Thinking

Definition of Thinking in Psychology

If you had to define thinking, how would you describe it?

Thinking is an essential process for humans. It allows us to solve problems, learn new information, understand concepts, and process our experiences. Thinking involves the entire process of learning, remembering, and organizing mentally to understand the information better and recall it later.

Types of Thinking in Psychology

There are three main types of thinking in psychology: creative, divergent, and symbolic.

Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is the ability to generate innovative, unconventional, or useful ideas. You might think that only artists or writers use creative thinking. Actually, there are so many ways to use creative thinking skills in business, technology, and education. Pretty much everyone uses creative thinking!

Research shows that creativity and intelligence are related to each other somehow, but there are also other factors involved in creativity. A person's imagination, environment, and personality can influence their creative thinking abilities.

Divergent Thinking

What about when we want to solve problems? When there are many possible answers to a solution, we rely on divergent thinking to help us choose the best solution, like trying to answer or solve an open-ended question. There are many things you could say in response, but you want to provide the best answer.

Fg. 1 Divergent thinking, pixabay.com

Symbolic Thinking

Imagine going to the nearest grocery store. Can you see it in your mind? Which streets or roads will you take to get there? Symbolic thinking is the ability to create mental representations of objects, places, events, or people in your mind. Young children do this often when they engage in imaginative play. They turn toys and playhouses into symbols of real things. A baby doll becomes a real baby in the child's mind. A stuffed dog becomes a real dog!

Do you remember being able to create new worlds in your mind as you played? Babies younger than six months are unable to picture objects or people in their minds. If they can't see the object or person, it is like it doesn't exist! This is why peek-a-boo is so fun for babies. Symbolic thinking is important for adults, too. Many jobs, tasks, and other types of thinking require the ability to picture an example of something in our minds.

Characteristics of Thinking in Psychology

People with strong thinking skills tend to have several characteristics in common. An active imagination, a creative environment, and an adventurous or curious personality can influence our thinking abilities. Those who possess expertise in a particular field and intrinsic motivation also tend to have more developed thinking skills.

Expertise and Motivation

A creative environment can help facilitate higher thinking skills like creativity. Surrounding ourselves with people who challenge our ideas, support our thinking processes, and mentor or guide us in our creative thinking is a great way to further our thinking skills. Think of your thoughts as a garden: the right environment will provide the ideal conditions for your thoughts to grow.

Expertise refers to a thorough base or foundation of knowledge in a particular subject, topic, or field. It generally also refers to extensive experience in that particular subject or field. Together, expertise and experience provide the strongest and biggest foundation for building new ideas. A solid foundation is the best way to build a sturdy house of knowledge.

Those with intrinsic motivation are internally driven to pursue the answers to problems and questions. On the other side is extrinsic motivation, learning or working to fulfill external factors like project deadlines or scheduled daily routines. However, those who engage in deeper thinking processes are typically motivated by more than external rewards or consequences. They want to know the answer, finish the project, or solve the problem, even if there is no external motivation or reward.

Concepts and Prototypes

There are two other characteristics of thinking that are important in psychology - concept, and prototype.

The concept of animals is a great example. There are so many different animals in the world, but we can fit them all into one mental category based on one similarity.

What about the concept of dogs? There are way fewer different types of dogs than there are different kinds of animals. How about a specific breed of dog, like Dalmatians or Rottweilers? Now the concept is even smaller.

What if we did away with mental concepts altogether and put everything into its category? We would need a new word for every single item in the world! Concepts help us keep things organized and quickly retrieve information.

We compare new information to our prototype of the person, place, or thing, so we know how to categorize the new information mentally.

Fg. 2 Concept and Prototype, StudySmarter Original

Examples of Thinking in Psychology

Each time that we imagine, remember, solve a problem, or daydream, we are using thinking processes. As humans, we are constantly bombarded with information through our senses. How does this process work?

What about learning new information? What happens when we use divergent or critical thinking? Multiple research studies show that critical thinking skills are the best way to understand new concepts.

In one study, the researchers divided the participants into two groups. The first group simply rehearsed new information they were given. The second group was encouraged to ask questions to help them better understand the new material. Asking questions and trying to understand the answers is one example of critical thinking! Participants in the second group better understood the new information than group one, who had just rehearsed it for a while.

How to Develop Better Thinking Skills

Are there ways to become a better thinker? What can we do to help us develop critical thinking or creative thinking skills?

Improving Critical Thinking

There are seven steps that can help you improve your critical thinking skills about a particular topic:

• Identify the problem

  • What problems do you notice? What is it that you are trying to understand? Try to approach this question from different perspectives.

• Research

  • Gather data! Someone else has probably already asked this question or a very similar one. Gathering data will help you on your way to finding an answer.

• Determine the relevance of your data

  • Is your data significant, accurate, and reliable? Does it help you answer your question?

• Ask more questions

  • How does the information you have gathered so far help you better understand the topic?

• Find the best solution

• Share your findings

• Analyze your conclusion

• REPEAT!