Good Thinking 2 Minute Read Mental
How does one define good thinking? Learning theorists have explored what constitutes intellectual performance and identified particular characteristics of effective patterns of thinking. In academic circles these characteristics are defined as learning skills. However, they encompass capacities that go well beyond just the cognitive domain. Attributes of character, elements of the moral domain are involved as well. Patterns of thinking overlap into not only on intellectual performance but into the arena of psychological wellbeing. This is where learning theory can contribute to enhancement of knowledge in human behaviour and mental health.
Project Zero of the Harvard Graduate School of Education has identified three logically distinct components necessary for dispositional behavior: ability, inclination, and sensitivity. Ability concerns the basic capacity to carry out a behavior. Inclination concerns the motivation or impulse to engage in the behavior. Sensitivity concerns likelihood of noticing occasions to engage in the behavior. Three domains of identity are necessary for “good thinking”; cognitive, affective and moral.
Pattern thinking involves another frequently overlooked thinking process called abductive thinking. Abduction is a reasoning process that examines how certain ideas fit across a range of applications. Abductive reasoning starts with an observation or set of observations and then seeks to find the simplest and most likely explanation for the observations. This process, unlike deductive reasoning, yields a plausible conclusion but does not positively verify it.
Abduction is a normal and natural cognitive process and is fundamental to the acquisition of sound principles of knowledge, but it is only addressed sparingly in learning theory and pedagogical literature and hardly at all in in psychological literature. Yet it has significant implications in both mental health and wellbeing.
Evolution of patterns of thinking
· Patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, develop and reveal themselves over time
· Patterns of thinking are shaped by the interactive relationship of the domains that make up one’s identity (see wheel)
· Thoughts like behaviour present as patterns of thinking and an individual’s unique behavioural profile can be extrapolated from particular thought patterns
· Our capacity to observe a pattern is a function of understanding the contributing elements that make up it’s constituent parts
· Our identity or who we are is the idiosyncratic elements that make a person’s unique persona.
· In the crucible of affiliations and relationships our identity is formed and adapts through the cumulative influence of evolving values and beliefs which manifest in thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
What difference does it make?
Selectively refining the thinking process through abductive reasoning allows a person to elevate thoughts, dispel distortions and rise to a higher level of functioning, productivity, health and wellbeing.
How to better enable abductive reasoning
It is a given that logic and reason should be the basis for decision making. There are three types of reasoning. Deductive, inductive and abductive. Deductive deals with certainty. Inductive deals with probability. Abductive reasoning deals with hypotheses or guesswork. All are necessary for good thinking, but abductive reasoning is the most difficult to master.
Step1 Step back from the situation and define what is certain, what is a probability and what variables will influence the ultimate outcome.
- This requires the moral attribute of intellectual humility, the capacity to put aside personal biases, prejudices and recognize one’s own limitations and weaknesses.
Step 2 Decide what you have control over and what you do not.
Step 3 Formulate a plan and take concrete steps to increase the likelihood of particular variables working in your favour.
- This requires additional attributes of patience, persistence and perseverance
Step 4 Evaluate, revise and repeat until desired outcome is achieved.
- This requires practice
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