You have to serve as an apprentice to a master, read a lot, or attend a school. The guy was obviously smart and our mindsets seemed to resonate on the same frequency. The secret to creating new ideas is to separate your divergent thinking from your convergent thinking. Jun 15, 2019 kendra cherry, ms, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Convergent is a form of the word converging and so it means coming together. When a person uses this cognition to integrate various inputs to create an understanding, its called as cognitive thinking. Types of thinking provides a basic grounding in the psychology of thinking for undergraduate students with little previous knowledge of cognitive psychology.
Convergent thinking closes off the ideation sessions by sifting through ideas, grouping them into themes, picking out common threads and ultimately deciding upon winners and losers. This is opposite from divergent thinking in which a person generates many unique, creative responses to a single question or problem. For example, stephen king is a famous author of horror novels, and hes written about 50 different books. Convergent thinking definition psychology glossary. The mind must have complete freedom to wander around to create a new idea. A source book for creative thinking, new york, charles scribners. Convergent and divergent thinking of online learning bartleby. These processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problemsolving. Thinking is an important part of our human experience, and one that has captivated people for centuries. It is relevant to creating art, music, and fiction. Why do i always think the next one will be worth my time. In this lesson, you will learn to define divergent thinking and be given two examples of divergent thinking that are used in everyday situations. Discover librarianselected research resources on divergent thinking from the questia online library, including fulltext online books, academic journals. Convergent and divergent thinking psychology wiki fandom.
Finally, examples of new ways to measure convergent thinking for creativity are. Perception in psychology 101 at allpsych online allpsych. This clear, wellstructured overview explores the practical aspects and applications of everyday thinking, creative thinking, logical and scientific thinking, intelligent thinking and machine thinking. Not only is creativity a complex topic in and of itself, but there is also no clear consensus on how exactly to define creativity.
Define creativity, divergent, and convergent thinking a fourandahalfyearold boy sits at the kitchen table with his father, who is reading a new story aloud to him. The mind is the idea while thinking processes of the brain involved in processing information such as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, to reason and make decisions. Convergent and divergent thinking are the two types of human response to a set problem that were identified by j. Divergent thinking is an important aspect of creative thinking. Psychological steps involved in problem solving psychestudy. The concept of divergent and convergent thinking was created by j. Convergent thinking bringing facts and data together from various sources and then applying logic and knowledge to solve problems, achieve objectives or to make informed decisions is known as thinking convergently. Convergent production is the deductive generation of the best single answer to a set problem, usually where there is a compelling inference. Nov 17, 2017 convergent vs divergent thinking, differences. List of books and articles about divergent thinking online. Creativity definition and examples social psychology.
Villalba, in reference module in neuroscience and biobehavioral psychology, 2017. In fact, it is also a type of thinking very common in children, where joy, imagination, and a fresh perspective make their reasoning more free. Convergent thinking is what you engage in when you answer a multiple choice question although. Up to a point, then, developing students convergent thinkingas schoolwork often does by emphasizing mastery of contentfacilitates students divergent.
In contrast, convergent thinking describes the ability to provide a correct or wellestablished answer or solution to a problem cropley, 2006. Mar 18, 2018 divergent thinking, or lateral thinking, is about generating multiple creative solutions to the same problem. As a rule, if you want to get better at analytic thinking, you have to get an education of some sort. Divergent thinking definition of divergent thinking by the. And, tactfully using our thought process is what leads to the solution of any problems. Creativity is the ability to make or do something new that is also useful or valued by others gardner, 1993. When it comes to problem solving and idea generation, two ways are commonly cited, namely divergent and convergent thinking strategies. One important question concerns how to define creativity. Convergent thinking convergent thinking is at the opposite end of ideation sessions, and involves closing off these sessions by sifting through ideas, grouping them into themes, picking out common threads and ultimately deciding upon winners and losers. The terms convergent and divergent thinking came from american psychologist jp guilford in the 1950s.
Jul 19, 2018 convergent thinking involves starting with pieces of information, converging around a solution. When i heard gabriel weinberg speaking on the knowledge project podcast, i was quite excited. Bringing facts and data together from various sources and then applying logic and knowledge to solve problems, achieve objectives or to make informed decisions is known as thinking convergently. In this educational psychology class, i have learned the difference between convergent and divergent thinking and what they are thus far since we just began looking at chapter nine a couple of classes ago. In an abundance of enthusiasm generated postsputnik 1, the convergent style of thinking was rapidly equated with typical intelligence. Divergent and convergent thinking skills are both important aspects of intelligence, problem solving and critical thinking. Critical thinking is the use of cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome.
Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts. Convergent thinking is a structured, linear approach to. The core steps of creative problem solvingdivergent and convergent thinking define a sequence of phases that are common to creativity and engineering. Creativity, brainstorming, and convergent and divergent thinking writing prompt 1. The process of figuring out a concrete solution to any problem is called convergent thinking. To be fair, super thinking doesnt attempt to cover every aspect of life, only mental models, but it feels similarly ambitious and dizzying. Critical thinking can be seen as part of the more general convergent thinking skills that involve the production of one correct answer. Divergent thinking is sometimes used as a synonym for creativity in psychology literature.
