People, places, events and other images that a person uses in his life can be not only truly existing objects and phenomena. Pictures presented in the head create pictures of the distant past, in which a person could not take part, or an incredible future. Places that a person has never visited and never will visit, people, animals and other creatures that do not exist in the real world, are 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, concepts such as imagination and fantasy are different in nature. For example, in ordinary life people attribute to imagination and fantasy everything that is unreal, impossible, has no meaning and practical value. 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 a person’s cultural life. It is thanks to the imagination that we can boast of artistic, musical, scientific and even technical creativity.
Imagination is a useful thing, as it helps a person to 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 consciousness, situations that currently do not exist or have not occurred, but which can later be embodied in concrete objects. Such an ability as a reflection of the near future, which allows you to act in the expected, or, more correctly, imagined, situation, is inherent exclusively to man.
So what is imagination?
First of all, imagination is a cognitive process by which a person gets the opportunity to model the future by creating previously non-existing images based on the gained 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.
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 is, the more imagination enters the work, often relegating thinking to the background. Even if a person does not know certain data or processes, imagination will fill these gaps and model a solution to the problem. Replenishment of incomplete initial data is called products of their own creativity.
The connection of imagination and emotions
An important aspect is also the relationship between the types of human imagination and emotional-volitional processes. This process is explained by the fact that even with the appearance of imaginary images and situations in a person’s head, he can experience quite real, not imaginary, emotions.
It works as follows. 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. Thanks to this, through imagination, a person will begin to come up with safer ways to circumvent this field.
Imagination significantly affects the strength of the experienced emotions and feelings. A person can worry about imaginary events, not real ones. And only, again, through imagination, fear can be minimized and relieved.
Thanks to imagination, a person experiences a feeling like empathy. The brighter and more realistic the images that the imagination creates, the more the force that stimulates the action.
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 seeks to conform to. These imaginary attitudes are a model of human life and development. Psychology identifies specific types and functions of the imagination.
What is imagination?
Such a phenomenon as imagination is of interest to specialists from various fields of science. Types of imagination are:
- Active, or intentional.
- Passive, or unintentional.
- Productive, or creative.
- Reproductive, or recreating.
Any of the listed species can be found at a certain moment in a person’s life, both separately and in tandem with others. Each of the types of development of the imagination has its own functions and features.
Passive imagination (involuntary / unintentional)
The essence of passive imagination is to create and compare images and representations without specific intentions on the part of a person at that time when conscious control over the flow of ideas is weakened. The simplest example is young children, dreams in adults, drowsiness. It is during such periods that the images presented arise and are replaced one by one on their own, sometimes taking the most unrealistic forms.
Ease of imagination, fantasizing, lack of critical attitude to the images represented 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 created images streamlines this immense work of imagination, subordinates it to the leadership of consciousness. It is after this that the passive, unintentional imagination enters the stage of an active, controlled imagination.
Active imagination (arbitrary / deliberate)
The essence of active imagination is the deliberate modeling of certain images, which are based on the goals and objectives. Active imagination develops in children at a time when, for example, games suggest that children take on a role (doctor, salesperson, president). The task of such games is to display the chosen role in the game in the best way, here the active imagination is included in the work.
The subsequent development of deliberate imagination occurs in subsequent work, when tasks require independent actions, manifestations of initiative and creative efforts. 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.
Reconstructing (reproductive) imagination
The simplest example of recreating imagination is when a person needs to imagine an object, a person, an event that he has never encountered. For example, a person has never seen snow in his life, since he lives in a hot country, but after reading the news about how excessive rainfall has occurred in a particular country, he can imagine snow in more or less vivid and full images .
The task of recreating imagination is to create in thoughts what already exists, without deviating from reality. Recreating imagination allows a person to imagine places he has not been to, historical events in which he has not taken part, objects that he has not been able to encounter in real life.
You can train your reproductive imagination through books. It is while reading this or that literature that we create lively, 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 no matter what it will be - art, science or technology.
Artists, book authors, sculptors and composers used precisely creative imagination to reflect their thoughts and life experiences in the images of their art. In these images, in addition to reflecting life in its most striking and generalized images, the personality of the creator, his perception of the surrounding world, and the features of the unique style of creation are reflected.
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 thorough practical testing. 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 it is impossible without imagination.
Imagination is the process of creating something truly new, therefore, it involves intelligence, thinking, memory and attention. And each stage a person passes 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 the 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:
- The visual type suggests the appearance of visual images in people.
- An auditory type (auditory) involves an auditory presentation, for example, the timbre of a voice, tonality and speech characteristics of an object.
- Typing is the most difficult way to create images. For example, the artist depicts a specific episode, an event that may consist of many similar episodes, but it is the artist’s picture that will be their representative. The same thing happens with literary images.
How are images created?
Types of the imagination process are:
- Agglutination is the imagination of images by analyzing and combining certain qualities, properties and elements.
- Emphasis is the ability to distinguish from a large-scale important detail.
- Typing (description above).
In the creation of images can participate as one way or several.
Imagination functions
Imagination plays a rather important role in the life and work of each person. In psychology, the following significant functions of the imagination are distinguished:
- Setting goals and planning is an integral part of the life and development of each person, depends on the work of the imagination. The intended result and methods of achieving it are created precisely by thinking in tandem with the imagination.
- The cognitive function allows, through imagination, to concretize concepts about an object, events or processes before this concept itself develops. The cognitive function of the imagination is the ability to explore the unknown.
- Adaptation is a function of 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 children's brain is often unable to correlate acquired knowledge with existing knowledge. Imagination solves this problem.
- 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 the study of human brain activity, the more complicated and unknown this world becomes.