 Problem Solving- Active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable.  Barriers to Problem Solving: ◦ 1.) Irrelevant Information ◦ 2.) Functional Fixedness ◦ 3.) Mental Set ◦ 4.) Unnecessary Constraints

 Sample Problems:  “In the Thompson family there are five brothers, and each brother has one sister. If you count Mrs. Thompson, how many females are there in the Thompson family?”  “15 percent of the people in Topeka have unlisted telephone numbers. You select 200 names at random from phone book. How many of these people can be expected to have unlisted phone numbers?”  Math Problems (even in Psychology statistics)  We often use all information available without first determining what is relevant

 Functional Fixedness- The tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use. ◦ Examples used in research ◦ Sample Problem

 Mental Set- When people persist in using problem solving strategies that have worked in the past ◦ Water Jug Example ◦ Real world examples

 Humans sometimes will place unnecessary constrains on problems, when they are not actually part of the problem statement ◦ Demonstration ◦ Men in Black Example

Without lifting pencil from the paper, draw no more than four lines that will cross through all nine dots

 Decision Making – Involves evaluating alternatives and making choices among them.  Decision Making Issues: ◦ 1.) Availability Heuristic ◦ 2.) Representativeness Heuristic ◦ 3.) Gambler’s Fallacy

 The availability heuristic involves basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind ◦ E.g. We often base our estimates on own recollection of specific instances  Examples:  How high is the national divorce rate?  Are cigarettes unhealthy?

 This involves basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event.  Example: If you flip a coin six times, which is more likely?  1.) T T T T T T  2.) H T T H T H  Real World Examples

 Gambler’s Fallacy – The belief that the odds of a chance event increase in the event hasn’t occurred recently.  Example

 Creativity – Involves generation of ideas that are original, novel, and useful. ◦ More than just being unusual

 Examples used in past:  Subjects given description of movie and are asked to come up with a title ◦ Demo  Remote Associations Test- Participants asked to come up with a word between two given words (Hand_____ Call)  Participants given an everyday object and asked to come up with as many uses they can think of ◦ Demo

 Creative People tend to be “More autonomous, introverted, open to new experiences, norm-doubting, self-confident, self-accepting, driven, ambitious, dominant, hostile, and impulsive.”  At the Core: independence and nonconformity

 Greatly elevated rates of depression and other disorders haven been found among eminent writers, artists, and composers.  Research suggests a correlation between creative achievement and vulnerability to mental disorders  David Helfgott Example

 Hunter S. Thompson  Robin Williams  Jim Carrey  Heath Ledger  Howard Hughes  Mitch Hedberg  Elliot Smith  John Nash  Kurt Cobain  Peter Sellers  Any others?