Creative thinking in all its dimensions involve divergent thinking instead of the routine and final types of convergent thinking. The creative process doesnt always take you directly to the best solution but, by encouraging a variety of possible solutions, new. Facilitating complex thinking educational psychology. This involves also convergent thinking, and thus, both convergent and divergent thinking processes intertwine and cooperate to reach a viable solution of an illdefined problem in a process called. Convergent and divergent thinking are valuable tools in the classroom, but the concept didnt start in the classroom. Cognition is the process by which one acquires knowledge through experience, thought and sensory input. It contains more than 300 models an aver back in the late 1980s, i stumbled across a book entitled cultural literacy. He turns the page to continue reading, but before he can begin, the boy says, wait, daddy.
Examples of divergent thinking include using brainstorming, free writing and creative thinking at the beginning of the problem. Such brainstorming techniques are used during divergent thinking. Guide to teaching convergent and divergent thinking usatestprep. Thought encompasses an aimoriented flow of ideas and associations that can lead to a realityoriented conclusion. Divergent thinking is the process of thinking that explores multiple possible solutions in order to generate creative ideas. How to teach convergent and divergent thinking prodigy. Convergent thinking involves aiming for a single, correct solution to a problem, whereas divergent thinking involves creative generation of multiple answers to a set problem. In this chapter, i have added further detail to this, drawing on concepts from the literature of psychology and creativity. As you can infer, it emphasizes finding the single, optimal solution to a given problem and usually demands thinking at the first or second depth of knowledge dok level. Although thinking is an activity of an existential value for humans, there is still no consensus as to how it is adequately defined or understood. Ideation and design thinking is not a wild frenzy of chaos. As mentioned in the introduction, perception refers to interpretation of what we take in through our senses. In this sense divergent thinking depends partly on its converse, convergent thinking, which is focused, logical reasoning about ideas and experiences that lead to specific answers. Divergent thinking can be described as thinking outside the box.
Cognitive abilities like thinking, reasoning and problemsolving may be considered to be some of the chief characteristics which distinguish human beings from other species including the higher animals. Many popular psychology books claim to enhance creativity or intuition. Intelligence and creativity introduction to psychology. Apart from the dickish title, super thinking promised to be an interesting book. Divergent thinking definition of divergent thinking by. Design thinking refers to the cognitive, strategic and practical processes by which design concepts proposals for new products, buildings, machines, etc.
Understand the elements and thinking modes that create. Contrary to what is sometimes assumed, both convergent and divergent thinking lead to. There are number of rigid psychological steps involved in problem solving, which is also referred as problemsolving cycle. This is where you make decisions through the lenses of desirable, viable and feasible. Critical thinking can be defined as the process of thinking. Convergent thinking an overview sciencedirect topics. Therefore, it makes sense that our abilityand decision todo this consistently in some ways defines us as a species. Divergent thinking is the process of thinking that explores multiple possible solutions in order to generate creative ideas its a straight forward process that focuses on figuring out the most effective answer. Nov 17, 2017 the idea of including the subject in psychology is because psychology deals with the overall mental process. Convergent thinking is a term used to describe the process of finding a single best solution to a problem. The thought process that goes into answering standard questions opens. Compare convergent thinking noun 1 divergent thinking definition of divergent thinking by the free. These are higherlevel functions of the brain and encompass language, imagination, perception, and planning. This means generating lots and lots of options before you evaluate them.
I was able to learn that convergent thinking has only one correct answer while divergent thinking has multiple answers for the same question. Convergent thinking is defined as the ability to apply conventional and logical. Convergent thinking is a term coined by joy paul guilford as the opposite of divergent thinking. The relationship between creativity and critical thinking will depend on the different conceptualizations of the constructs and what aspects of each of the. Arriving at a correct textbook answer to a problem does not. A cognitive process a mode of critical thinking in which a person attempts to find a single, correct answer to a problem. A person who demonstrates significant critical thinking. The field of creative thinking and its out part is quite comprehensive and built wide. Pdf free production of variability through unfettered divergent thinking. Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. Introduction to psychology michigan state university. Convergent thinking is the ability to apply rules to arrive at a single correct solution to. Define creativity, convergent thinking, divergent thinking and brainstorming identify and describe sternbergs three types of intelligence required for creativity to unlock this lesson you must be.
It generally means the ability to give the correct answer to standard questions that do not require significant creativity, for instance in most tasks in school and on standardized multiplechoice tests for intelligence. Developing novel and effective solutions to problemsin engineering and in generalinvolves moving through phases of synthesis and analysis, each of which has a unique set of. Many of the key concepts and aspects of design thinking have been identified through studies, across different design domains, of design cognition and design activity in both. In this sense, thinking is inclusive of imagining, recalling, solving problems, free association, daydreaming, concept formation, and a variety of other procedures. Convergent thinking is what you engage in when you answer a multiple choice question. Although much of the theory and research in critical thinking comes from cognitive psychology, it is an interdisciplinary field with prominent contributions from education, philosophy, mathematics, and other academic disciplines. The something can be an object like an essay or painting, a skill like playing an instrument, or an action like using a familiar tool in a new way. Rudn journal of psychology and pedagogics, 2016, 4, 715. First, define creativity in three to five sentences.
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