When Jean-Claude came back from skiing he wanted to brew a cup of coffee. Because he was out of coffee filters, he settled for t
ea. Jean-Claude's failure to realize he could use a paper towel as a coffee filter best illustrates:________. a) a mental set.
b) intuition.
c) functional fixedness.
d) the availability heuristic.
Functional fixity is a herd mentality that prevents an individual from using an item except in the manner that it is usually used, it is an inability to see new uses for a common object.
Jean-Claude wanted to make coffee but because he was out of coffee filters, he settled for tea,Jean-Claude's failure to realize he could use a paper towel as a coffee filter best illustrates FUNCTIONAL FIXEDNESS , he thinks paper towel is only meant for the normal traditional/standard purpose, he failed to recognize he can use it as a substitute for other purposes.
Functional Fixedness is a mental barrier against the use of an idea in a new way essential to solve a problem.
Functional fixedness can be understood as the cognitive bias that occurs when an individual is only able to use a specific object in its traditional way.
A person without functional fixedness understands that certain objects can be used in multiple and novel ways. <u>For instance, a person using a debit card as a ruler, or a person using his backpack as an umbrella when it starts raining. </u>
In this particular case, the fact that Jean Claude's is not able to realize that he could've used a paper towel as a coffee filter is an example of functional fixedness.
ethnocentricity refers to the act of seeing our own culture as inherently superior compared to another culture. This often make people seeing the norms or tradition that exist in other culture by using our own as a standard. The more their culture deviate from ours, the more inferior we think their culture to be.
