Chapter 7: Thinking a Thought Process

CHAPTER VII

THINKING A THOUGHT PROCESS

Introduction

                Thinking is a huge part of what makes humans superior and more capable than the other forms of life in the environment. An individual is always engaged in thought all the time. Whether it is thinking about what to eat for lunch, making sense of the unfamiliar words or concepts in a book or daydreaming about what to do after class, it is said that an individual is  always lost in thought.

Thinking is a mental or a brain process which involves formation of imagery, letters forming words, concepts or ideas. With a higher intelligence, an individual is given more ability to manipulate these thoughts efficiently and effectively. Exploration to this specific field has led to a whole branch of Psychology called Cognitive Psychology as coined by Ulrich Neisser. This is a more comprehensive study that delves with thought processes and the way people think and process information.

Definition

                The definition of thinking according to Freeman(1982) is any mental process including everything from random associations and images to spectacular acts of creativities.

 Thinking is not limited to abstract thought, imagery, creative endeavors, reasoning ability, remembering, problem solving, and analytical thinking among other things.

The Thinking Process

Thinking as a brain activity. Thoughts triggered by something a person sees, hear, smell, taste or touch.  The sensation is relayed to the brain to be interpreted and analyzed. Take for example a child who tries to swallow a sour candy, will he spit it out  or just swallow it regardless of what it tastes like to him. Another example is when a person smells a rotten food, is he going to throw it away or still manage to eat it despite of its odor.

                Thinking as a motor activity. Thinking can be associated with actions or motor activity of the body. In some cases, bodily reactions occur simultaneously with thinking, but there are also instances when a person will process the thought first before  acting on it. Impulsive people are very typical of this process.  Since they are impulsive, they usually act in a matter of split second after receiving the thought.

Types of Thinking

1.     Free associations – relationships of ideas as cued by the external environment.

2.      Fantasy – these are free associations coming from the person’s inner world of feelings, desires and wishes.

3.     Delusional thinking- type of thinking that  is more focused than free association or fantasy but it is not close to reality.  Delusions are false beliefs which has  no basis.  They are irrational thoughts but usually has specific meaning for the individual.

4.       Creative thinking – type of problem solving which involves extraordinary instead of conventional solutions.

Elements of Thinking    

• Imagery - Some people are inclined to think in pictures, or in imagery. They relate to past experiences with visual representations in their minds. Problems or situations are solved the by use of the imagination to picture out a plan of action.

For example, a mother who is going to the grocery to shop may try to recall the layout of the grocery store when making her shopping list. Listing Items she encounters near the entrance first, followed by items she will pass along the way, determining her shopping path.            

• Conceptual Thinking – Ideas and abstract thought are represented in the mind through symbols and associations. Intangible ideas which cannot be represented by concrete images are molded into concepts. Concepts also help organize ideas. 

For example, if a student is asked to memorize a great number of plants and their scientific names, he needs to arrange them according to their characteristics whether they are fruit-bearing or not.  In this way, it will be easier for him to remember these concepts while studying all about plants.

• Verbal Thinking – Most people think with the use of words and speech. They talk to themselves or utilize an inner voice that walks them through thought and mental activities.

Much of our thinking occurs in this form because we have learned to associate words with images and concepts. This is the easiest way for humans to make sense of the world.

CREATIVE THINKING

Graham Wallas’s book Art of Thought (1926) presented five models of creative process :

• Preparation – is preparation to work on a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem
• Incubation-  it involves internalizing the problem into the unconscious mind.
• Intimation - the person feels and anticipates that a solution is on its way and something good is about to happen.
• Illumination- where the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness
• Verification - where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied

PROBLEM SOLVING

Problem solving is an activity of the brain which also involves visual motor coordination. In solving a problem, people usually divide or categorize their goals by breaking it down into smaller units to obtain the desired results. 

Techniques Used in Problem Solving

1. Rule – proceeding to solve a problem entails certain rules or methods on how to tackle a certain problem. 

2. Planning – involves a means-end analysis of the problem. Choosing an action each step further to achieving a certain goal.      Devising a strategy is very important in problem solving.  Some people use top to bottom approach, some use bottom to top approach,and also  divide and conquer (breaking down a problem into smaller and manageable parts) among others.

