Module - 6 Thinking and Concept Formation

Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Cognitive Psychology
(PSYC612)
Ms. Ria Mahanty

PGDGC, M.Phil Clinical Psychology RCI
Visiting Faculty
Department of Psychology, AIPS
Module VI: Thinking and Concept Formation

• Concept formation and categorization
• Judgment and Decision-making
• Reasoning & Problem solving
• Creativity
So what is ‘thinking’?
Thinking
• Thinking can best be described as the mental manipulation of images,
concept, rules or other meditational units.
Kagan & Haveman, 1976
• Thinking is a process that enables us to find solutions to problem by using
symbolic representation of stimuli and events.
Silverman, 1978
• Thinking involves mental manipulation of concept, propositions and images.
Baron, 1992
Thinking determines:
• what we learn
• how we learn
• what we think is important to learn
• what effort we should expend
• what we think is true
• what we think is false
• how things should be viewed
• whether our learning is of high or low quality
• whether our learning is deep or superficial
Tools of Thinking:
Imagination: Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
As mental pictures consist of personal experiences of objects,

persons or situations, heard and felt. These mental pictures
symbolize actual objects, experiences and activities. In thinking,
we usually manipulate the images rather than the actual objects,
experiences or activities.
Thinking Imagination
Goal Directed Not necessary - goal Directed
Trial & Error No Trial & Error

Problem Not related to problem specific
Concepts
A concept is a general idea that stands for a general class and
represents the common characteristics of all objects or events of
this general class. Concept, as a tool, economize the efforts in
thinking.
for example, when we hear the word ‘elephant’ we are at once
reminded not only about the nature and qualities of elephant as a
class but also our own experiences and understanding of them
come to the surface in our consciousness to stimulate our thinking
at that time.
Symbols and signs:

Symbols and signs represent and stand for substitute of the
actual objects, experiences and activities.
For example, traffic lights, railway signals, school bells, badges,
songs, flags and slogans all are symbolic expressions, they
stimulate and motivate resultant thinking because they tell us
what to do or how to act.
Some Facts:
Thinking start with problem / requirement
Trail & Error
All thinking is goal directed
Thinking is a internal speech
Thinking is a complex mental process
Past experiences involve in thinking

Types of Thinking:
• Autistic Thinking: Express imagination thought and will eg: Huge flat,
Luxury car, Swimming Pool, Good Life partner.
• Realistic Thinking: With the help of realistic thinking try to resolve problem
e.g: Suddenly car stopped, now you start thinking about the reasons.
• Types of Realistic Thinking:
 Convergent Thinking
 Divergent
 Evaluative Thinking
Critical Thinking:
It is a type of thinking that helps a person in stepping aside from his own personal
beliefs, prejudices and opinions to sort out the faiths and discover the truth, even at
the expense of his basic belief system.
Here one resorts to set higher cognitive abilities and skills for the proper
interpretation, analysis, evaluation and inference, as well as explanation of the
gathered or communicated information resulting in a purposeful unbiased and self-
regulatory judgment.
Examples of Critical Thinking

• A plumber evaluates the materials that would best suit a particular
job.
• An attorney reviews evidence and devises a strategy to win a case or
to decide whether to settle out of court.
• A manager analyzes customer feedback forms and uses this
information to develop a customer service training session for
employees.
7 Characteristics of Critical Thinking
• Critical thinking is reasonable and rational.

• Critical thinking is reflective.
• Critical thinking inspires an attitude of inquiry.
• Critical thinking is autonomous thinking.
• Critical thinking includes creative thinking.
• Critical thinking is fair thinking.
• Critical thinking focuses on deciding what to believe or do
The importance of critical thinking

• Critical thinking is very important in the new knowledge
• Critical thinking enhances language and presentation skills
• Critical thinking promotes creativity
• Critical thinking is crucial for self-reflection
• Good critical thinking is the foundation of science and democracy
Critical Thinking :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaiF9cn5I2s
Creativity
“Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being.
Creativity requires passion and commitment. It brings to our
awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life.
Brainstorming
• Brainstorming is a great way to generate a lot of ideas that you would not
be able to generate by just sitting down with a pen and paper.
• The intention of brainstorming is to leverage the collective thinking of the
group, by engaging with each other, listening, and building on other ideas.
• Conducting a brainstorm also creates a distinct segment of time when you
intentionally turn up the generative part of your brain and turn down the
evaluative part.
Important points for Brainstorming

