The Five Basic Human Thinking Styles: A Practical Guide

Verbal thinking: what is it?

Verbal thinking is thinking, the main distributor of which is speech. A related term is classical logic. In the first case, special attention is paid to the issues of competent and correct use of speech skills.

Verbal abilities are the degree to which a person demonstrates verbal-logical thinking, that is, the ability to use language and speech skills as a means of asserting one’s thoughts.

Important! When diagnosing verbal skills, an individual’s ability to eliminate the superfluous and find analogues, to find commonality is revealed. An assessment of his awareness is given.

1.3. Pragmatic style

The main strategy of a pragmatist is to take into account possibilities in every possible way. The motto of the Pragmatists is: “Anything that works” is good. Direct personal experience is their main and only measure of the correctness/incorrectness of ideas, decisions, actions, and life in general.

Pragmatists stand out among other people by their tendency to find new ways to satisfy their own and others' needs using only those materials and information that are at hand. It is not common for them to request additional funds, resources, much less reserves. In solving any problems, they tend to demonstrate a gradual, “piecemeal” or incremental approach - “one thing at a time” and “from now to now” with the goal of getting a specific result as quickly as possible. Pragmatists are more similar to Realists than to representatives of other thinking styles.

While the Analyst believes in predictability and the Idealist in “noble intentions,” the true Pragmatist does not believe in such “nonsense.” In his opinion, the world as a whole is unpredictable, practically impossible to understand, much less manage. Therefore, “we’ll do this today, and then we’ll see.”

As a rule, the behavior of Pragmatists is less predictable than the behavior of owners of other styles of thinking, primarily because it is extremely difficult to guess the course of their thoughts due to the arbitrariness in the choice of facts.

Pragmatists have a good sense of the situation and have the ability to grasp supply and demand in the broadest sense of these words. And they are happy to share their thoughts with others, always ready to collaborate, enthusiastically involved in the process of collective thinking and decision-making, showing a sincere interest in formulating strategies and tactics for quickly achieving goals.

In general, Pragmatists are quite flexible and adaptive people, both in terms of thinking and behavior. They usually have well-developed communication skills; are able to put themselves in the shoes of another person. They are far from indifferent to the attitude of others towards them; they want to be liked, approved, or at least accepted for their thoughts and behavior.

Development of verbal thinking

A person transforms all his thoughts into words that give them form. Words are a very powerful tool through which people can express themselves, interact and communicate. This is why it is extremely important to improve your verbal thinking. There are several ways to develop:

Inner voice training . This is an excellent method for improving your ability to control your speech. You need to take one phrase and try to pronounce it in your mind with different tempos, semantic stresses, sonority and pitch. Then imagine how it will sound performed by several individuals. Next, imagine how the phrase will sound in your chest, arm, and heel. Imagine it floating in front of your face.
Regulation of imaginary monologue . Every day a person is in a mental monologue. It is not so harmless, since it prevents effective thinking. For this reason, a feeling of fatigue appears. After getting rid of it, the mind is refreshed. You need to mentally count to 10 in rhythm with your breathing. As soon as the thought appears again, start counting again.
Reading . It can be both educational and entertaining. Cognition requires thorough concentration of attention. The second requires maximum use of imagination. Those who read slowly make small jumps with their eyes. Those who read quickly capture large sections of the page. When you pick up a newspaper, you need to take in more words with your gaze. This helps the development of thinking.
Clustering . It is necessary to decide on a topic, for example, conflict. This word must be written on paper and circled in a frame. Next, on the same paper, write down all the feelings and associations that are associated with this word. After writing down each new word, they should also be circled. Then use arrows to indicate the connection between them. Thanks to this, you can organize all your thoughts.
Playing with words "Abbreviation" . Several people must take part in such a game. You need to write 1 word on a card, and then choose a card at random. For a certain period of time, for example, 1 minute, everyone must make up at least one phrase from the letters of the word. For example, the word SAILOR: Marina discovered an amber stone nearby.
Tongue Twisters . If you have a team, you can make a competition to see who knows the most. First you need to remember the most primitive ones and then move on to more complex and confusing ones.
Dissent . It is necessary to carefully examine the room in which the person is present. You should try to name each item that is memorized in different words. These words do not necessarily have to exist. That is, the door is an opener, the window is a peek. This game can be played in a team. In this case, hold a competition to see who can come up with the most words for an existing subject.
Meeting with an alien . The essence of the game is to explain the meaning of a word or expression to an alien creature who is not at all aware.

