Thinking Class 11 Psychology Notes

A human mechanism that never stops. Thinking is a process that generates ideas and keeps our flow of thought. However, there are multiple ways and complexities when it comes to thinking. It is easy to understand, and this interesting chapter of Thinking Class 11 Psychology Notes broadens our horizons of knowledge about the way we think about this world.

This article provides detailed Class 11 Psychology notes on Thinking, covering its meaning, nature, types, processes, barriers, and applications in everyday life.

What is Thinking?

Thinking is perhaps the most significant concept in psychology. It refers to the mental process that enables us to process information, make judgments, solve problems, and come up with new ideas. In Class 11 Psychology, thinking is discussed in the chapter on Thinking and how the mind uses processes to comprehend and engage with the world.

This article gives in-depth Class 11 Psychology notes on Thinking, including its meaning, nature, types, processes, barriers, and uses in daily life.

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Type of Thinking 

Psychologists have identified different types of thinking, each serving a unique purpose in human cognition. Here, we have defined all types of thinking with their proper and unified meaning. 

• Convergent Thinking: focuses on arriving at a single correct answer to a problem, making it essential in subjects like mathematics or logical reasoning, where accuracy is key.
• Divergent Thinking: It emphasises generating multiple ideas or solutions, and it is closely associated with creativity and innovation, such as brainstorming for an essay topic.
• Critical Thinking: It plays an important role in analysing information logically and objectively, allowing individuals to evaluate evidence, detect biases, and make rational judgments.
• Creative Thinking: It involves imagination and originality, leading to the development of new concepts, designs, or inventions; for example, creating a new gadget or artwork. 
• Reflective Thinking: It requires thoughtful consideration of past experience to improve future action, such as reviewing one’s study method after receiving exam results.

Together, these types of thinking demonstrate how the human mind adapts to different situations, where each requires accuracy, creativity, analysis, or reflection.

Nature of Thinking

The nature of thinking in Class 11 Psychology is what it is as a higher mental process that assists us in interpreting and making sense of the information we get from our surroundings. It is the basis of all intellectual activities like solving problems, making decisions, and reasoning. 

Even though thinking is something internal to the mind, it is possible to comprehend it through an individual’s outward behaviour. Most significantly, it is a goal-oriented process, that is, every thought act serves to attain some intended end or resolve some specific problem. 

Building blocks of thought

People usually think by means of mental images or thoughts, which are discussed below-

Mental Images

• It is defined as a mental representation of sensory experience
• We usually think about places, events, etc
• For example, using maps and locating different places subsequently requires the use of mental images.

Images are of two types-

• Memory image includes those images that resemble the object or event being represented.
• Eidetic Image is usually a sharp and detailed visual representation of something that has been seen.

Concepts

• Whenever we come across a novel object, we try to understand what it actually is, what its features and characteristics are, and we try to match it with features of the existing category. If it is a perfect match, we include that object in the category whose features match.
• A concept is defined as the mental representation of categories and refers to those ideas or objects which share common properties and features.

Concepts are of two types-

• Natural concepts have no set of properly defined features that are based on prototypes. 
• Logical Concepts are the ones that can be clearly defined by a set of rules or features. 

Why Do We Need to Form Concepts?

We need to form concepts because of the reasons mentioned below:

•  It helps in organising our knowledge, and that makes our knowledge accessible when we need it.
• Saves our time and effort.
• We form concepts to make our thought process quick and efficient.

Problem-Solving Thinking

In the Thinking Class 11 Psychology Notes, Problem-solving is described as a way of thinking that is usually goal-directed and intended towards solving a particular problem.

• A Mental set is defined as the tendency of a person to solve problems in an already tried and tested manner, and that at times leads to rigidity, which obstructs us in solving problems in a unique manner.
• Lack Of Motivation is also another reason why people fail to solve problems, because even if a person has a sharp mind and intelligence, but lacks motivation, then that intelligence is of very little use.

How Problem-Solving Thinking Works

Problem-solving is one of the most common and practical forms of thinking that individuals use in daily life. It involves a systematic process where a person first identifies the problem, then generates possible solutions, followed by testing those solutions, and finally selecting the most effective option to resolve the issue. This structural approach not only helps in overcoming obstacles but also enhances decision-making and critical thinking.

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Reasoning

The next important aspect during thinking for the Thinking Class 11 Psychology Notes is reasoning. It is a process that involves inference and is used in logical thinking and problem solving, and conclusions are drawn in reasoning on the basis of the information and facts available.

Reasoning is the process of drawing conclusions from facts or premises.

Deductive Reasoning	Inductive Reasoning
Deductive Reasoning begins with making a general assumption about something and concludes based on those assumptions. It is reasoning from the general to the particular. Accurate assumptions should be made so that we are able to draw apt conclusions.	Inductive Reasoning is based on specific facts and observations. It involves drawing a general conclusion based on a particular observation. The goal is to determine what conclusion can be drawn from certain given information.

Decision Making

Decision-making is a kind of problem-solving in which we have several alternatives, and after evaluating the cost and benefit associated with each alternative, the best alternative must be chosen.

• Judgment and decision-making are interrelated processes. However, judgment is a process by which we form opinions, arrive at conclusions, and make critical evaluations about objects, events, and people on the basis of available information

Nature and Process of Creative Thinking

Let’s go through the nature and process of creative thinking for the Thinking Class 11 Psychology Notes. Creative thinking, as the name suggests, is mainly about solving problems in a novel and unique manner and coming up with something unique or out of the box.

