By Mac Rusk
Getting Started:
The start of your college career! You made it a step further in your educational journey and now begins the real fun. You have most likely faced a number of problems that you have needed to solve along the way. Spoiler alert: You are going to face more! While you step into this new realm, you are undoubtedly going to come across more obstacles. Don’t worry, because I’ll give you some insight (wink wink) into a great way to solve the problems you’re going to come across. This method is called Gestalt problem solving and before you think to yourself what the sigma is that, I’ll tell you. Gestalt problem solving is reorganizing or thinking about the problem in a different way so you are able to come to that “lightbulb” moment you so desperately desire (1).
How Gestalt Problem Solving Can Help You!
College is all about developing and building your knowledge in multiple ways. In order to do that, your professors are going to challenge you with a variety of problems that you’ll need to solve. While it can be (and honestly will be) stressful, adding Gestalt problem solving to your arsenal will aid you in your college and professional life. One of the main components of Gestalt problem solving is insight. Insight can be thought of as that “ah-ha” moment, and it comes from situations in which we must think “outside of the box” (1). One of the “founding fathers” of Gestalt psychology Wolfgang Köhler described insight as a sudden and clear-seeming understanding of the solution to a problem (2). It’s likely that you’ve run into some obstacles in the past in which you were able to overcome them by using insight. For example, you may have been stumped on getting a birthday present for a family member. For days you think and think about what they might want until suddenly, you know what to get them. That’s a look into how insight helps us in our day to day lives.
Thinking Outside the Box:
Trying to think outside of the box isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Many people run into the problem of functional fixedness. This simply means that sometimes we are only able to think of using objects as they were intended (3). While this idea of functional fixedness is talked about in terms of specific objects, it’s worth noting that we sometimes fixate on a form of problem solving that we are comfortable with. Sometimes taking a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it approach” is fine, but what happens when “it” (whatever “it” may be) is broken? If you are unable to solve a problem, you’ll need to think outside of the box to find a solution. Throughout your college experience, you will do multiple projects. These projects will sometimes be straightforward and won’t require you to use insight to complete. However there will be some assignments that will stop you in your tracks, in fact you may not even know where to begin. By beginning to get a little creative in how you will complete some of these hefty tasks, you’ll be using insightful thinking to your advantage before you even realize it!
When are we Supposed to Use Insight?
You may be wondering when you should use an insightful approach or even if you should restructure certain problems at all? Research suggests that you, the problem solver, will have a “hot and cold” sense of solving a problem (4). Along with this, you’ll have an idea of whether or not you’ll need to apply some insight to solve the problem (4). Having insight as a tool in your brain’s “backpocket” is essential for your college journey. Simply understanding that this is one of the approaches that you can take, will help you in applying your insightful thinking more. As they say, “practice makes perfect.” To put it plainly, you’ll have some sort of idea that you are dealing with a problem that needs a bit of insight to solve. Recognizing that you’ll need to reframe an issue will help you in many different areas of your studies!
Conclusion:
The difficulty of solving insight problems lies in the fact that we take an everyday approach to solving these problems (5). As I’ve pointed out, you’ll have to think outside of the box to solve these problems. As you get more experienced this will come to you easier and easier, just as it’s easier to solve non-insight with experience. I know I’ve convinced you that this is the best method of problem solving, but the best method of problem solving is using the best tool you have available to fit the problem you are trying to solve. Sometimes using insight won’t be your best bet as it isn’t always efficient, and that’s totally ok! My goal here was to open your horizons to a great way to make you all better problem solvers. After all, college will involve all sorts of problems and luckily you are going to be a great problem solver!
References:
- Ash, I. K., Jee, B. D., & Wiley, J. (2012). Investigating Insight as Sudden Learning. Journal of Problem Solving, 4(2), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1123
- Köhler, W. (1959). Gestalt psychology today. American Psychologist, 14(12), 727–734. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0042492
- Yoshimi, J. (2017). The Phenomenology of Problem Solving. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 94(3), 391–409. https://doi.org/10.1163/18756735-09403006
- Metcalfe, J., & Wiebe, D. (1987). Intuition in insight and noninsight problem solving. Memory & Cognition, 15(3), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03197722
- Chu, Y., & MacGregor, J. N. (2011). Human Performance on Insight Problem Solving: A Review. The Journal of Problem Solving, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1094