The 9 types of thinking and their characteristics

Many times we summarize all the mental processes related to the intellect by simply calling them thoughts. However, the reality is more complex than this very abstract concept. In reality, the individual psychology of each person is composed of various types of thinking.

When we make a decision, when we perform mental math, or when we reflect on issues that have to do with politics, for For example, we are using different mental processes, which are guided by different logics and even involve different parts of the mind. brain.

Now, how many are the types of thinking and what characteristics are associated with them? Let's see.

• Related article: "The 10 types of logical and argumentative fallacies"

What is a thought?

The concept of thought refers to relatively abstract, voluntary or involuntary mental processes, through which the individual develops his ideas about the environment, others or himself. That is, thoughts are ideas, memories and beliefs in motion, relating to each other.

Now the thoughts

they do not exist as "pure" intellectual activities, since they always go hand in hand with other mental processes that have to do with emotions and that are generated and regulated by a part of the brain called limbic system.

The latter means that thoughts are always "colored" by emotionality, they are not alien to feelings and emotions.

The main types of thoughts

With what we have seen so far it is already clear that thoughts are highly complex and, in many cases, so abstract that pigeonholing them into hermetic categories supposes falling into reductionism. However, knowing an indicative classification of the types of thought has been very useful to better understand the human mind.

Taking this into account, and that many of the categories that we will see below overlap each other in certain aspects, let's see what are the main types of thinking proposed and what characteristics present.

1. Deductive thinking

Deductive thinking starts from affirmations based on abstract and universal ideas to apply them to particular cases. For example, if we start from the idea that a French is someone who lives in France and France is in Europe, we will conclude that Rene Descartes, who lived in France, was European.

2. Inductive thinking

This type of thinking does not start from general statements, but is based on particular cases and, from them, generate general ideas. For example, if we observe that pigeons have feathers, ostriches have feathers and herons also have feathers, we can conclude that these three animals are part of an abstract category called "Sauropsids".

3. Analytical thinking

Analytical thinking creates pieces of information from a broad informational unit and reaches conclusions by seeing the way in which these "fragments" interact with each other.

4. Lateral or creative thinking

In creative thinking, you play to create original and unique solutions to problems, by questioning the rules that at first seem to be obvious. For example, a swing chair seems "predestined" to be used in a very particular type of toy, but it is possible to transgress this idea using it as a support for a flowerpot hanging from a porch. This is one of the most widely used types of thinking in art and crafts.

5. Soft thinking

This type of thinking is characterized by using concepts with very diffuse and unclear limits, often metaphorical, and the tendency not to avoid contradictions. Currently it is very characteristic of currents of thought linked to postmodern philosophy or psychoanalysis. For example, you can see an example of this style in the description of the concepts used by Sigmund Freud on the theory of psychosexual development.

6. Hard thinking

Hard thinking uses concepts as defined as possible, and try to avoid contradictions. It is typical of the type of reasoning linked to science, in which a slight nuance in the vocabulary used can lead to totally wrong conclusions, and that is why it can be difficult to move forward from it, since it requires a good amount of cognitive skills working at the same time to reach an end.

7. Divergent thinking

In divergent thinking it is established a division between two or more aspects of an idea, and the possibilities of maintaining this "partition" are explored. For example, if someone uses the same word making it have a different meaning each time, detecting this error is a case of divergent thinking in which the different meanings. You can see examples of this by looking at the common use of the concept of "the natural" applied to food products, unusual sexual orientations, or pervasive behavioral tendencies in general.

8. Convergent thinking

In convergent thinking there is a process by which we realize that there are different facts or realities that fit together even though at first it seemed they had nothing in common. For example, if a family of monarchs realizes that in a war they are interested in favoring one of the sides, they will have starting from the analysis of the different actors in conflict until reaching a global conclusion about the most convenient.

This is a type of thinking used when detecting common patterns and regularities, and can lead to abstracting a general concept that explains specific parts of reality.

9. Magical thinking

Magical thinking confers intentions on elements that have no will nor their own conscience, and even less the capacity to act according to plans. For example, a girl who because of her young age believes that the waves on the beach try to soak her hair is using magical thinking.

On the other hand, magical thinking is not unique to the stage of childhood: it also appears in adults belonging to societies and cultures unfamiliar with writing and science. The reason is that they have not developed a system to submit hypotheses to a validity test, and therefore mythical explanations about the reality that surrounds us can be sustained.

• Related article: "Jean Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development"

Bibliographic references:

• Cacioppo, John; Freberg, Laura (2012). Discovering Psychology: The Science of Mind. Canada: Cengage Learning.
• Morris, Charles (1997). Introduction to Psychology (Ninth edition edition). Prentice Hall.
• Papalia, D. and Wendkos, S. (1992). Psychology. Mexico: McGraw-Hill,
• Triglia, Adrián; Regader, Bertrand; García-Allen, Jonathan (2016). Psychologically speaking. Paidos.