Question

After studying Barriers to Reasoning Rationally (chapter 9) regarding mental sets in your textbook….

Write a reflective paper in which you identify how you handled or adjusted to mental sets in your personal life.  

As one example, (which should not be used) students could consider the problem of making the adjustment from high school to college.  How might a mental set (i.e., the tendency to approach or respond to a problem in a particular way) learned in high school interfere with the successful solution of problems later on in college.

Answer 1

A mental set is a proneness towards picking up solutions for newer problems which have worked well in the past. While it is a shortcut to solve problems, it infact can impede the whole problem solving process. It brings in a fixed mindset that hinders the individual to think of newer, maybe simpler solutions to the problem being faced at the moment. It also narrows down our perspective towards the problem and leads us mull over only the solution we think has worked out well for similar predicaments; by extention, our mind gets trapped and we find ourselves getting stuck or facing a block.

A very simple example that illustrates the concept of a mental set is that if an individual restarts his computer after it froze and it solved the issue within the same, its highly likely that the next time the computer freezes, this person in question is again going to solve the issue by restarting the computer. However, there can be multiple other solutions that could help, but as this solution has worked before, its more plausible for him to use it this time as well.

Mental sets and our tendency to use it can be seen in mutifarious situations in our lives. Let's look at one such example that can exemplify the meaning of this concept. Once, I was very hungry and naturally, wanted to eat something. So I went in the kitchen and found some eftovers in the fridge. I took the food out and went towards the microwave. I kept the food inside with all the hopes of having a piping hot meal in about 3 minutes. But to my dismay, the microwave went kaput. I tried to help the situation by myself but all my efforts went in vain. I then called up an expert to identify and fix the problem. She fixed some wires here and there, and voila, my microwave started working again. All was happy for a few days, after which, again my microwave ditched me in a dire state of hunger. Without thinking, i just called up the same expert again. When she came to inspect, she apprised me that the main switch wasn't turned on. Obviously I felt so bad to not have thought about this obvious solution to this problem. I fell prey to a mental set that is, my mind picked up a solution that had worked before without realising that there was a more obvious and a much simpler solution staring me in my face.