What to Do?

I think the part of psychology that I will be most useful to me in the future is the section on problem solving. It will help me to refrain from or at least realize common mistakes when I approach my problems. Some common mistakes we learned to avoid are salience of solution, mental sets, and functional fixedness.

The salience of solution refers to the error of looking at only the surface of a problem and trying to use previous methods that worked for problems that are actually very different fundamentally. The mental sets error refers to being stuck on one way of solving a problem even when it's clear that it won't work and being unable to come up with alternative solutions. Functional fixedness is the inability to realize any other uses for objects than their originally intended use. Of these errors, I think the one that I make most often is the mental sets error. Once I start thinking that I can solve a problem a certain way, it's hard for me to come up with any other alternative solutions because I get so focused on my original solution. I also often have a problem with salience of solution. I tend to look at problems and try to think of ways to solve it that have worked for me in the past rather than coming up with new methods. However, hopefully knowing these things will help me to feel less stressed when I am faced with a problem and help me to handle it to the best of my abilities.