• It includes both convergent and divergent thinking, but more convergent thinking.
• Creativity can be applied in most fields, and everyone has the potential to be creative.
• Convergent thinking has only one correct answer, and it does not lead to the generation of new ideas.
• Divergent Thinking has many correct answers and leads to the generation of new and novel ideas.

Stages of Creative Thinking are discussed below:

Preparation	The problem is clearly formulated in this stage and facts and information about the problem is collected to comprehensively understand and analyse the problem.
Incubation	It is the second stage of Creative Thinking and is characterized by a feeling of getting stuck as creative ideas don’t occur when we consciously think about the problem. They usually occur during the time of relaxation.
Illumination	It is the third stage of Creative Thinking where there is the sudden realization of the solution of the problem into the consciousness
Verification	In the fourth stage of Creative Thinking, the solution is found in the illumination stage is tested to see that whether it works or not and what kind of modification is needed is also considered.
Revision	In the last stage of Creative Thinking, if a solution is not reached, a revision may be a prerequisite.

Barriers to Creative Thinking

The tendency to be overpowered and influenced by pre-existing habits is a huge obstruction in the creative thinking process and coming up with out-of-the-box ideas

Motivational and emotional barriers show that creativity is more than just a cognitive process, as other factors like fear of failure, lack of motivation, hinder our creative thinking ability. Cultural Barriers are related to excessive adherence to tradition, expectations, and Conformity. It arises due to the fear of being different, social pressure, mediocrity, etc.

Strategies to Overcome Creative Thinking Barriers

Strategies that can be used to overcome barriers associated with creative thinking are elucidated below:

• Encourage self-evaluation.
• Be positive and confident in life.
• Develop independent thinking in making judgments.
• See multiple angles and perspectives of a particular problem.
• Resist the temptation of instant gratification.

Ways to Enhance Creative Thinking

Let’s check out ways to improve thinking in the Thinking Class 11 Psychology Notes. Some of the ways which can be used to enhance creative thinking are elucidated below:

• Osborn’s Brainstorming technique can be used to increase fluency and flexibility of ideas in open-ended situations, which helps in increasing the fluency of ideas and piling up alternatives.
• Getting feedback on the solutions we devise from those who have less personal involvement in the task helps us to see the problem in an objective and unbiased manner.
• Developing Independent Thinking in making decisions and judgments increases our self-esteem.
• The use of imagination and visualisation helps us increase our creative potential.
• Diagram thinking-sometimes ideas cluster like branches of a tree, and this way we can organise our ideas in a systematic and organised manner.

Thought and Language

The next topic discussed for Thinking Class 11 Psychology Notes is Thinking and Language.

Language as a Determinant of Thought

• Benjamin Lee Whorf had this point of view that the language we use determines the content of our thoughts, which is termed the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis.
• The extent to which individuals can think is, to a large extent, determined by the language they use.

Thought as a Determinant of Language

• Piaget believed that thought not only determines language, it precedes it
• Children form an internal representation of the world.
• Through thinking, language is just a vehicle for thought.
• A child’s observation and imitation of the other person’s behaviour involves thinking, but no language.

Different Origins of Language and Thought

Lev Vygotsky, an esteemed Russian psychologist, believed that language and thought develop independently in a child until about two years of age, after which they begin to merge. Before the age of two, children experience thought primarily through actions rather than verbal expression.

However, around the age of two, they start to connect language with thought, allowing them to express their ideas verbally in a more rational and organised manner. This marks a crucial stage in cognitive development, as language becomes a powerful tool for structuring and communicating thoughts.

Development Of Language and Language Use

Language involves the use of symbols, and symbols represent someone or something. It involves the use of rules, and when we present two or more words together, a proper and logical sequence is followed. Language is primarily used for communicating one’s thoughts, feelings, and ideas to others. People who can’t use oral speech communicate through the use of signs, which is a form of language

Development Of Language

Human Language is more complex, creative, and spontaneous than the system of Communication which other animals use.

Stages of language development are elaborated below:

• Newborn babies and young infants make a variety of sounds, which gradually get modified to resemble words. The first sound produced by babies is crying, which is similar across many situations, and pitch intensity changes to signify different states such as hunger, pain, etc.
• At around 6 months of age, children enter the babbling phase, which involves the repetition of a variety of vowel and consonant words.
• By about 9 months of age, these sounds get elaborated into strings of some sound combinations, such as “dadada,” into repetitive patterns.
• Around the 1st birthday, most of the children enter the one-word stage, and the first word usually contains one syllable (example: “ma,” “pa”).
• Around 18-20 months of age, children enter the two-word stage, which exemplifies telegraphic speech and contains mostly nouns and verbs.
• Close to their 3rd birthday, which is 2.5 years, children’s language development focuses on the rules of the language they hear. This is called syntactic development.

How is Language Acquired?

• Some suggest that language acquisition is primarily biologically determined. This is typically a nativity position in the nature-nurture debate.
• Language development for Behaviourists like B.F.Skinner follows learning principles like association, imitation, and reinforcement, that is in terms of operant conditioning
• Noam Chomsky suggested that children are born with a language acquisition device, LAD, which represents knowledge of universal grammar.

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Thinking is an essential mental process that influences the way we see, examine, and react to the world. Ranging from the solution of day-to-day problems to decisions that can change one’s life, thinking is pivotal in human existence. Critical, creative, and reflective thinking skills can enhance personal development, academic achievement, and professional success.

These Class 11 Psychology Thinking Notes provide students with a thorough understanding of the concept, process, obstacles, and uses. It is not only beneficial to read about it in exams, but it also improves life skills.

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