A person receives information from the outside world. He is able to represent the internal and external forms of objects, to anticipate their changes in time, to recall their images during periods of absence of these objects. All this is made possible by human thinking. The process of thinking is a complex mechanism, based on sensations, perception, information processing. The following types of mental functions are distinguished:
- analysis;
- synthesis;
- comparison;
- generalization;
- classification;
- abstraction;
- concretization.
Let us consider in more detail the last two terms.
Abstraction and specification
These processes are closely interrelated. Abstraction (Latin abstractio) is a distraction. Man is distracted from a number of properties and relations of the object, penetrating into his depth. An example of abstraction can be the study of a certain breed of trees (say, conifers). In the process of studying them, we are distracted from the attributes inherent in all trees, but concentrate only on the characteristics of this breed, such as needles, resin extraction, the specific smell of all conifers. That is, abstraction is the concentration on more generalized things.
Specification is the opposite of this process. It does not allow to be distracted from various properties and attributes of objects and phenomena, but rather gives them increased attention. Thus, the concrete - the filling of a picture of private signs.
The term concretization (Latin - concretus - developed, condensed) means a logical technique used in the process of cognition. This thought operation, one-sidedly fixing this or that characteristic of the subject, without taking into account the connections with other characteristics, that is, without combining them into a single whole, but studying each separately. Most often the method of specifying is used in the explanation of new teaching material. A visual aid for it are tables, diagrams, parts of objects.
In logic, the concept of concretization is applied to a mental operation, which makes it possible to mentally move from the abstract (general) to the individual. In the educational activity, examples of specificity are mathematical or grammatical rules, physical laws, etc. An important role of concretization plays in the explanations that we give to other people, for example, the explanation of the lesson by the teacher. In general terms, the lesson is clear, but if you ask about any details, children face difficulties. That is why the knowledge gained can not be applied in practice, because of their abstract understanding. In this case, children have to memorize the general provisions of the lesson, not understanding its content. Given these features of thinking, the teacher should conduct classes using examples, visual material and specific cases.
This thinking process also plays an important role in our daily life. With its help, we connect our theoretical knowledge with life activity and practice. Absence of concretization transform knowledge into naked and useless abstractions.
The totality of abstraction and concretization in psychology is the main condition for a true understanding of reality. The dominant concrete thinking, without abstraction, can speak of a person having deviations in intellectual development. These can be mild forms of oligophrenia, dementia, epilepsy, etc. Therefore, for the general development of thinking, it is first necessary to develop its concrete activity, adding to it abstraction.