What do a pencil and a shoe have in common? Psychological testing

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Humanity has achieved everything that is at the moment, not only thanks to its physical abilities, mental activity has become the basis of all discoveries and inventions. In our time, there are many diseases and deviations from the normal development that can be diagnosed and cured. And psychological testing helps to identify many problems with mental activity.

Comparison method

The basis of psychological testing included basic mental operations such as analysis, comparison, synthesis, generalization, abstraction and concretization. All of them are capable of showing 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. During the search for similarities, you can notice that many objects are similar in one thing and different in another, and between some there is nothing in common. But the similarity or difference is determined depending on what characteristics of the object are significant in a given periodtime. Very often a person perceives the same things and actions differently, depending on the situation.

Comparison tests, or What do pencils and shoes have in common

Throughout life, first at school, then at a higher educational institution and sometimes when applying for a job, a person is offered to take this test. In childhood, using the concepts of comparison, children are tested for the development of their creative potential and determine which thinking prevails in the child. At a more mature age, this test can be offered to check how he althy a person’s thinking is.

Categories of words in the test

One of the most common questions in this case is the comparison of disparate items. A. R. Lury 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, tram - bus or horse - cow.

The second category is dominated by more complex comparisons, they are more different than the same. An example of such a comparison is "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 their similarities. For example, what do a pencil and a shoe have in common?

The operational side of thinking and its violations

If a person has a decrease in functions responsible for the level of generalization in judgments, then he begins to evaluate objects and phenomena sufficientlyextensively. In other words, instead of highlighting some general feature, they select a specific situation. That is, if you compare a book and a sofa, then an unhe althy person will say that you can read it on it, without taking into account factors that for a normal person will be more logical and reflect the specific similarities of these objects. The main reasons for the decrease in such thinking are epilepsy, damage to the central nervous system and problems after a head injury. Using psychological testing, they also check if the generalization process is distorted.

In this case, you can see that a person is looking for too generalized features between objects, not seeing the most important similarity. Basically, the affected consciousness tries to get away from the fulfillment of the assigned tasks, starting the search for formal, completely random associations. At the same time, they completely do not take into account real similarities and differences, not using them as control and verification of their own judgments. As an example of what a pencil and a shoe have in common, it is more common to say that they leave marks. Such disturbances in the thought 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 a creative mindset that is a bit broader than that of ordinary people.

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

Some responses from people with thought disorders have been recorded. Considering examples of comparing various concepts of people withschizophrenia, a detached perception and overly abstract concepts are visible. When comparing two vehicles, a bus and a tram, patients note the presence of windows, wheels and various stops. As for the comparison of animals such as mice and cats, unhe althy people note that they can be trained, 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 a pencil and a shoe have in common, patients highlight such similarities as leaving marks, making sounds, and having rubber in the structure.

When comparing a boat and a plate, a person with impaired thinking pays attention to such properties as the ability to keep liquids out and the likelihood that these two objects can break, or they indicate the inedibility of these objects. Having asked the patient to compare a globe and a butterfly, the scientists received the following answer: the ability to spin in one place or the symmetry of objects. But in fact, a he althy person will answer that these concepts have nothing in common. Comparing the raincoat and the 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 a clock and a river, it is said that these two objects can be changed by a person, can go in a vicious circle, and also note their connection with infinity.

Conclusion

There are many similar answers, but it should be borne in mind that a he althy person answers questions such as"what is in common between a rooster and a glass," he will answer that they are incomparable. But the patient will try to find signs that make these concepts similar. For example, it will highlight 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 comprehensively, and only then it is possible to identify true violations of thinking and give a clear description of what exactly is damaged in the human mind. By answering only some questions, it is impossible to see the whole picture.