ASSGINMENT NO: 9

“INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY”
SUBMITTED BY:
M.HAMZA AKBAR
SUBMITTED TO:
DR.MARIA ANWAR KHAN
SUBMISSION DATE: 11-12-2022.
TOPIC:
Thinking:
a. Definition and Nature
b. Kinds of Thinking
c. Tools of Thinking: Imagery;
Language; Concepts
d. Problem Solving; Decision
Making; Reasoning
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a. Definition and Nature:
The challenges and problems faced
by the individual or by society, in
general are solved through series of
efforts involving thinking and
reasoning. The powers of thinking
and reasoning may thus be
considered to be the essential tools
for the welfare and meaningful
existence of the individual as well
as society.
According to GILMER:
“Thinking is a problem-solving
process in which we use ideas or
symbols in place of overt activity”.
OR
 “Thinking is an implicit problem-
solving behavior”.
b. Kinds of Thinking:
Thinking can be classified as
follows:
1. Perceptual or Concrete Thinking:
This is the simplest form of
thinking the basis of this type is
perception, i.e. interpretation of
sensation according to one’s
experience. It is also called
concrete thinking as it is carried
out on the perception of actual or
concrete objects and events.
2. Conceptual or Abstract Thinking:
Here one makes use of concepts,
the generalized objects and
languages; it is regarded as being
superior to perceptual thinking as
it economizes efforts in
understanding and problem-
solving.
3. Reflective Thinking:
This type of thinking aims in
solving complex problems, thus it
requires reorganization of all the
relevant experiences to a situation
or removing obstacles instead of
relating with that experiences or
ideas.
This is an insightful cognitive
approach in reflective thinking as
the mental activity here does not
involve the mechanical trial and
error type of efforts.
In this type, thinking processes take
all the relevant facts arranged in a
logical order into an account in
order to arrive at a solution of the
problem.
4. Creative Thinking:
This type of thinking is associated
with one’s ability to create or
construct something new, novel or
unusual. It looks for new
relationships and associations to
describe and interpret the nature
of things, events and situations.
Here the individual himself usually
formulates the evidences and tools
for its solution.
For example; scientists, artists or
inventors.
Skinner, the famous psychologist
says creative thinking means that
the prediction and inferences for
the individual are new, original,
ingenious and unusual. The
creative thinker is one who
expresses new ideas and makes
new observations, new predictions
and new inferences.
The field of creative thinking and
its out part is quite
comprehensive and built wide. It
covers all the aspects of human
accomplishments belonging to an
individual’s life.
5. 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.
The critical thinking is of a higher
order well-disciplined thought
process which involves the use of
cognitive skills like
conceptualization, interpretation,
analysis, synthesis and evaluation
for arriving at an unbiased, valid
and reliable judgment of the
gathered or communicated
information or data as a guide to
one’s belief and action.
6. Non-directed or Associative
Thinking:
There are times when we find
ourselves engaged in a unique
type of thinking which is non-
directed and without goal. It is
reflected through dreaming and
other free-flowing uncontrolled
activities. Psychologically these
forms of thought are termed as
associative thinking.
Here day-dreaming, fantasy and
delusions all fall in the category
of withdrawal behavior that helps
an individual to escape from the
demands of the real world by
making his thinking face non-
directed and floating, placing him
somewhere, ordering something
unconnected with his
environment.
We hear there is nothing
seriously abnormal in behavior
involving daydreaming and
fantasy but behavior involving
delusions definitely points
towards abnormality.
c. Tools of Thinking: Imagery,
Language and Concepts:
There are a few important
elements involved in the thinking
process:
1. Images:
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.
2. 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.
3. Language:
Is the most efficient and developed
vehicle used for carrying out the
process of thinking. When a person
reads, writes or hears words or
sentences or observes gesture in
any language one is stimulated to
think. Thus reading and writing of
documents and literature also help
in stimulating and promoting the
thinking process.
d. Problem Solving; Decision
Making; Reasoning:
Reasoning: Making Up Your Mind:
1. Professors deciding when
students’ assignments are due.
2. An employer determining who to
hire out of a pool of job applicants.
3. The president concluding that it
is necessary to send troops to a
foreign nation.
What do these three situations
have in common?
Each requires reasoning, the
process by which information is
used to draw conclusions and
make decisions. Although
philosophers and logicians have
considered the foundations of
reasoning for centuries, it is only
relatively recently that cognitive
psychologists have begun to
investigate how people reason and
make decisions. Their efforts have
contributed to our understanding
of formal reasoning processes as
well as the cognitive shortcuts we
routinely use—shortcuts that
sometimes may lead our reasoning
capabilities astray (Johnson-Laird,
2006).
FORMAL REASONING:
When the (fictitious) Sherlock
Holmes sought to solve a crime, he
carefully observed the scene of the
crime and then made informed
guesses about what those
observations meant. For example,
in one story, the ever-observant
Holmes noted that cuts on the side
of a shoe suggested that a potential
criminal must have had mud on his
shoes that needed to be scraped
off.
The type of reasoning that Holmes
used is known as deductive
reasoning.
Deductive reasoning is reasoning
from the general to the specific.
