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The 9 types of thinking and their characteristics

The 9 types of thinking and their characteristics

March 29, 2024

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

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

Now, how many are the types of thought and what characteristics are associated? Let's see it


  • 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 movement, 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 the limbic system.


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

The main types of thoughts

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

Bearing this in mind, 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 thought proposed and what characteristics they 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 Frenchman is someone who lives in France and France is in Europe, we will conclude that René Descartes, who lived in France, was European.


2. Inductive thinking

This type of thinking is not based on general statements, but is based on particular cases and, from them, generates 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. Side or creative thinking

In creative thinking, we try to create original and unique solutions to problems, by questioning the norms that at first seem to be evident. 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 pot that hangs from a porch. This is one of the types of thought most used 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 in 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 erroneous conclusions, and therefore it can be difficult to advance 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 explore the possibilities of maintaining this "partition".For example, if someone uses the same word, each time having a different meaning, detecting this error is a case of divergent thinking in which different meanings are detected. You can see examples of this by looking at the use that is usually made of the concept of "the natural" applied to food products, unusual sexual orientations or generalized behavioral trends 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 although at first it seemed that 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 parties, they will have started from the analysis of the different actors in conflict until reaching a global conclusion about the most convenient option.

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

9. Magical thinking

Magical thinking confers intentions to elements that do not have will no conscience, and even less ability to act following plans. For example, a girl who, because of her young age, believes that the waves on the beach try to soak their 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 an examination of validity, and therefore can sustain mythical explanations about the reality that surrounds us.

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

Principles and Definitions: Types of Thinking (March 2024).


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