Imagination in Psychology

Imagination is an integral part of every person's life. But do we all imagine what imagination really is? In psychology this word describes the process of creating an image of an object in your mind. In this case, not always this subject will correspond to its real prototype. In some cases, the pictures created in our minds do not correspond at all with reality, this image is called fantasy.

It is important to remember that the imagination is firmly connected with two more psychological processes: memory and thinking. Each of them manifests itself to different degrees in different moments.

The functions of the imagination are as follows: representation of reality, the formation of an action plan, regulation of the emotional state and cognitive processes.

The psychology of imagination, as well as most of the psychological processes, has not yet been fully studied. However, scientists managed to find out something all the same. The most interesting for an ordinary person can be a description of the different types of this process.

Imagination in psychology is divided into several species according to two principles. The first principle is the degree of awareness of the process. It is easy to understand that in this case the imagination is divided into the conscious and the unconscious. The second principle of division, according to the task, is characteristic only of conscious imagination: creative, recreating and dreaming.

It starts with the simplest, namely with an unconscious imagination. In this case, the will of a person does not feel at all in the process. It is most common for young children. Adults meet with him mostly in a dream or in a half-light. For some mental disorders, unconscious imagination is also characteristic. In psychology, in this case, they talk about hallucinations: a person subconsciously creates an image of an object or creature and places it in the real world.

The reconstructive imagination is most closely connected with memory, since its task is the exact reproduction of objects and pictures from the past, that is, what the person has already seen. For example, when a schoolboy on the control tries hard to remember what was written on the board, when they passed this topic, he can try to mentally reproduce this very board in front of him.

Here one can also refer to a person's attempts to describe what he has never seen in his life. For example, a person reading about the sea can try to imagine him on the basis of his past experiences and artistic description.

What does psychology say about creative imagination? Imagination of this type is simply necessary for people of art: writers, artists, sculptors ... It can also be divided into several types: agglutination - when the image is created by combining different parts and qualities, accenting - when it is built around one feature or detail, and the most difficult is the typing - creating a collective, averaged image. For creative imagination, thinking is of the greatest importance, although memory, naturally, plays an important role.

Do not forget that scientific activity is largely built not only on experiments and calculations. Before you transgress to them, you need to imagine something new, unknown or rejected by science. Think about what kind of imagination you need to have to imagine that in fact the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa. Of course, this is now a well-known fact, but for everyone it was obvious that the Earth is the center of the universe.

Dreams are an imagination directed to the future, when a person imagines that he wants to have a day or a year that he wants to do.

In general, the imagination in psychology is a rather complicated topic, requiring comprehensive and detailed consideration. However, not every person needs to know all the details. But the general idea is still useful.