thinking plays its role in selecting the appropriate solution that works
Enhance creative thinking:
Following are the steps to enhance creative thinking ability and skills
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1. Cultivate the habit of wider reading, exposure to a variety of information, and develop the art
of asking questions, pondering over the mysteries of situations and object
2. Try deliberately to look for multiple angles of a task & situation to increase exibility in your
thinking
3. Osborn’s brain storming technique can be used to increase uency and exibility of ideas to
open ended situations, brainstorming is based on the principle that producing ideas should
line kept separate from the evaluation of their worth.
Linguistic relative hypothesis:
- Benjamin Lee Whorf was of the view that language determines the contents of thoughts, this
view is know as linguistic relative hypothesis
Language:
- it consists of system of symbols organised by means of certain rules that we use to
communicate with each other.
Characteristics of language:-
Language has three basic characteristics:
1. The presence of symbols: symbols represent something or someone else
2. A set of characteristics organised these symbols: while combining two or more words we
usually follow a de nite and accepting order of presenting these words
3. Communication: sharing one’s though, ideas, intentions and feeling to others
Bilingualism:
- Refers to attaining pro ciency in communication through any two language
Multilingualism:
- Learning of more than two language is referred to multilingualism
Acquiring of language by human beings:
1. Infants cry, make variety of sounds and learn to babble at six months, the patterns repeat and
occur at nine months
2. Halophrases develop by the age of one year and two-word telegraphic speech occur at 18-20
months
3. Behaviourists like B.P Skinner are of the view that humans learn language by imitation,
reinforcement and associating words with objects. Further, children produce sound that are
appropriate to the language of the care-given and are reinforced leading to approximation of
desired responses
4. The pattern of reinforcement lead to regional di erences in pronunciations and phrasing
5. According ting to linguist Noam Chamsky, children throughout the world have a critical period
for learning language and go through the same stages of language development
6. Chamsky put emphasis on built in readiness that is present in general among dull children and
helps in acquiring language without direct teaching
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