Divergent thinking is problem-solving that involves generating unusual or unconventional solutions to problems. This is a type of thinking that is flexible, adaptive, and novel. By looking at a situation from a unique perspective we may experience a “light-bulb” moment that inspires a unique solution. It is the opposite of convergent thinking, which involves finding […]
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Altruism is engaging in an act that helps another person without regard to rewards or benefits to self. It involves doing something to help a person in distress that does not directly benefit yourself. People have engaged in altruistic acts since the beginning of civilization, probably even sooner than that. Even if there is no
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The anchoring bias, or anchoring heuristic, is when our exposure to an initial piece of information influences our perception of subsequent information. The initial exposure can then affect our decision-making. It sets the tone for how we process information that follows. One explanation involves the primacy effect (Stewart, et al., 2004). We remember things that
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A cultural bias occurs when we are inclined to interpret a situation from your own cultural perspective. This can cause cultural disagreements, confusion, and offense. We are used to things being done a certain way, so we form a very firm expectation. When we travel to another country or meet people from a different culture,
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The self-serving bias is a tendency for people to attribute success to internal factors related to themselves and blame failures on external factors. Simply speaking, we take credit for success and deny blame for failure. It is a mechanism to protect our self-esteem. Rightly or wrongly, the self-serving bias allows us to maintain confidence and
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The fundamental attribution error is a mental shortcut that involves explaining another person’s behavior in terms of their personality (rather than attributing their behavior to a situational context). We use the fundamental attribution error because it is easier to think about something in terms of a person’s personality rather than the complex situation from which
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The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias and mental shortcut that occurs when you prefer to use the most easily accessible information in your decision-making. Information that is easy to access will carry greater weight in our analysis than information that is harder to retrieve. Our minds need to process a lot of information on
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A self-concept is an idea you have about yourself. It is your self-definition. Our concept of ourselves comes from internal self-narratives, but it is also impacted by what other people tell us about who we are. For example, constant put-downs by parents may cause a child to have a poor self-concept. Examples of self-concept include
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Self-efficacy refers to a person’s beliefs in their abilities. High self-efficacy is a general belief about one’s abilities, regardless of the specific situation. Low self-efficacy means you don’t tend to have much belief in yourself. People with high self-efficacy approach unfamiliar situations with a firm belief that if they exert enough effort, they will be
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Prosocial behavior is voluntary social behavior that benefits others. It is behavior exhibited by humans as well as some cognitively advanced animals such as whales. This is an important behavior for the development of cooperative societies that help all members of the society to thrive. There are many benefits to living in a prosocial group.
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