1.2. Idealistic style

The main strategy of the idealist is associative thinking. Idealists are people who, first of all, have a broad view of things. They are prone to intuitive, global assessments and do not bother themselves with a detailed analysis of problems based on a full set of facts and formal logic.

Another feature of Idealists is an increased interest in goals, needs, motives and, naturally, human values. They are good at formulating goals, and not only their own. “Where are we going and why?” - a classic question from Idealists. They are especially interested in the “quality of life”: what is good and what is evil in this world.

Idealists are similar to Synthesizers in that they are not inclined to concentrate on hard numbers and dry facts. The difference between them lies in different approaches to resolving contradictions. Idealists tend to believe that differences and disputes can always be resolved. We are convinced that people are able to agree on anything as soon as they agree on goals. From this it is clear that Idealists do not value conflict and do not enjoy it; conflict seems to them unproductive and therefore completely unnecessary.

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The thinking of Idealists can be called receptive, i.e. easily and without internal resistance perceiving a wide variety of ideas, positions and proposals.

Idealists like to be perceived as open, trustworthy, supportive, and helpful to others—that is, helpful to people. Satisfying their needs requires high quality work and exemplary behavior. Because of their “too” idealistic standards, they are often disappointed in people whose aspirations and standards seem to them less exalted than their own.

When it comes to finding a solution to a problem, Idealists demonstrate high professionalism in situations where it is difficult to clearly formulate the problem and where emotions, feelings, assessments and values are important factors.

2.2. How to recognize an Idealist

First of all, by an open, supportive and inviting smile, as well as by other, verbal and non-verbal, signals that Idealists send to partners in order to establish emotional contact and trusting relationships with them. They have a rich arsenal of means to achieve this goal. The input includes frequent nods of approval, an attentive and interested look, a confidential tone, indirect questions, soft, probing forms of expressing one’s views, etc.

The idealistic style of thinking is more common among people who are sociable or, more precisely, people who are inclined to communicate. More often than others, strangers talk to them in transport, public places, on the street, ask how to get to the right place, etc.

Sadness and resentment, disappointment and indignation are expressed just as openly in their facial expressions, pantomimes, gestures and speech as positive emotions. However, even in the depressed or indignant state of Idealists, there is something that makes people encourage and reassure them more often than others. Apparently, their appearance partly serves as a guarantee that a person who sympathizes with them will not run into hysteria and rudeness.

Idealists almost never behave boldly or defiantly. They feel very uncomfortable even in an open dispute, not to mention a conflict. In tense situations, all their behavior is subordinated to one goal - to prevent a quarrel from breaking out.

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Idealists love to talk about people and their problems, discussed at the level of emotions, motives, and relationships. They do not like to overload their speech with facts and lose interest in others when they abuse the presentation and analysis of facts, especially if the latter are in no way related to personal problems.

Typically, Idealists ask a lot of questions to their communication partners, but this does not at all resemble an interrogation. A conversation with an Idealist inspires hope, because the Idealist needs questions to assess the other party’s need for his help or to clarify the partner’s life values, goals, intentions, in order to find common ground.

However, Idealists are extremely strong in their actions, beliefs, ethical and social standards.

1.4. Analytical style

The main strategy of the Analyst is to find the best path. Representatives of the analytical style are distinguished by a logical, methodical, thorough (with an emphasis on detail) and careful manner of solving problems. Before making a decision, they develop a detailed plan and try to collect as much information as possible, so they often win.

Analysts are more theory-oriented than anyone else, but when they are told this, they are often surprised, disagree, and sometimes offended. Committed Analysts, especially those not directly involved in theoretical work, see themselves as realistic, fact-based, practical people. Of course, in a certain respect they are. However, behind the attention they pay to objective facts lie broad and deep theories.

In general, Analysts tolerate the unknown, uncertainty, and chaos worse than others. They tend to see the world as logical, rational, orderly and predictable.

Analysts value knowledge, take learning seriously, and from an early age acquire a variety of theories that help them explain events and bring order to their environment. In addition, they respect authorities, do not like to change their views and preferences, and try to regularly apply the acquired theoretical knowledge in practice. Over time, the process of applying the learned “theories” becomes automatic and ceases to be recognized by them.

