Types of imagination in psychology

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

People, places, events and other images that a person uses in his life can be not only really existing objects and phenomena. In the images presented in the head, pictures of the distant past are created, in which a person could not take part, or an incredible future. Places that a person has never visited and will never visit, people, animals and other creatures that do not exist in the real world - it is precisely such images that are actually imagination. But do not forget that any invented places, people and events are based on previously received information.

What is meant by imagination in science and everyday life?

In everyday life and science, such concepts as imagination and fantasy are different in nature. For example, in ordinary life, people attribute to imagination and fantasy everything that is unrealistic, impossible, has no meaning and practical significance. But in fact, this is fundamentally wrong, because imagination is the basis of any creative activity, and it has an impact on every aspect of human cultural life. It is through imagination that we canboast of artistic, musical, scientific and even technical creativity.

Imagination is a useful thing, as it helps a person create his future based on sensations, perceptions and thinking. In order to model (imagine) the future, a person uses the experience and knowledge gained earlier, due to which images of objects are generated in the mind, situations that do not currently exist or have not occurred, but later may well be embodied in specific objects. Such an ability as a reflection of the near future, which allows you to act in the expected, or, it would be more correct to say, imaginary, situation, is unique to man.

So what is imagination?

First of all, imagination is a cognitive process through which a person gets the opportunity to model the future by creating previously non-existent images based on experience or knowledge, processing images of perception.

Types of imagination and types of thinking are closely related. In science, these two concepts have been defined as "extremely related", since imagination is an integral element of thinking, especially creative thinking.

In order to get out of any difficult, atypical situation, a person uses not only thinking, but also imagination. The more uncertain and complex this or that situation, the more the imagination comes into play, often relegating thinking to the background. Even if a person does not know certain data or processes, imaginationfill in these gaps and model a solution to the problem. Completion of incomplete initial data is usually called products of one's own creativity.

Connection of imagination and emotions

An important aspect is also the connection between the types of human imagination and emotional-volitional processes. This process is explained by the fact that even if imaginary images and situations arise in a person’s head, he can experience quite real, not imaginary emotions.

It works like this. For example, a person needs to cross a wide field, and he knows that poisonous snakes are found in these places. Imagining that a snake can attack and bite, a person experiences far from imaginary, but real fear. Because of this, through imagination, a person will begin to come up with safer ways to get around this field.

Imagination significantly affects the strength of emotions and feelings experienced. A person may worry about imaginary events, rather than real ones. And only, again, through imagination, fear can be minimized and tension relieved.

Through imagination, a person experiences a feeling like empathy. The more vivid and realistic the images that the imagination creates, the greater the motivating force.

Imagination is one of the primary factors influencing the formation of a person as a person. Ideals, principles and attitudes are an imaginary image that a person strives to correspond to. These imaginary attitudes are the model of life and developmentperson. Psychology identifies specific types and functions of the imagination.

What is the imagination?

Such a phenomenon as imagination is of interest to specialists from various fields of science. The types of imagination are:

• Active or deliberate.
• Passive or unintentional.
• Productive, or creative.
• Reproductive, or recreative.

Any of these species can be found at a certain point in a person's life, both separately and in tandem with others. Each type of imagination development has its own functions and characteristics.

Passive imagination (involuntary/unintentional)

The essence of passive imagination is the creation and comparison of images and ideas without specific intentions on the part of a person at a time when conscious control over the flow of ideas is weakened. The simplest example is small children, dreams in adults, a half-asleep state. It is during such periods that the presented images arise and are replaced by one another on their own, sometimes taking on the most unrealistic forms.

Ease of imagination, fantasizing, lack of a critical attitude to the images presented in the head are the main characteristics of passive imagination. This type is often found in primary school children, and only life experience, practical verification of the created images streamlines this immense work of the imagination, subordinates it to the guidance of consciousness. It was after this passive,unintentional imagination moves into the stage of active, controlled imagination.

Active imagination (voluntary/deliberate)

The essence of active imagination is the deliberate modeling of certain images, which are based on goals and objectives. Active imagination develops in children at a time when, for example, games suggest that children take on a certain role (doctor, salesman, president). The task of such games is to display the chosen role in the game in the best possible way, and this is where active imagination comes into play.

The subsequent development of intentional imagination occurs in subsequent work, when tasks require independent action, initiative and creative effort. Any work, any work requires the inclusion of an active imagination in order to clearly understand what needs to be done to carry out a particular work task. This is the main type of imagination in psychology.

Recreative (reproductive) imagination

The simplest example of recreating imagination is when a person needs to imagine an object, person, event that he has never encountered. For example, a person has never seen snow in his life, as he lives in a hot country, but after reading the news about how an excessive amount of precipitation fell in a particular country, he can imagine snow in more or less vivid and complete images..

The task of the recreating imagination is to create in thoughts whatalready exists, without deviations from reality. Recreative imagination enables a person to imagine places he has not yet been, historical events in which he did not take part, objects that he did not have the opportunity to encounter in real life.

You can train your reproductive imagination through books. It is while reading this or that literature that we create living, concrete images that we could not encounter before.

Creative or productive imagination

The essence of creative imagination, first of all, is to create new images in the process of creative activity. And it doesn't matter what it will be - art, science or technology.

Artists, book authors, sculptors and composers have used the creative imagination to reflect their thoughts and life experiences in the images of their art. These images, in addition to reflecting life in their most vivid and generalized images, reflect the personality of the creator, his perception of the world around him, and the features of the unique style of creation.

Scientific activity is often associated with the construction of hypotheses and assumptions, so it is inseparable from the creative imagination. After the hypotheses are worked out, they turn into knowledge and have the right to life only after a thorough practical test. At this stage, creative thinking ends, but without practice, science will not progress and move forward.

Even the creation of machines and robots is, first of all, a creative process,in which one cannot live without imagination.

Imagination is the process of creating something truly new, so it involves intellect, thinking, memory and attention. And each stage a person goes through consciously. Types of creative imagination are also divided into active and passive.

A separate category of imagination is dreams as the creation of new images. The peculiarity of a dream is that it is aimed at the desired future. A dream is the most positive kind of imagination in psychology.

Types of imagination

In psychology, in addition to types of imagination, there are also types:

1. Visual type involves the appearance of visual images in people.
2. Auditory type (auditory) involves auditory representation, such as the timbre of the voice, tonality and speech features of the object.
3. Typing is the most difficult way to create images. For example, an artist depicts a certain episode, an event that may consist of many similar episodes, but it is the artist's painting that will represent them. The same thing happens with literary images.

How are images created?

Types of the process of imagination are:

1. Agglutination is the imagination of images by analyzing and combining certain qualities, properties and elements.
2. Accent is the ability to highlight important details from a large scale.
3. Typing (description above).

The creation of images can involve one or more ways.

Imagination functions

Imagination plays quite an important role in the life and work of every person. In psychology, the following significant functions of the imagination are distinguished:

1. Goal setting and planning is an integral part of the life and development of every person, depends on the work of the imagination. The intended result and ways to achieve it are created precisely through thinking in tandem with imagination.
2. The cognitive function allows, thanks to the imagination, to concretize concepts about an object, events or processes even before this concept itself is formed. The cognitive function of the imagination is the ability to explore the unknown.
3. Adaptation is a function of the imagination designed to smooth out the conflict between the excess of incoming information and the lack of knowledge to process and understand this information. For example, the child's brain is often unable to compare the knowledge gained with the available. Imagination solves this problem.
4. The psychotherapeutic function of the imagination is to protect a person from fears that appear at a certain stage of development.

The further scientists advance in research on human brain activity, the more complex and unknown this world becomes.