3. Trial and Error – entails testing the hypothesis whether the assumption made prior to solving the problem is true. It may involve several trials until the right solution is achieved.

Factors that influence success in problem-solving:

1.    Intelligence of the person may affect his problem solving skills. Intelligent people can solve a problem in less time as compared to an  individual with average intelligence.

2.    Motivation is also a factor because if it is low, performance or desire to achieve the goal may be hampered.

 3.    Mindset is also affected because a person may already be conditioned to do or think differently from what is being instructed upon him by a person in authority.

4.    Training according to Scandura (1977) also affects his problem solving skills because normally, his success depends on his experience.  If a person has already developed a certain skill, or has practiced the task a lot , it will no longer be difficult for him because he may have conjured up his own strategy that is unknown to others.

ERIK ERIKSON

Erik Erikson (15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a German-born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T. Erikson, is a noted American sociologist.
Although Erikson lacked even a bachelor's degree, he served as a professor of prominent institutions such as Harvard and Yale.

Early life

Born in Frankfurt, Erik Erikson's lifelong interest in the psychology of identity may be traced to his childhood. He was born on June 15, 1902. The circumstances of his birth were concealed from him in his childhood. His Danish-born mother, Karla Abrahamsen, came from a prominent Jewish family in Copenhagen. At the time of her son's birth in Germany, Karla Abrahamsen had not seen her husband, Jewish stockbroker Waldemar Isidor Salomonsen, for several years. Nonetheless, the boy was registered as Erik Salomonsen.There is no more information about his biological father, except that he was a Dane and his given name probably was Erik. It is also suggested, that he was married at the time, that Erikson was conceived.^{[citation needed]} Following her son's birth, Karla trained to be a nurse, moved to Karlsruhe and in 1905, married a Jewish pediatrician, Theodor Homburger. In 1908, Erik Salomonsen became Erik Homburger and in 1911 he was officially adopted by his stepfather.
The development of identity seems to have been one of Erikson's greatest concerns in his own life as well as in his theory. During his childhood and early adulthood he was known as Erik Homberger, and his parents kept the details of his birth a secret. He was a tall, blond, blue-eyed boy who was raised in the Jewish religion.^{[citation needed]} At temple school, the kids teased him for being a Nordic; at grammar school, they teased him for being Jewish.^{[citation needed]}

Psychoanalytic experience and training

Erikson was a student and teacher of arts. While teaching at a private school in Vienna, he became acquainted with Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud. Erikson underwent psychoanalysis, and the experience made him decide to become an analyst himself. He was trained in psychoanalysis at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute and also studied the Montessori method of education, which focused on child development.^[4]

North America

Erikson's wife, Joan Serson Erikson, had been born in Canada. Erikson converted to Christianity during their marriage.
Following Erikson’s graduation from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute in 1933, the Nazis had just come to power in Germany, and he emigrated with his wife, first to Denmark and then to the United States, where he became the first child psychoanalyst in Boston. Erikson held positions at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Judge Baker Guidance Center, and at Harvard’s Medical School and Psychological Clinic, establishing a solid reputation as an outstanding clinician.
In 1936, Erikson accepted a position at Harvard University, where he worked at the Institute of Human Relations and taught at the Medical School. After spending a year observing children on a Sioux reservation in South Dakota, he joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, where he was affiliated with the Institute of Child Welfare, and opened a private practice as well. While in California, Erikson also studied children of the Yurok Native American tribe.
After publishing the book, for which Erikson is best known, Childhood and Society, in 1950, he left the University of California, when professors there were asked to sign loyalty oaths. He spent ten years working and teaching at the Austen Riggs Center, a prominent psychiatric treatment facility in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he worked with emotionally troubled young people.
In the 1960s, Erikson returned to Harvard as a professor of human development and remained at the university until his retirement in 1970. In 1973 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Erikson for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Erikson's lecture was titled "Dimensions of a New Identity".

