The Basic Nature

& Concept of
THINKING
Group 5 Leader: Muldez, Jennifer
Members:
Fabian, Marc Justine
Lico-an, John Paul
Serencio, Jenny
Bogayao, Anjie
Cerujano, Jimuel
Temporado, Bernadeth
OVERVIEW OF THE
HUMAN MIND
Understanding
the Nature and
Structure of
Thinking
 Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking

Types of Thinking:
Creative Thinking - a kind of thinking which aims to
produce something new & useful; something better than
before, which may be carried through to a valuable,
beneficial productive results.

Critical Thinking - is the careful and deliberate

determination of whether to accept, reject, or suspend
judgement about a claim.

Logical Thinking - a form of thinking based on logic or

logical reasoning.
Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking

Lateral Thinking - a form of thinking that

thinks “around” a problem.

Autistic Thinking - is a type of thinking

characterized by daydreaming, fantasies, &
delusions. It is typically self-centered, subjective,
accompanied by marked withdrawal from reality.

Noothetic Thinking - a form of thinking based

on the Word of God.
Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking

Six Elements of
Thinking
1.Thinking Operations
2.Thinking Tools
3.Thinking Structures
4.Attitudes
5.Principles
6.Habits
Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking
ELEMENTS OF THINKING:
Thinking operations – the type of
mental activity which involves complex
strategies to find meaning, and the way
we direct & control such activity.

Thinking tools – a thinking activity

that serves as a device that helps us use to
carry out thinking operations.

Thinking structures – a type of

thinking that describes the way we
organize or pattern our thoughts. (e.g.
Logical Thinking operations)
Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking

ELEMENTS OF THINKING:

Attitudes - it is the way we feel

or value things, towards anything
around us.
Principles - are “rules” that we
use to guide what we need to do
and what not to do.
Habits - the routine procedures
we apply to thinking about things.
 Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking

Components of Thinking:
Mental Operations
Most experts agree that thinking consists of some
type of mental activity. This activity can be
described in terms of operations.
They are of two types: cognitive & meta-cognitive.
The former consists of those operations used to
generate meaning. The latter involves the directing
of one’s efforts to find or make meaning, such as
planning, monitoring, and assessing one’s thinking.
Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking

Attitudes
To apply the above
thinking components, we
need certain attitudes or
dispositions to effectively
carry out our thinking
goals or tasks.
 Thinking Strategies:
Problem Solving – involves several steps – from problem-
finding and classifying to identifying a solution & checking it.
Decision-making – is often considered to be identical to
problem solving. Experts see decision making as a
process that differs considerably from problem-solving. It
involves:
1. choosing from a number of acceptable alternatives
when there is generally no accepted, best, or correct
alternative; 2. simultaneous evaluation of alternatives rather
than serial testing; 3. use of non-experimental, qualitative,
and quantitative criteria in analyzing various alternatives; and
4. repeated reference to values in applying these criteria.
 Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking

Conceptualizing – Essentially, this involves identifying

the key or critical attributes of several members of a class or
category of phenomena, and then, by continued application
of these attributes to additional specific examples of the
phenomena, building a generalized mental image that
articulates the common features of the examples and their
interrelationships.

Thinking Skills:
Creative Thinking Skills
Critical Thinking Skills
 Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking
Creative Thinking & Critical Thinking
… are not the same thing. Whereas creative thinking is
divergent; critical thinking is convergent; functionally,
Creative Thinking seeks to generate something new, Critical
Thinking seeks to assess worth or validity in something that
exists.
Operationally, Creative thinking is carried on often by
violating accepted principles while critical thinking is carried
on by applying accepted principles. Although creative
thinking and critical thinking may very well be different sides
of the same coin, they are not identical! (Barry K. Beyer, 1988,
p. 62)
 Creative Thinking
Skills
1. Brainstorming
2. Attribute Listing
3. Osborn Checklist.
4. Forced Relating Technique
5. Morphological Technique
6. Synectics
7. De Bono’s Lateral Thinking
8. Lateral Thinking
9. Mind Mapping
10. TRIZ
Critical Thinking
Skills
1. Identifying elements of an argument
2.Identify evidence related to a claim
3. Determining relevance.
4. Distinguishing statement of facts
from value judgment
5. Finding unstated assumptions
6. Determining strength of an argument
7. Determining credibility of a source
8. Identifying logical fallacies
9. Detecting bias in an argument
10. Compare and Contrast
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE
THINKING:
• Environment
• Food & drugs
• Values
• Mental habits
 ENVIRONMENT
Many elements in the
environment can
catch our attention:
• loud and irritating noise or
sounds that distract us
from what we are thinking;
• unusual icons & images
that might get our interest
& attention;
• people who are of signi-
ficant interest to us,
glittering & flashes of
lights, etc.
FOOD & DRUGS
 CULTURAL VALUES
Ours is a culture of self.
Money is the "means"
to acquire what the
heart desires.
These are only 5
characteristics that
identify our current
culture of self:
Self
Sex
Sports
Food
Drink
Religion
 MENTAL HABITS
A habit is any activity that is so well established
that it occurs without thought on the part of the
individual. The habits of mind are those well-
established thinking behaviours and patterns
characteristic of methodical & logical thinking.
Specifically: problem solving, communicating,
reasoning, and making connections.
Strong mental habits can be a barrier to creative
and effective thinking!
 THINKING STYLES

Adaptive Behavior
THINKING STYLES are
foundational in all
people.
Interests, Attitudes,
Values, and Natural
THINKING
Behaviors STYLE
interact w/ Thinking
Styles to drive our
Motivations.

