Tuesday, 20 February 2024

THINKING
NATURE OF THINKING
- Thinking is the base of all cognitive activities or processes and is unique to
human beings. It involves manipulation and analysis of the information received
from the environment.
- Thinking is a higher mental process through which we manipulate and analyse
the acquired or existing information.
- Such processes occur by means of abstracting, reasoning, imagining, problem
solving , judging and decision making.
- Thinking is mostly organised and, is goal oriented.
- Thinking is an internal mental process, which can be inferred from overt
behaviour.

BUILDING BLOCKS OF THOUGHT

• Mental Image
- The process of mentally visualising an image of a speci c event/ object/place/
phenomenon through past experiences and pure imagination.
- An image is a mental representation of a sensory experience; it can be used to
think about things, places and events.

• Concepts
- A concept is a mental representation of a category; it refers to a class of objects,
ideas or events that share common properties/ characteristics.
- WHY DO WE NEED CONCEPT FORMATION?
Concept formation helps us in organising our knowledge so that whenever the
need arises, we can access it with minimum time and e ort.
Thus, for making our thought-process quick and e cient, we form
concepts and categorise objects and events further.
- Basis of concept categorisation:
1. Size
2. Shape
3. Colour
4. Both shape and size
5. Shape, size and colour.
- Concepts fall into hierarchies or levels of understanding. They are:
1. Superordinate ( the highest level )

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 2. Basic ( an intermediate level)
3. Sub-ordinate (the lowest level)

• Most of the concepts people use in thinking are neither clear nor unambiguous.
They are fuzzy. They overlap one another and are often poorly de ned.

• PROTOTYPES

- A prototype is the best representative member of the category.

- Eleanor Rosch argues that in considering how people think about concepts,
prototypes are often involved in real life. In prototype matching, people decide
whether an item is a member of a category by comparing it with the most typical
item(s) of the category.

PROBLEM SOLVING

- Problem thinking is thinking that is goal oriented.

- Problems are not always in the form of obstacles or hurdles ; it could also be any
simple activity that you perform to reach a de ned goal.

OBSTACLES TO PROBLEM SOLVING

• Mental Set
- Mental set is the tendency of a person to solve problems by following already
tried mental operations or steps.
- Prior success with a particular strategy would sometimes help in solving a new
problem. However, this tendency also creates a mental rigidity that obstructs the
problem solver to think of any new ideas , rules or strategies.
- Thus, while in some situations mental set can enhance the quality and speed of
of problem solving, in other situations, it hinders problem solving.

• Lack of motivation

Some people might have great problem solving skills but, if they are not motivated,
their skills and talents are of no use. Sometimes, they give up easily when they
encounter a problem or witness failure in implementing the rst step. Therefore,
there is a need to persist in their e ort to reach a solution.

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 REASONING
- Reasoning is the process of gathering and analysing information to arrive at
conclusions.
- Reasoning is also a form of problem solving; the goal is to determine what
conclusion(s) can be drawn from the given information.
DEDUCTIVE AND INDUCTIVE REASONING

• Deductive Reasoning
- The kind of reasoning that begins with an assumption is called deductive
reasoning.
- Deductive reasoning begins with making a general assumption that you know or
believe is to be true and then, drawing speci c conclusions based on this
assumption.
- It can also be de ned as reasoning from general to particular.
- COMMON MISTAKE : You assume but, do not always know if the basic
statement or assumption is true. If the basic information is is not true, then , your
conclusion would be invalid.

• Inductive Reasoning
- The kind of reasoning wherein, conclusions are drawn through observation and
analysis.
- Reasoning based on speci c facts and observation is called inductive reasoning.
- COMMON MISTAKE: Jumping into conclusions without knowing all possible
facts.
- Most cases of scienti c reasoning are inductive in nature.

• Analogy
- A form of reasoning that involves 4 parts.
- A is to B as C is to D with the relation between the rst two parts being the same
as the relation between the last two.
- Analogies help in identifying and visualising the salient attributes of an object or
event which often goes unnoticed.

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 DECISION MAKING

JUDGEMENT
- Judgements are results of inductive and deductive reasoning.
- In judgement, we draw conclusions, form opinions, evaluate events, objects,
based on knowledge and available evidences.
- Our judgement of a person is based on observable traits / characteristics.
- Sometimes, judgements are automatic and require no conscious e ort by the
person and occur a matter of habit.
- Evaluating a novel or a literary text requires reference to your past knowledge and
experience.
- Our judgements are not independent of our beliefs and attitudes.
- We also make changes in our judgement based on newly acquired information.

