What's in common between a pencil and a boot? Psychological testing

Mankind has reached all that is at the moment, not only because of its physical abilities, the basis of all discoveries and inventions has become a mental activity. Nowadays, there are many diseases and deviations from normal development, which can be diagnosed and cured. And many problems with mental activity helps to identify psychological testing.

Comparison method

The basis of psychological testing included the basic mental operations, such as analysis, comparison, synthesis, generalization, abstraction and specification. All of them are able to show different aspects of the basic activity of human thinking.

Through comparison, a person is able to compare objects and phenomena in order to find similarities and differences between them. While looking for similarities, you can see that many objects are similar in one and different in the other, and between some there is nothing in common. But the similarity or difference is determined depending on what characteristics of the subject matter are significant in a given period of time. Very often a person perceives the same things and actions in different ways, depending on the situation.

Comparison tests, or What is common between a pencil and a shoe

Throughout life, first in school, then at a university and sometimes when applying for a job, a person is offered to pass this test. In childhood, using the concepts of comparison, children are tested for the development of their creativity and determine what kind of thinking prevails in the child. At a more mature age, this test can be proposed to test how healthy the mind is in a person.

Word categories in the test

One of the most common questions in this case is comparison of disparate items. AR Lurii proposes to divide these words into three different categories. The simplest of them is a comparison of two words belonging to the same category, for example, a tram - a bus or a horse - a cow. The second category is dominated by more complex comparisons, they are more different than coincide. An example of such a comparison is the "crow-fish". The third group is the most difficult. It presents various concepts, and their comparison should cause a mental conflict. That is, their differences are stronger than similarities. For example, what does the pencil and boot have in common?

The operational side of thinking and its violation

If a person has a decrease in the functions responsible for the level of generalization in judgments, then he begins to evaluate objects and phenomena quite extensively. In other words, instead of isolating a common feature, they select a specific situation. That is, if you compare a book and a sofa, an unhealthy person will say that you can read it on it, without taking into account the factors that for a normal person will be more logical and reflect the specific similarities of these subjects. The main reason for the decline of such thinking is epilepsy, central nervous system damage and problems after head trauma. Using psychological testing, it is also checked whether the generalization process is distorted. In this case, you can see that a person is looking for too generalized signs between objects, not seeing the most important similarity. Basically, the struck consciousness tries to get away from the tasks, starting the search for formal, completely random associations. In doing so, they completely ignore the similarities and differences real, without using them as a control and verification of their own judgments. As an example, what is common between a pencil and a shoe is more often said to leave traces. Such violations of the thinking process characterize schizophrenia. But it is worth noting that this is an optional sign of a mental disorder. A similar answer can also be given by a person with creative thinking, which is a bit wider than that of ordinary people.

Examples of answers to the question of what is common between a pencil and a shoe (schizophrenia)

Some responses of people with thinking disorders were recorded. Considering examples of comparing different concepts of people with schizophrenia, we can see detached perceptions and overly abstract concepts. When comparing two vehicles, a bus and a tram, patients note the presence of windows, wheels and various stops. As for comparing animals such as a mouse and a cat, unhealthy people note that they are amenable to training, they can see in the dark and are used for scientific purposes, completely missing the main signs of similarity. With the most common question of what is common between a pencil and a shoe, patients distinguish such similarities as leaving traces, playing sounds and having rubber in the structure. When comparing a boat and a plate, a person with disturbed thinking attaches importance to such properties as the possibility of not letting the liquid pass and the likelihood that these two objects may break up, or they say that these objects are inedible. Asking to compare a sick globe and a butterfly, the scientists received the following answer: the ability to rotate in one place or the symmetry of objects. But in fact, a healthy person will answer that there is nothing in common in these concepts. Comparing cloak and night, patients with schizophrenia note the appearance of these objects in the absence of light and their ability to hide the outlines of figures. When comparing watches and rivers, it is said that these two objects can be changed by a person, they can go in a closed circle, and also note their connection with infinity.

Conclusion

There are many such answers, but it should be borne in mind that a healthy person answers questions such as "what is common between a cock and a glass" and that they are not comparable. But the patient will try to find signs that make these concepts similar. For example, highlight the belonging to the kitchen or pay attention to the presence of ribs (specifying that the glass is faceted). In any case, such tests should be carried out in a complex way, and only then it is possible to reveal true disturbances of thinking and to give a clear description of what is damaged in the mind of a person. Answering only certain questions, it is impossible to see the whole picture as a whole.