A type of cognitive functioning that includes assuming a mental set voluntarily; shifting voluntarily from a specific aspect of a situation to the general; keeping in mind simultaneously various aspects of a situation; grasping the essentials of a whole, breaking it into its parts, and isolating them voluntarily; and/or thinking or performing symbolically. A characteristic of many psychiatric disorders is the person’s inability to assume the abstract attitude or to shift readily from the concrete to the abstract and back again as demanded by circumstances.
Cognitive functioning that includes assuming a mental set voluntarily; shifting voluntarily from one aspect of a situation to another, keeping in mind simultaneously various aspects of a situation; grasping the essentials of a whole, breaking it into its parts and isolating them voluntarily; planning ahead ideationally; and/or thinking or per- forming symbolically. A characteristic of many psychiatric disorders is the inability to assume the abstract attitude or to shift readily from the concrete to the abstract and back again as demanded by circumstances.
A type of cognitive functioning that includes assuming a mental set voluntarily; shifting voluntarily from a specific aspect of a situation to the general; keeping in mind simultaneously various aspects of a situation; grasping the essentials of a whole, breaking it into its parts, and isolating them voluntarily; and/or thinking or performing symbolically. A characteristic of many psychiatric disorders is the person’s inability to assume the abstract attitude or to shift readily from the concrete to the abstract and back again as demanded by circumstances.