Scientific Method in Psychology
Keep Your Mental Process Open
Even after reaching your conclusion, keep your mind open, thinking, and be prepared to be wrong. Charles R. Foster, in Psychology for Life Today (1966, 16th printing) describes our thinking process:
In psychology the term thinking is usually applied to that type of mental process which we identify as problem solving. There are, however, a number of kinds of mental activity, which are sometimes referred to as thinking.
There is a general "stream of consciousness" of which we are aware during all or most of our waking movements. A succession of ideas, images, reveries, and associations streams through our mind, and we are aware, if we stop to contemplate it, of this activity of ours.
In most present-day psychology, however, when the subject of thinking is under consideration, the phase of it which has to do with reasoning or problem solving is of chief concern. Hence, in this chapter we are confining our discussion to the psychology of thinking as problem solving.
We are omitting any consideration of thinking as reverie, or as daydreaming in the usual sense of the term - we are thinking mainly of what occurs, in our mental processes as we deal with the everyday problems of life.
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