What is thinking?

(The Psychology of
Thinking)

By:
Abdelrahman Hassan

The definition of thinking:

Thinking processes of the Brain is involved in processing
information such as when we form concepts, engage in problem
solving, to reason or even make decisions.
Thinking is usually limited to:
1. The activity of human reason as a process of strengthening the
relationship between stimulus and response.
2. Thinking is a reasonable method of a cognitive process which
requires various views with the knowledge that has been stored in
the mind long before the emergence of new knowledge.
3. Thinking can also be interpreted as a way to remember
something, and questioned whether there is a relationship
between what is intended or not.
4. Thinking in exploring substantive psychic awareness of human
nature.
5. Thinking is also processing information mentally or cognitively
by rearranging the information from the environment and the
symbols that are stored in the memory of a persons past.
6. Thinking is also a symbolic representation of some event train
of ideas in a precise and careful way that began with that certain
problem.
7. Thinking may be defined as a mental process with mental
representations which are newly formed through the
transformation of information by interaction through precise
attributes such as the assessment of mental abstraction and
logic.

The Thinking Process or The processes of thought are known as

follows:

1. Understanding the information formed through the three stages

as shown below:
a) Analysis of the characteristics of similar objects. These objects
we look at the elements - elements one by one.
b) Comparison - comparing these features to be found in certain
traits - traits which are the same, which is arent the same, which
are always there and which do not always exist where the
essential and which are not essential.
c) Abstraction, that is set aside, dispose, traits that are not
essential, capturing the essential characteristics.
d) Opinion Formation is basically the formation of opinion to put
the relationship between two terms or more. The opinions that are
expressed in this language is called the sentence, this consists of
many basic sentences or the title or subject and predicate
required. Furthermore, the opinion can be divided into three
kinds:
1) Affirmative or positive opinion, the opinion which declares a
state of something.
2). Negative opinion, the repels another opinion, which clearly
explains the absence of anything thing else on the nature of
things.
3) The possibility is the possibility of something on the nature of
things: for example it might rain today.

4) Conclusion withdrawal or Establishment Decision is also know

as The decision of the result of the act making sense to form a
new opinion based on the opinions that already exist. There are
three kinds of conclusions:
a. Inductive inference the decisions taken from the opinion opinion toward a particular public opinion.
b. Deductive conclusions
Deductive decision drawn from the general to the specific, so in
contrast to inductive decision.
c. Conclusion analogical
The decision is a decision that analogical obtained by comparing
or customize with specific opinions that already exist.

The Thinking function involves process and troubleshooting:1. Interpretation Problems: Known also by defining the problem by
way of creative thinking
2. Problem Solving Strategy: Make a selection of the best
problem-solving strategies some problem-solving strategies are
often used in:
- Trial and error it took a long time (Sort Term Memory). Trial and
error is to try to resolve if one tried to repeat it will know where
the fault lies.
- Informational Retrieval retrieve the information for solving
problems quickly (Long Term Memory)
- Algorithm is a problem-solving method that guarantees a
solution if the problem of available opportunities requires
someones help to develop it.
- Heuristic is what helps to simplify the problem, influenced by
past experience. There are four types of heuristic methods; these

are:
1. Hill Climbing
A heuristic strategy in which each step is concern to move closer
to its final destination.
2. Sub goals
Method of solving a problem by making it smaller or in pieces,
everywhere respective aims to simplify the solution
3. Mean and Analysis
A heuristic strategy that will target to reduce differences between
the situations with the desired objectives through the
intermediary of a way.
4. Working Backward
A heuristic strategy where we have to move backwards from our
goal in some circumstances

There is also the subject of the Development of Thinking. Piaget, a

psychologist and scientist argued that the logical way of thinking
is gradually evolving, at about the age of two years and in about
seven years.
Piaget explained that thinking in children did not think like adults.
Children's minds seem to be much more different with a larger
person. They seem to solve the problem in an entirely different
level.

Differences in children who are smaller and bigger is not too

related to the issues that older children have more knowledge,
but because they are different kinds of knowledge.
The following developmental stages according to Piaget are as
follows:
1. Sensory motor Stage Lasts from birth until the age of 2
years. At this stage, infants build an understanding of the world
by coordinating the experiences of sensors (such as seeing and
hearing) with physical motor actions, the so-called sensory
motor. At the beginning of this stage, the newborn has a little
more than a reflex patterns.
2. Pre-operational stage which lasts roughly from age 2 to 7
years. At this stage, children begin to describe the world with
words and pictures. Symbolic thinking beyond the simple
relationship between the sensor information and physical
action. However, even preschoolers can symbolically depict the
world, according to Piaget, they are still not able to implement
what is called "surgery"-an internalized mental actions that allow
the children to do mentally what was previously done physically.
3. Concrete operational stage which lasts roughly from ages 7-11
years. At this stage children can carry out operations, and logical
reasoning which replaces intuitive thought as far as thought can
be applied to the specific examples or concrete. For example,
concrete operational thinker cannot imagine the steps necessary
to solve an algebra problem, which is too vague to be considered
at this stage of development.
4. Formal Operational Stage is a stage which appears from the
ages of 11-15 years. At this stage the individual thinks beyond the
real world, concrete experiences and thinks in abstract and in a
more logical manner. Also as part of more abstract thinking,
adolescents develop a picture of an ideal state. They can think
what kind of parents is ideal and compare their parents with this

ideal standard. They begin to prepare for the possibilities for the
future and in awe of what they can do. In solving the problem, the
formal operational thinker is more systematically developed in
means hypotheses about why things happen like that, and then
test this hypothesis by way of deductive reasoning.
Thinking is known as an activity that resulted in the
discovery of the human person in relative direction to a
destination. We think to find the knowledge and understanding
that we want.
Thinking is the main thing that distinguishes between humans
and animals. Humans may think because human whereas animals
do not have the language.
Animal language is an instinct that does not need to be studied
and taught, while human language is the result of culture that
must be learned and taught.
Disadvantages of the animal are that they do not know the words
to issue with their mind. With language, humans can give names
to everything, whether visible or invisible. All objects, jobs, and
other abstracts, are named.
That way, everything that has ever observed and experienced can
be saved, via responses and experiences, then processed or
thought about into insights.
In everyday life, it is easy once observed that thinking is a
process which has originated from the mind, then set out in the
talk, there appeared many effects both positive and negative.
So, the truth of a language does not solely lie in the composition
of grammatical language alone, but also on governance thought,
intention, and the implications that arise from an utterance. The
idea is not simply embodied by one word only, but requires a form

of sentence. Regarding the relationship of language and mind

there is a saying "Language indicates the quality of the speaker".
Or expanded again "demonstrated that the nation's language"
means a person's personality or a nation can be observed and
analyzed from the speech language in the system memory, then
the work affecting the course of feelings and thoughts that
passed its out-put in the form of speech and behavior.
Watson thought through his theory to say that thinking is
essentially and simply considered as an implicit behavior also
thought to be motor behavior. Thinking out loud aims to be a
whisper to yourself. Therefore the indissoluble link between
thought and language is that language is the actualization of the
mind.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-child-in-time/201008/what-do-we-meanthinking
http://psychology.about.com/od/PositivePsychology/f/positive-thinking.htm
http://www.umich.edu/~psycours/447/
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/thinking
http://psychologydictionary.org/thinking/
http://cnx.org/content/m14358/latest/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/07/13/what-to-do-with-worry-thoughts/