• Set a time limit – depending on the problem’s complexity, 15–60
minutes is normal.
• Begin with a target problem/brief – members should approach this
sharply defined question, plan or goal and stay on topic.
• Refrain from judgment/criticism – no-one should be negative
(including via body language) about any idea.
• Encourage weird and wacky ideas – further to the ban on killer phrases
like “too expensive”, keep the floodgates open so everyone feels free to
blurt out ideas, as long as they’re on topic.
Important points for Brainstorming

• Aim for quantity – remember, “quantity breeds quality”; the sifting-and-
sorting process comes later.
• Build on others’ ideas – it’s a process of association where members
expand on others’ notions and reach new insights, allowing these ideas to
trigger their own. Say “and”—rather than discourage with “but”—to get
ideas closer to the problem.
• Stay visual – diagrams and Post-Its help bring ideas to life and help others
see things in different ways.
• Allow one conversation at a time – keeping on track this way and
showing respect for everyone’s ideas is essential for arriving at concrete
results.
Difference between convergent and divergent thinking

ICEDIP Model
• INSPIRATION, where you explore, generate ideas, have visions,
research similar projects, brainstorm and dream.
• CLARIFICATION, where you discuss your aims, focus on your
goals, research costs and assess risks.
• EVALUATION, where you assess which ideas have best potential,
and how to improve your work as it moves forwards.
ICEDIP Model
• DISTILLATION – the process of concentrating or boiling your ideas down
into a single vision.
• INCUBATION, or not thinking about your idea! This phase is about letting
go and allowing new connections to happen naturally. You may have the
occasional ponder.
• PERSPIRATION, the hard work phase where you actually put plans into
action, with determination.
https://youtu.be/kfpERveB8kM
Negative Attitude That Block Creativity

1. Oh no,
2. It can't be done!
3. I can't do it.
4. But I'm not creative.
5. That's childish.
6. What will people think?
Qualities of Creative People

Independent
Usually, creative people have a strong sense of independence. They enjoy
being alone with their ideas and making art out of their thoughts. In a way,
they would prefer not to work on projects with other people since it is easier
for them to dive in and take charge all by themselves.
Curious
Creative people are always curious about how certain thing, they are the
people who constantly ask questions and want to become knowledgeable
about random things. Their curiosity comes across in their work and art since
they are brave enough to question and then answer things others will not.
Deep thinkers
It should come as no surprise that creative people are deep thinkers. They
dive deep into philosophical questions and want to get to the root of
everything. They internalize their thoughts and their mind is always
running. They are intelligent and become knowledgeable about religion,
politics and the meaning of life in general.
Open-minded
Creative people tend to be very open to new ideas and new ways of
thinking since they are constantly thinking about life and things from
different perspectives. For example, if they are a writer, they are putting
themselves in each of their characters and their mindsets when drafting
their novel. So when they are living their life, putting themselves in
other people’s shoes and thinking in a different mindset comes easily to
them
Interesting
Creative people are truly interesting individuals. They have such a vibrant
personality that can entertain and keep you occupied for hours. They
have a wide range of interests which makes talking to them about nearly
anything always a fun time.
Fun
They are fun to be around since they have such a thirst for life. They are
usually excited about new people, places, and things. They want to soak
in everything that life has to offer and then put their experiences into their
work.
Ambitious
Creative people understand that no task is too small for them to tackle.
They are ready to take on a lot of work all at once and they know they can
produce awesome results. Most of the time, they do so under an intense
deadline and plenty of stress.
Sensitive
Creative people are sensitive since they are very in-tune with their
emotions and feelings. They capture this sensitivity and use it as
inspiration for their work. They have a certain sensitivity for people,
feedback, beauty, and other aspects of their life. They have a heightened
sense of sensitivity at all times.
Active
Creative people are active people. They have no tolerance for boredom
since they always want to be creating and improving their craft. They
thrive on new and exciting experiences since it provides inspiration for
their novel, poetry, music, dance or artwork.
Spreads Happiness
Creative people share their gift and passion with the world and this, in turn,
spreads happiness. Their art evokes certain emotions and responses from
people, it also may inspire other people to become creative themselves.
Creative people may enjoy sharing their work with others because it also
makes them happy to receive great reviews of their work.
9 Ways to Improve Your Creativity