Motivation
THINKING
STYLES
 FIVE STYLES OF THINKING
THE SYNTHESIST - Synthesist are integrators. They like to discover
two or more things that to other people may appear to have little or no
relationship, and find ways to fit them into a new, creative combination
…. What they look for is some perspective that will produce a “best fit”
solution, linking the seemingly contradictory views, not compromise,
consensus or agreement on the “best solution to a problem .
THE IDEALIST - idealists are people who like to take a broad view of
things! They tend to be future-oriented and to think about goals, i.e.,
“where are we going and why?” Like Synthesist they are interested in
social values, rather than facts. They understand that people differ, but
they like to believe that arguments and differences can be reconciled
by emphasizing the similarities that can be found even in opposing
views. They also tend to have a strong ethical sense or value.
 FIVE STYLES OF THINKING
THE PRAGMATIST - …concerns with ‘workability as the test
for usefulness. They excel at finding new ways of doing
things with the materials that lie at hand. They tend to
approach problems in a piecemeal, incremental fashion,
one thing at a time. They are interested in “getting from
here to there”, in making do and in looking for shortcuts
and the quick payoff.
THE ANALYST – sees the world as logical, rational, ordered,
and predictable. When a problem is presented, the Analyst
will look for a method, a formula, a procedure, or a system
that can solve it. They prefer to concentrates on objective
data, procedures, and planning, finding on the proven best
method.
 FIVE STYLES OF THINKING

THE REALIST – They are empiricists, i.e., what is “real” to

them is what can be felt, smelled, touched, seen, heard,
personally observed or experienced. Their motto is, “facts are
facts.”
They want to get things done by proceeding on the facts that
are at hand; rather than by gathering over more data; Realist
is inductive and empirical, the Analysts is deductive and
analytical.
The Synthesist asks: “What are the basic assumptions in this
situation?” But the Realist asks: “What are the facts!”
HOW DO WE
THINK?
 STAGES OF THE THINKING PROCESS
• UNDERSTANDING THE QUESTION
 Ask questions.
 Insufficient data can lead to difficulties.
 Asking clarification questions.
• RECALL WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW
ABOUT THE SUBJECT
 Ask, “what do I know about this?”
 Response limited to info contained in the brain.
 More association, more connection and recall.
PRODUCE AN ANSWER IN A FORM WHICH BEST
MATCHES THE QUESTION.
• Analogous to preparing “pandesal”:

info are ingredient; baking & mixing is the

processing.
• Brain searches, sorts, calculates, reject, test
& compare available information.
• Thinking process requires effective matching to
interpret the new subject or produce a
response.
• The way we organize knowledge in our brain
shapes our thinking.
Errors in Thinking
Understanding the Nature & Structure of Thinking

Errors in Thinking
Based on Edward De Bono’s book on SERIOUS CREATIVITY!
Partialism
Time scale
Egocentricity
Arrogance & conceit
Initial Judgment
Adversary thinking
Ego-involvement
Magnitude error
Extremes
 Errors in Thinking
Most errors in thinking are based on inadequacies of perception. None
of them can be detected as logical error in the traditional sense.
Improving perceptive thinking is the foundation of creativity. Changing
perception is the operating mechanism of creative thinking.
The Basic Errors in Thinking are:
Partialism – This thinker is looking only at a part of the situation and
basing his argument on that part. This error occurs when the thinker
observes the problem though one perspective only, i.e., the thinker
examines only one or two factors of the problem and arrives at a
premature solution.
Time-scale – is a special case of partialism in which a person looks at a
narrow slice of time – usually the immediate future. This is a kind of
partialism in thinking in which the thinker sees the problem from a
limited time-frame.
Egocentricity – Narrow band thinking or tunnel vision; the
partial area of perception is firmly centered on the thinker.

Arrogance and conceit – This error arise when there is an

apparently logical explanation for something and this is then
taken to be the right explanation. This error is sometimes
called the “Village Venus Effect” because like the villagers
who think that the most beautiful girl in the world is the
most beautiful girl in their village, the thinker believes that
there is no better solution other than that he has already
found. This block creativity. Not only individuals but
societies and even the whole mankind sometimes fall prey to
this error. For example, before Einstein, the whole scientific
community believed that time was absolute.
Adversary thinking – puts emphasis on logical support of
positions rather than on mutual exploration. This makes for
polarization. This is a “you are wrong. So, I should be right
type of reasoning. Politicians are the masters in this type of
thinking and they use it to their advantage.
Initial Judgment – occurs at all levels of thinking even among
the most brilliant people; the judgment is most often whether
he personally likes or dislikes the idea or somebody else’s
proposal. Here the thinker becomes very subjective. Instead of
considering the issue or problem objectively, the thinker
approaches it with prejudice or bias.
Ego-involvement – the need to be right at all times is a more
powerful objective than most in determining the direction of
thinking. A person will use his thinking to keep himself right &
then believe whatever position that thinking has generated.
Magnitude error – an error in perception in terms of size,
amount, weight, coverage, effect, etc.
 Salamat Po!!!

Presented by REY C. ALEJAGA of The Likhaan Group, Inc.

Promoting the Years of Innovation and Creativity,

2019-2020