- In decision- making, we sometimes choose among options based on choices of

personal signi cance.
- In decision-making , the problem before us is to choose among alternatives by
evaluating the cost and bene ts associated with each alternative.
- Decision making di ers from other types of problem solving. In decision-making,
we already know the various solutions or choices and one has to be selected.
- Decision will be based upon evaluation of all possible outcomes.
- In real life situations, we take quick decisions and therefore, it is not possible
always to evaluate every situation thoroughly and exhaustively.

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 NATURE AND PROCESS OF CREATIVE THINKING

- Creative thinking is not always expressed in extraordinary work.

- Creative thinking can be applied in almost any area of human activity at di erent
levels. It could be re ected in activities like writing, teaching, cooking, enacting
roles, organising activities, resolving con icts, etc.
- The concept of ‘Everyday Creativity’ is re ected in one’s way of perceiving ,
thinking and problem solving is di erent from the ‘ special talent creativity’ seen
in outstanding creative achievements.

Nature of Creative Thinking

- Creative thinking is distinguished from other types of thinking by the fact that it
involves the production of novel and original ideas or solutions to problems.
- Creative thinking thus, refers to originality and uniqueness of ideas or solutions
that did not previously exist. Creative thinking is also generally characterised by
what Bruner calls “ e ective surprise”.
- Researchers tend to agree that thinking is said to be creative when it is reality-
oriented, appropriate, constructive and socially desirable.
- J.P.Guilford, a pioneer in creativity research, proposed two types of thinking:

• Convergent and divergent

- Convergent thinking refers to thinking refers to thinking that is required to solve
problems which have only one connect answer. The mind converges to the
correct solution.
Eg: Q. 3.6.9….. what will come next?
Ans: 12.
- Divergent thinking is an open minded thinking where the individual can think of
di erent answers to the questions or problems in terms of her/his experiences.
Eg: Q. What are the various uses of cloth?

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 • Divergent thinking abilities:
- Fluency
The ability to produce many ideas for a given task or a problem. The more ideas a
person produces, the higher his uency ability.

- Flexibility
Indicates variety in thinking. It may be thinking of di erent uses of an object, or
di erent interpretation of a picture, story or di erent ways of solving a problem.

- Originality
The ability to produce ideas that are rare or unusual by seeing new relationships,
combining old ideas with new ones, looking at things from di erent perspectives
etc. Research has shown that uency and exibility are the necessary conditions for
originality.

- Elaboration
The ability that enables a person to go into details and workout implications of new
ideas.

Divergent thinking is essential in generating a wide range of ideas. Convergent

thinking is important to identify the most useful or appropriate idea.

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 Process of Creative Thinking

- Preparation
The process of creative thinking begins with the preparation stage that requires one
to understand the task or problem in hand, analyse the problem and become aware
of the background facts and related information.
Here, divergent thinking abilities discussed earlier play their role to help one extend
in new directions.
- Incubation
When the person is trying to generate alternative ideas and trying to view the
problem or task from an unusual perspective, there may be a feeling of getting
stuck. One may even get disgusted with failure and may leave the problem or task
for sometime.
- Illumination
The moment we usually associate with the emergence of creative ideas - it is the
“Aha!” Or, “I have found it!’’ moment. There usually is a feeling of excitement and
even satisfaction.
- Veri cation
This is the stage where the worth and appropriateness of ideas or solutions are
tested and judged.

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 DEVELOPING CREATIVE THINKING

• Barriers to Creative Thinking

- Habitual
Habitual learning is necessary for smooth and e cient functioning within the daily
routine; but, the tendency to be overpowered by habits is detrimental for creative
thinking .When we become so used to thinking and perceiving things in a familiar
way, it becomes di cult to think in novel ways.

- Perceptual
The perceptual blocks prevents us from being open to novel and original ideas. We
also assume non-existing things as if they are existent.

- Motivational & Emotional

Motivational and emotional blocks interfere with creative thinking .
Eg: Lack of motivation, fear of failure , fear of being di erent ,fear of being ridiculed
or rejected. People with emotional-motivational blockades feel as though they are
not capable of doing some tasks.

- Cultural Barriers
Cultural

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