• Commit Yourself to Developing Your Creativity
• Learn Through Collaboration
• Do Something You Love
• Find Inspiration From Other Industries
• Set the Right Mood
• Ask For Advice or Feedback
• Be Willing to Take Risks
• Build Your Confidence
• Brainstorm to Inspire New Ideas
https://youtu.be/GymZfNjT4hk
Problem Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
A perceived gap between the existing state and a desired

state, or a deviation from a norm, standard, or status
quo.
What are problem-solving
Amity Instituteskills?
of Psychology and Allied Sciences
• Active listening
• Analysis
• Research
• Creativity
• Communication
• Dependability
• Decision making
• Team-building
Barriers to Problem Solving
Try the "Six Hats" Technique

• Red Hat: Look at the situation emotionally. What do your feelings tell
you?
• White Hat: Look at the situation objectively. What are the facts?
• Yellow Hat: Use a positive perspective. Which elements of the
solution will work?
• Black Hat: Use a negative perspective. Which elements of the
solution won’t work?
• Green Hat: Think creatively. What are some alternative ideas?
• Blue Hat: Think broadly. What is the best overall solution?
The Six Step Problem Solving Model

The Six Steps
• Define the Problem
• Determine the Root Cause(s) of the Problem
• Develop Alternative Solutions
• Select a Solution
• Implement the Solution
• Evaluate the Outcome
The 5 Most
Common Problems of Organizations
• Absence of clear direction. Lack of direction is one of the most
common organizational problems.
• Difficulty blending multiple personalities into a cohesive and
unified team.
• Failure to develop key competencies and behaviors.
• Poor communication and feedback.
• Lack of awareness.
Problem Solving and Decision Making:

https://youtu.be/Qg1NvbZVlXE
Group Decision-Making
Involving more people in the decision-making process can greatly
improve the quality of a manager’s decisions and outcomes.
However, involving more people can also increase conflict and
generate other challenges.
Strengths of Group Decision Making

• Groups generate more complete information and knowledge.
• By aggregating the resources of several individuals, groups bring more input into
the decision process.
• In addition to more input, groups can bring heterogeneity to the decision process.
They offer increased diversity of views.
• Groups generate higher quality decisions.
• Finally, groups lead to increase acceptance of solutions. Many decisions fail after
the final choice is made because people don’t accept the solution.
• Group members who participated in making a decision are likely to
enthusiastically support the decision and encourage others to accept it.
Weaknesses of Group Decision Making

• Group decisions are time-consuming. They typically take more time to
reach a solution than making the decision alone.
• Group decisions have conformity pressures in groups.
• Group decision can be dominated by one or a few members
• Finally, group decisions suffer from ambiguous responsibility. In an
individual decision, it’s clear who is accountable for the final outcome. In a
group decision, the responsibility of any single member is watered down.
Decision making models

Types of group decision-making techniques

• Brainstorming.
are;
• Nominal Group Technique.
• Electronic Meeting.
• Multi-Voting.
• Delphi Method.
https://youtu.be/Y4jbSkoIOEs
The process by which we discover the feature or features which

are ‘common’ to a large number of objects and associate these
with a symbol which thereafter may be applied to other similar
objects is called ‘Concept formation’.
THANK YOU !

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Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Ms. Ria Mahanty

Module VI: Thinking and Concept Formation

As mental pictures consist of personal experiences of objects,

Trial & Error No Trial & Error

Symbols and signs:

Trail & Error

All thinking is goal directed

Thinking is a internal speech

Thinking is a complex mental process

Past experiences involve in thinking

Examples of Critical Thinking

7 Characteristics of Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is reasonable and rational.

The importance of critical thinking

Important points for Brainstorming

Important points for Brainstorming

Difference between convergent and divergent thinking

Negative Attitude That Block Creativity

Qualities of Creative People

9 Ways to Improve Your Creativity

A perceived gap between the existing state and a desired

Try the "Six Hats" Technique

The Six Step Problem Solving Model

Problem Solving and Decision Making:

Strengths of Group Decision Making

Weaknesses of Group Decision Making

Decision making models

Types of group decision-making techniques

The process by which we discover the feature or features which

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