Good Critical Thinking About Pyschology

Chapter 7

Creative thinking is important as a manner at which individuals look at various problems in a fresh way and come up with unorthodox solutions. Brainstorming is a key process in creative thinking, and it involves many people coming up with ideas. Engaging the right brain is also important as it makes an individual to think critically. Research conducted by the scientist’s state that the left side of the brain is mainly focused on logic while the right side is bit messy and focused on creative aspects (OECD, 2007). For an individual to think creatively, they should engage their right side of the brain. The right side of the brain can be made active by engaging in activities such as making things using the balloons or the cardboard boxes that are no longer in use. Role play situations are also important as they also make the right part of the brain active. Thinking can be two types and include convergent and divergent (King, 2010).
Emotion is a state of mind that derives from an individual’s mood and relationship with others. Emotion and cognition tend to influence how we think and feel. Researchers have proved that our moods affect the manner and the way in which we think. Negative and positive feelings are related to different methods of decision-making and problem-solving. When an individual has negative feelings, they do not have a broad and analytical thinking capacity. Happy people or persons in a good mood tend to use more heuristics. Alice Isen, a social psychologist, did a study on adaptive effects of positive mood on cognition. In her lab, she found that positive mood enhances the ability of an individual to solve problems and be better brainstormers (King, 2010).Chapter 8 Adolescents undergo various cognitive developments that include Piaget's stage of formal operational thinking. Egocentrism is also one of the characteristics of adolescent thinking. The development of egocentrism makes the adolescents feel that others are watching and noticing them more than it is the case. Eight-grade boys or girl who thinks that everyone has seen the small pimple on his face and the teenage girl who says the mother has no idea of what is she undergoing have both developed egocentrism(King, 2010).
An important question asked in life is whether our early experience rules us for as long as we are alive. The extent to which our childhood experiences will affect us later in life has been debated upon by developmental psychologists. Some of the psychologists state that when an infant does not receive a better care or rather a warm nurturing caregiving during their first year of life, they won't be able to develop to their full potential. Other psychologists believe that early and later experiences are essential to the development of an individual and as such they should not be doomed as prisoners of their childhood (King, 2010). The concepts were of interest to me especially the one on adolescents and how they think. Most of the adolescents believe that they are the center of attraction and as such they develop some sense of egocentrism. Emotions also influence how people think since those who are in a good mood are better brainstormers than those in a bad mood (King, 2011).

References

King, L. A. (2010). Experience psychology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
King, L. A. (2011). The science of psychology: An appreciative view. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. & Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2007). Understanding the brain: The birth of a learning science. Paris: OECD.