Psychologists, like all scientists, use
deductive reasoning when they
start with a general, broad theory,
then derive a hypothesis from the
theory, and ultimately test the
hypothesis by collecting data to
arrive at a conclusion.
The other major class of reasoning
is inductive reasoning.
Inductive reasoning is reasoning
from the specific to the general.
Inductive reasoning is data driven,
in that we accumulate pieces of
information and put them
together to form a conclusion.
That’s what psychologists do when
they study a sample of participants
(for instance, 20 color-blind college
students), and then they use the
information they observe to form a
conclusion about the broader
population from which the sample
is drawn (all color-blind college
students). If we consistently used
deductive and inductive reasoning,
we would make decisions and solve
problems quite logically. However,
as we’ll see next, that often doesn’t
happen, leading to less-than-
optimal results.
Problem-solving:
It is a mental process that involves
discovering, analyzing, and solving
problems. The ultimate goal of
problem-solving is to overcome
obstacles and find a solution that
best resolves the issue.
The best strategy for solving a
problem depends largely on the
unique situation. In some cases,
people are better off learning
everything they can about the issue
and then using factual knowledge
to come up with a solution. In other
instances, creativity and insight are
the best options.
.
In order to correctly solve a
problem, it is often important to
follow a series of steps.
Researchers sometimes refer to
this as the problem-solving cycle.1
 While this cycle is portrayed
sequentially, people rarely follow a
rigid series of steps to find a
solution.
The following steps include
developing strategies and
organizing knowledge.
1. Identifying the Problem
While it may seem like an obvious
step, identifying the problem is not
always as simple as it sounds. In
some cases, people might
mistakenly identify the wrong
source of a problem, which will
make attempts to solve it inefficient
or even useless.
Some strategies that you might use
to figure out the source of a
problem include :
 Asking questions about the
problem
  Breaking the problem down into
smaller pieces
 Looking at the problem from
different perspectives
 Conducting research to figure
out what relationships exist
between different variables
2. Defining the Problem
After the problem has been
identified, it is important to fully
define the problem so that it can be
solved. You can define a problem
by operationally defining each
aspect of the problem and setting
goals for what aspects of the
problem you will address
At this point, you should focus on
figuring out which aspects of the
problems are facts and which are
opinions. State the problem clearly
and identify the scope of the
solution.
3. Forming a Strategy
After the problem has been
identified, it is time to start
brainstorming potential solutions.
This step usually involves
generating as many ideas as
possible without judging their
quality. Once several possibilities
have been generated, they can be
evaluated and narrowed down.
The next step is to develop a
strategy to solve the problem. The
approach used will vary depending
upon the situation and the
individual's unique preferences.
Common problem-solving
strategies include heuristics and
algorithms.
 Heuristics are mental shortcuts
that are often based on solutions
that have worked in the past.
They can work well if the
problem is similar to something
you have encountered before
and are often the best choice if
you need a fast solution.
 Algorithms are step-by-step
strategies that are guaranteed to
produce a correct result. While
this approach is great for
accuracy, it can also consume
time and resources.
Heuristics are often best used
when time is of the essence, while
algorithms are a better choice
when a decision needs to be as
accurate as possible.
4. Organizing Information
Before coming up with a solution,
you need to first organize the
available information. What do you
know about the problem? What do
you not know? The more
information that is available the
better prepared you will be to
come up with an accurate solution.
When approaching a problem, it is
important to make sure that you
have all the data you need. Making
a decision without adequate
information can lead to biased or
inaccurate results.
5. Allocating Resources
Of course, we don't always have
unlimited money, time, and other
resources to solve a problem.
Before you begin to solve a
problem, you need to determine
how high priority it is.
If it is an important problem, it is
probably worth allocating more
resources to solving it. If, however,
it is a fairly unimportant problem,
then you do not want to spend too
much of your available resources
on coming up with a solution.
At this stage, it is important to
consider all of the factors that
might affect the problem at hand.
This includes looking at the
available resources, deadlines that
need to be met, and any possible
risks involved in each solution.
After careful evaluation, a decision
can be made about which solution
to pursue.
6. Monitoring Progress
After selecting a problem-solving
strategy, it is time to put the plan
into action and see if it works. This
step might involve trying out
different solutions to see which one
is the most effective.
It is also important to monitor the
situation after implementing a
solution to ensure that the problem
has been solved and that no new
problems have arisen as a result of
the proposed solution.
Effective problem-solvers tend to
monitor their progress as they work
towards a solution. If they are not
making good progress toward
reaching their goal, they will
reevaluate their approach or look
for new strategies.
7. Evaluating the Results
After a solution has been reached,
it is important to evaluate the
results to determine if it is the best
possible solution to the problem.
This evaluation might be
immediate, such as checking the
results of a math problem to
ensure the answer is correct, or it
can be delayed, such as evaluating
the success of a therapy program
after several months of treatment.
Decision Making:
Decision making means to get ,
make or reach on a result, being
agree, or reaching on a conclusion.
Decisions sometimes (but not
always) may be improved through
the use of algorithms and
heuristics. An algorithm is a rule
that, if applied appropriately,
guarantees a solution; a heuristic is
a cognitive shortcut that may lead
to a solution but is not guaranteed
to do so.

Heuristics are often best used when