Theories of development and the ego

Erikson's greatest innovation was to postulate not five stages of development, as Sigmund Freud had done with his psychosexual stages, but eight, and then later added a ninth stage in his book "The Life Cycle Completed". Erik Erikson believed, that every human being goes through a certain number of stages to reach his or her full development, theorizing eight stages, that a human being goes through from birth to death. Erikson elaborated Freud's genital stage into adolescence, and added three stages of adulthood. His widow Joan Serson Erikson elaborated on his model before her death, adding a ninth stage (old age) to it, taking into consideration the increasing life expectancy in Western cultures. Erikson is also credited with being one of the originators of Ego psychology, which stressed the role of the ego as being more than a servant of the id. According to Erikson, the environment in which a child lived was crucial to providing growth, adjustment, a source of self awareness and identity. Erikson won a Pulitzer Prize^[13] and a U.S. National Book Award in category Philosophy and Religion for Gandhi's Truth (1969), which focused more on his theory as applied to later phases in the life cycle.

Erikson's theory of personality

Main article: Erikson's stages of psychosocial development

Erikson was a Neo-Freudian. He has been described as an "ego psychologist" studying the stages of development, spanning the entire lifespan. Each of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development are marked by a conflict, for which successful resolution will result in a favourable outcome; for example, trust vs. mistrust, and by an important event, that this conflict resolves itself around, for example, the meaning of one's life.
Favorable outcomes of each stage are sometimes known as "virtues", a term used, in the context of Eriksonian work, as it is applied to medicines, meaning "potencies." Erikson's research suggests, that each individual must learn how to hold both extremes of each specific life-stage challenge in tension with one another, not rejecting one end of the tension or the other. Only when both extremes in a life-stage challenge are understood and accepted as both required and useful, can the optimal virtue for that stage surface. Thus, 'trust' and 'mis-trust' must both be understood and accepted, in order for realistic 'hope' to emerge as a viable solution at the first stage. Similarly, 'integrity' and 'despair' must both be understood and embraced, in order for actionable 'wisdom' to emerge as a viable solution at the last stage.
The Erikson life-stage virtues, in the order of the eight stages, in which they may be acquired, are:

1. Basic trust vs. basic mistrust - This stage covers the period of infancy. 0-1 year of age. - Whether or not the baby develops basic trust or basic mistrust is not merely a matter of nurture. It is multi-faceted and has strong social components. It depends on the quality of the maternal relationship. The mother carries out and reflects their inner perceptions of trustworthiness, a sense of personal meaning, etc. on the child. If successful in this, the baby develops a sense of trust, which “forms the basis in the child for a sense of identity“.
2. Autonomy vs. Shame - Covers early childhood - Introduces the concept of autonomy vs. shame and doubt. During this stage the child is trying to master toilet training.
3. Purpose - Initiative vs. Guilt - Preschool / 3–6 years - Does the child have the ability to or do things on their own, such as dress him or herself? If "guilty" about making his or her own choices, the child will not function well. Erikson has a positive outlook on this stage, saying that most guilt is quickly compensated by a sense of accomplishment.
4. Competence - Industry vs. Inferiority - School-age / 6-11. Child comparing self worth to others (such as in a classroom environment). Child can recognize major disparities in personal abilities relative to other children. Erikson places some emphasis on the teacher, who should ensure that children do not feel inferior.
5. Fidelity - Identity vs. Role Confusion - Adolescent / 12 years till 20. Questioning of self. Who am I, how do I fit in? Where am I going in life? Erikson believes, that if the parents allow the child to explore, they will conclude their own identity. However, if the parents continually push him/her to conform to their views, the teen will face identity confusion.
6. Intimacy vs. isolation - This is the first stage of adult development. This development usually happens during young adulthood, which is between the ages of 20 to 24. Dating, marriage, family and friendships are important during the stage in their life. By successfully forming loving relationships with other people, individuals are able to experience love and intimacy. Those who fail to form lasting relationships may feel isolated and alone.
7. Generativity vs. stagnation is the second stage of adulthood and happens between the ages of 25-64. During this time people are normally settled in their life and know what is important to them. A person is either making progress in their career or treading lightly in their career and unsure if this is what they want to do for the rest of their working lives. Also during this time, a person is enjoying raising their children and participating in activities, that gives them a sense of purpose. If a person is not comfortable with the way their life is progressing, they're usually regretful about the decisions and feel a sense of uselessness.
8. Ego integrity vs. despair. This stage affects the age group of 65 and on. During this time you have reached the last chapter in your life and retirement is approaching or has already taken place. Many people, who have achieved what was important to them, look back on their lives and feel great accomplishment and a sense of integrity. Conversely, those who had a difficult time during middle adulthood may look back and feel a sense of despair.

