Understanding Divergent vs. Convergent Thinking

Very Hard Unit 5: Cognitive Psychology Thinking And Problem Solving

In cognitive psychology, creativity is often analyzed through the lens of divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking encourages the generation of multiple solutions, while convergent thinking focuses on finding the single best solution to a problem. An experiment was conducted where participants were asked to come up with various uses for a common object, thereby employing divergent thinking. Subsequently, they were tasked with finding the most effective use for that object, tapping into convergent thinking. Which of the following statements reflects a key difference between these two types of thinking?

Divergent thinking typically requires less cognitive flexibility than convergent thinking.

Divergent thinking is primarily used in situations with well-defined problems.

Convergent thinking leads to multiple possible answers while divergent thinking focuses on a single best answer.

Divergent thinking is frequently assessed by the number of unique responses generated.

Convergent thinking emphasizes exploration and variety over the quality of answers.

Hint

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