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EFFECTIVE THINKING

Introduction
Thinking/Cognition-Way we respond to sensory perceptions of the world, process them and choose our responses. Important form of activity. Overlaps to a great extent with the topic of language, decision making, problem solving, creativity and cognitive psychology. Highest and most complex form of human behaviour. Most important activity which human beings involve in. Not only desired in the world of work but also an activity encouraged by management personnel-many practical advantages, especially in many areas of work where novel and creative decisions are to be taken urgently. Inspite of individual differences, thinking skills can be learned and cultivated among employees. Entire field of Cognitive Therapy and Rational Emotive Behaviour as well as Decision Making Skills are oriented towards developing rational and creative thinking among the individual employees.

Defination:First scientific study began with the work of John.B.Watson. Different Definations: Symbolic mediation or a symbolic bridge that fills the gaps between a situation and the response we make to it. Watson- Subvocal Speech. Cognitive view of thinking become more popular-Consists of cognitive rearrangement or manipulation of both information from the environment and symbols stored in longterm memory. Bruner- going beyond the information given. Bartlett- complex and high level skills that fills up gaps in evidence. Newell and Simon- process of searching through a problem space. Baron- what we do when we are in doubt about how to act, what to believe or what to desire. Therefore- Thinking used to refer to more than one specific activity.

Features
Involves mediating process- fills in the gaps between the stimulus situations and the response we make to it. Symbolic in nature. Symbol-something which stands for something else. Since thinking is symbolic, we can think in absence of objects and situations. Thinking is verbal and involves language. We can even think n absence of language. Some thinking involves problem solving, while some does not.

Elements involved in thinking


Concept Images Sub-vocal speech

Concept
Symbol that stand for common properties of thing. Enables us to classify things into different categories. Objects with common features are grouped under the same category.

Factors influencing concept learning


Transfer Discriminability Nature of the concept Ability to manipulation Instruction People in our environment Contexts

Images
Mental picture evoked by stimulus or event. Generally vague and incomplete Abstractions of certain features from previous experience Constructed from elements stored in long term memory.

Sub-vocal speech
Sort of stimulus-response connection or habit. Sub-vocal movements that we make in talking to our selves are the substance of thoughts Thought consists mainly of implicit language habits including not only speech but also gestures, writings etc. They are implicit because they cannot be observed without the use of instruments Mere thinking of the movements of the various parts of the body actually show implicit movements in the corresponding muscles of the body.

THINKING SKILLS
1. 2. 3. Managers must be skilled to perform the function of management and assume multiple roles. Specialization in todays world is highly valued therefore even ordinary workers must be skilled. Workers and managers in todays fast changing world need to constanly update his/her skill periodically so that the changing demands of work are sucessfully and efficently met.

THINKING SKILLS
Definition of SKILL:- The word skill is defined as an ability or proficiency in a specific are. There are many different classification of skills, these include technical, human and conceptual skills. Conceptual skills are also known as Cognitive Skills or Thinking Skills. Cognitive skills are any mental skills that are used in the process of acuring knowledge, they include reasoning perception and intuition.

Thinking Styles
Style is a learned preference of doing, a thing in a particular way or f thinking in a particular manner. Thinking styles refers to a manner as to how a given individulal processes information or how one relates to a given information An individuals thinking style is his/her characteristic way of processing information. Its the way in which an individual acquires knowledge about a given object/event/situation , etc.,organizes ones thought , forms,ones, views and opinions. A style is a preferred way of thinking. Each of us has a profile of styles. Society does not always judge people with eqaual abilities as equal.

Types Of Thinking Styles


Sternberg (1997) conceptualised a theory of mental self-government, which runs parallel to the governments we have in the world . Roughly speaking, governments serve three functions executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch carries out the initiatives, policies, and laws enacted by the legislative branch, and the judicial branch evaluates whether the laws are being correctly applied.

Executive Style
They like to foloow rules and prefer problems that are pre-structured or prefabricated. They like to fill in the gaps within existing structures rather than to create structures themselves. Their preferred activities are solving given mathematical problems, applying rules to problems, enforcing rules.

The occupation that can be a good fit to executive thinkers include legal profession, police, administrative work, etc.

Legislative Style
People with legislative thinking styles come p with their own ways of doing things and prefer to decide for themselves that they will do and how they will do it. Legislative people like to create their own rules and prefer problems that are not pre-structured and pre-fabricated. Some of the preferred kinds of activities of these thinking styles include writing creative papers, designing innovative projects, creating new business or educational system, etc. Some kinds of occupation they prefer are creative writer, scientist, artist, sculptor, investment banker, policy maker, and architect.

Judicial Style
Like to evaluate rules and procedures Prefer problems in which one analyzes and evaluates existing things and ideas Like activities such as writing critiques, giving opinions, judging people and their work and evaluating programms Their preferred kinds of occupations are judge, critic, programme evaluator, consultant, admission officer etc.

Levels of thinking
Types of levels of thinking Global (Larger and abstract issues Local (concrete and minute issues)

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