On ego identity versus Role Confusion, ego identity enables each person to have a sense of individuality, or as Erikson would say, "Ego identity, then, in its subjective aspect, is the awareness of the fact that there is a self-sameness and continuity to the ego's synthesizing methods and a continuity of one's meaning for others" (1963). Role Confusion, however, is, according to Barbara Engler in her book Personality Theories (2006), "The inability to conceive of oneself as a productive member of one's own society" (158). This inability to conceive of oneself as a productive member is a great danger; can occur during adolescence, when looking for an occupation.

Chapter 6: Learning and Memory

CHAPTER VI

LEARNING AND MEMORY

Have you ever wondered how famous dog name “saver” become the “wonder dog of the Philippines”? How about little girls having their own likes and dislike as young as 6 or 7 years old?  How about the inability to recall during infancy until 3 or 4 years old? And sometimes spill out the secret of your friend from his crush? All of these example and questions involves learning and memory.

Learning

It is defined as the process of acquiring new information which brings about a change in the individual’s way of responding as a result of practice or experiences.

Perspectives on Learning

1.       Associative Learning/Stimulus Response Theory emphasized the establishment and strengthening of relationships between the stimulus (S) and the response and emphasize the role of reinforcement in the learning process.

Two forms of associative learning:

1.1   Classical conditioning

Russian psychologist Ivan P. Pavlov and American psychologist John B. Watson are closely associated with classical conditioning which also called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning.

Variables of Classical Conditioning

A.      Unconditioned stimulus (US) is any stimulus that has the ability to elicit a response without previous training.

B.      Conditioned Stimulus (CS) refers to the stimulus which initially does not elicit the response under the study but comes to do so by being paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

C.      Unconditioned Response (UR) is the original response to an unconditioned stimulus

D.      Conditioned Response (CR) is a learned response to a conditioned stimulus.

1.2   Operant conditioning

1.2.1    Thorndike’s Connectionism Theory. Edward C. Thorndike spent much of his academic career at Teacher’s College Columbia University in New York.

Thorndike’s Law of Learning

A.      Law of Exercise – states that stimulus response (SR) connectionism are strengthen by practice or repetition.

B.      Law of Effect – states that the SR bonds or connections are strengthened by rewards or satisfaction.

C.      Law of Readiness – states that the SR bonds can be chained together to satisfy some goal which will result in annoyance if blocked.

1.2.2       Instrumental/Operant Conditioning. It is the procedure in which behavior is strengthened through reinforcement. It suggest the fact that the subject is instrumental to obtaining the reinforcer.

Forms of Reinforcer

·         Reinforcement:  Responses that are followed by “favorable” consequences (reinforcing stimuli) are more likely to occur in the future

·         Punishment: Responses that are followed by “unfavorable” consequences (punishing stimuli) are less likely to occur in the future

Kinds of Reinforcer:

A.      Primary Reward Conditioning- where the learned response is instrumental in obtaining a biologically significant reward.

B.      Escape Conditioning – is one where the organism learns a response that is instrumental in getting out of a place one prefers not to be in.

C.      Avoidance Conditioning – is a kind of learning where a response to a cue is instrumental in avoiding a painful experience.

D.      Secondary Reward Conditioning – is where there is instrumental behavior to get a stimulus which has no biological utility itself but has in past been associated with a biological significant stimulus.

2.       Social Learning Theory. Albert Bandura and Richard Walter dispute the role of reinforcement in learning. They view learning as occurring in the absence of reinforcement, which give emphasize on observing others and learning through imitation.

3.       Cognitive Learning Theory. - The cognitive theory offers an alternative. Basically this theory focuses on the cognitive structures rather than on stimulus-response connections as the crucial factors in learning.