When a problem arises, the Analyst will most likely look for a formula, procedure, method, or system that can provide a solution to the problem. Because of his dominant interest in method, he strives to find the “best way” to solve a problem.

While the Synthesizer has an interest in conflict, change and novelty, the Analyst prefers rationality, stability and predictability. Where the Idealist focuses on values, goals, and the “big picture,” the Analyst prefers to focus on objective data, procedure, and “best method.” While the Pragmatist's approach is experimental, the Analyst's approach is based on a detailed, detailed plan and a search for a rationally justifiable "best way."

Analysts spend a lot of effort obtaining information. They pride themselves on their competence, knowledge and understanding of all sides of any situation.

Main features

You can recognize synthetics by the following features:

Developed intuition . Synthetics often cannot explain why they are confident in a particular development of events, but their premonitions very rarely deceive them.
Losing details from sight, inattention to them . It is difficult for synthetics to go from the particular to the general; specifics interest them only if it helps to better understand some features of the general.
The ability to “grab” information “on the fly”, quickly understand the essence . Synthetics subtly sense the interlocutor, often giving the impression of people who seem to read minds.
The ability to see patterns within a whole . An analytical doctor treats a specific disease and relieves its symptoms, while a synthetic doctor tries to understand the cause of the disease and its effect on the functioning of other organs.
Predominance of the right hemisphere, responsible for intuitive, imaginative, visual perception . You can check which hemisphere is dominant in you using a simple test, which is described in the video below.

How to develop

To learn to think generally, assess a situation and predict the possible consequences of certain actions, you need to follow the following recommendations:

Play chess and study famous games.
Solve puzzles and logic problems.
Solve math exercises. Studying “fun” mathematics can bring great benefits.
Create a clear daily routine and follow it. Be sure to include daily reading (at least 10-20 pages). While reading, highlight the main ideas in the text, write them down and periodically read and analyze them.
To learn foreign languages. It is better to group new vocabulary by topic, and compare grammatical phenomena with the native (Russian) language.
Take classical or Latin American dancing. Girls can also practice step - a type of fitness that requires practicing skills in operating in the system.
Solve classic and Japanese crosswords, sudoku.

1.5. Realistic style

The main strategy of the Realist is empiricism. In most respects, Realists are at the opposite end of the thinking style spectrum from the Synthesizer.

Many people have difficulty understanding the differences between Realists and Pragmatists. In fact, in everyday speech these two terms are often used as synonyms, but this is not the case. Pragmatists and Realists rely on different underlying assumptions and values, and the mental strategies they use are fundamentally different, although often complementary.

The Realists' motto is: "Facts are facts." In other words, Realists are primarily empiricists, not theorists. For them, “real” is only what can be directly felt: felt, touched, personally seen or heard, experienced, etc. This is where they are the opposite of Synthesizers, who are convinced that interpretation and conclusions are always more important observable "facts". Realists cannot help but see that people do not always agree with each other. Because they believe that without reaching agreement at the level of facts, things cannot be done and there is no point in starting anything at all.

SEE ALSO: The internal image is characterized by specificity and an attitude towards correction, correction of the situation in order to achieve a certain result. The problem for Realists arises whenever they see something is right and want to fix it. Unlike Pragmatists with their penchant for experimentation (“it didn’t work out this way, let’s try that”), realists want to conduct business accurately, reasonably and with full confidence that if they have already corrected something, then it will continue to be done without surprises and unforeseen changes. And if something does happen, they will try to introduce another amendment and again firmly stick to the chosen course.

In general, Realists are much closer to Analysts than to everyone else. Both of them are based on facts, are focused on the objective, concrete and material, and show a tendency to be methodical and practical results. But there are also fundamental differences between them. The Realist will probably be irritated by the deductive, formal-logical procedures of the Analyst, as well as the latter’s desire to collect additional information and search for perfection. A realist wants to do a specific task as well as possible, based on the facts at his disposal.

What Realists and Synthesizers have in common is the need to be in control. Realists feel the need to control resources, people and results, Synthesizers - the need to control the process: understand and stay one step ahead of a certain decision, conflict or simply argumentation; both tend to become irritated by overly detailed analysis and protracted discussion. Finally, they are proud of their harshness, causticity, and ability to confuse others.