Chapter 8 extra questions

Question 1

Claudia wants to send a fragile vase to her parents for their anniversary, but she can’t find any appropriate packing material in her house. She decides to pop some popcorn and use that to pack around the vase. What has Claudia done in this case?

Answer 1

Overcome functional fixedness in solving her problem

Question 2

Eva just upgraded her software package. However, even though the updated version contains a number of more efficient methods for working with files, Eva continues to work with files the way she did before the upgrade. What is Eva showing evidence of in this case?

Answer 2

Using a mental set (the old set was working before and you wanna keep using it even though better options are available)

Question 3

You meet someone you like, and they just promised to get together again soon. You don’t hear from them for 2 days and conclude: “They don’t like me and find me unattractive.” What cognitive distortion does this illustrate?

Answer 3

Mind reading: you’re inferring thoughts in the other person, you think that this is what they feel and think