1. Insight Learning Theory – It is a type of learning or problem solving which involves a sudden restructuring or organization of the organism’s perceptual world into a new pattern or gestalt that happens all-of-a-sudden through understanding the relationships various parts of a problem rather than through trial and error. 
2. Sign Learning Theory – is defined as an acquired expectation that one stimulus will be followed by another in particular context by pursuing signs to a goal, i.e., learning is acquired through meaningful behavior. 

Conditions affecting effective Learning:

1.       Motivation

2.       Mental set

3.       Emotion

4.       Rehearsal

5.       Meaningfulness of learning

6.       Degree of learning

7.       Distributed and Massed practice

8.       Skills for learning

9.       Drugs and stimulants

10.   Experiential background

Memory and Forgetting

Memories are stored diffusely throughout the structures of the brain. There are five (5) areas of the brain that have been implicated in the storage of man’s memory; (1) Inferotemporal cortext; visual perception of objects, (2) Amygdala; Emotional memories, (3) Prefrontal cortext; Sequence, (4) Cerebellum; sensorimotor skills, and (5) Striatum; Habit formation.  Each part is responsible for different kinds of memory and characterized by memory system aspects.

Memory. It is the process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information (Miranda, 2008).

A functional memory system incorporates three aspects:

•       Encoding – sensory information is encoded into short-term memory.

•       Storage/Consolidation – information may be consolidated into long-term storage.

•       Retrieval – stored information is retrieved.

Kinds of Memory:

1. Sensory memory which refers to the initial, momentary storage of information, lasting only an instant. Information is recorded by the person's sensory system as a raw, non-meaningful stimulus.

Types of Sensory Memory

A.      Iconic memory, which reflects information from our visual system.

B.      Echoic memory, which stores information coming from our ears.

2. Short term memory holds information for 15 to 25 seconds. In this system, the information is stored according to its meaning rather than as mere sensory stimulation.

3. Long-term memory. Information is stored in long-term memory on a relatively permanent basis, although it may be difficult to retrieve.

Types of Long-term memory

A.      Declarative Memory. It contains information on “names, faces, dates, and the like

A.1   Semantic Memory- contains concepts and rules

A.2   Episodic Memory- record of some personal experience

B.      Non-declarative Memory. It contains information that is gathered through psychomotor activities like acquiring a skill or habit.

B.1   Procedural memory- it is the memory that contains facts how to do things. An example is skill of biking, taking bath, eating.

Principles Governing Memory Systems :

• Primacy effect:  appears to be the result of subjects recalling items directly from a semantic memory that enhanced memory performance on items at the beginning of the presentation sequence. It is due to the fact that the earliest items are now in the long term memory. E.g. on TV game shows where people can win everything in a list of items they see, they usually at least remember the first few items.
• Recency effect: refers to the enhanced memory performance on items at the end of the presentation sequence. It is due to the fact that the most recent items are still in the short term memory or working memory. E.g. people tend to remember what did they do in the last hour? What about the last day? Last week? Year?, Last song syndrome
• Maintenance rehearsal: repetition of information. It is only effective in the short-term memory E.g. memorizing repeatedly the cell number of your crush or a piece to be performed.
• Elaborative rehearsal: it involves thinking about the materials in ways that may related to other information you know. E.g. relating the technical term in to your daily habit.
• Retrieval cue: it involves explicit prompt or question to recall a particular piece of information (Teh & Macapagal, 2009).
• Encoding specificity: it involves memory retrieval when the cues during retrieval and encoding are similar information (Teh & Macapagal, 2009).  E.g. when you trying to get knife in the kitchen

 When we have learned something, it was stored in our memory. Now if that memory is needed we tend to recall the learned facts to be applied. Forgetting comes in, if there is failure to recall these facts.

The following are theories/reasons why we forget:

1. Distributed practice: produces far better retrieval than massed practice (cramming).
2. Encoding Failure: nonattended information is not encoded into memory
3. Memory Trace decay: over time, if memory is not used, neuronal connection can decay
4. Interference: other information interferes with accurate retrieval e.g. Tip of the tongue

1. Proactive: previously learned prevents or interfere with retrieval of newer information
2. Retroactive: newly acquired prevents or interferes with retrieval of older information.