Understanding Psychology

Chapter 11: Thinking and Language

Student Web Activites

"Boost Your Search Engine"

Introduction
If your teacher offered you a choice between taking a multiple choice test or writing a comparative essay, which would you choose? Most people prefer taking multiple choice tests because they are required to only memorize facts. But real-life problems do not come with a list of choices, and they often have more than one correct answer. Creativity makes problem solving possible by allowing you to find new ways to organize your thoughts, find links between ideas, and come up with solutions. The Creativity Web contains lots of techniques that can sharpen your divergent thinking skills and lead you on a path to more flexible thinking!

Web sites
Creativity Web
Browse through these resources for creativity and innovation ideas throughout. Get some ideas on how to kick start your creativity today!

Creating Minds
Visit this Web site to see a list of creative techniques - from challenging to chunking to random words. Use these either individually or as a group.

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Activity
The random-word method uses one random word, thought, or image to stimulate new ideas. Stop reading this page and look for the first written word you see. On a separate sheet of paper, write a children's story using that word in the title. Allow your brain to make associations, images, and metaphors of the word while writing the story.

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