Black Widow The most common type of ‘thinker’ in our world is the Black Widow type. My boys and I recently watched Captain America: Winter Soldier and I was impressed with Black Widow in this movie. What makes her such a special thinker? She ‘reads’ the world around her and makes social judgment calls, changes her behavior to match the environment or to change the behavior of others. She’s very aware of her surroundings, a fast social problem-solver, and great at matching her behavior to the fast-paced needs of the environment. This type of thinker may be referred to as a Neurotypical – the way the larger populous processes information. He is a ‘social’ reader and reactor. These types of thinkers are usually good with people skills, guessing others responses to situations, showing care and compassion to others, and having fairly good compromising and negotiation skills. On the down side, much like Black Widow, these ‘thinkers’ can use their people skills to manipulate- or they can become so concerned about ‘others responses’ they may compromise their ideals for the approval of others. Because she processes information faster, she may not catch the smaller details, which may make it harder to remember things from a situation later. Overall, this type of thinker processes ‘big picture’ information (or gets the gist of things), generally handles various sensory information well, and navigates the social world with relative ease.
Iron Man
This type of thinker’s mind is in constant motion. Creativity and energy flow from him. Like Iron Man, who has to ‘keep busy’ creating new designs and physically engaging his environment to experience it, these thinkers learn best by tactile and physical means. They can be quick to serve, help, or answer questions and sometimes are the ones that design the most grand and glorious projects. They enjoy the positive feedback from others, and when focused can be highly productive and incredible motivators. On the flip side, this type of thinker may struggle with completing assignments and projects if he loses interest. It may take him a little longer to get his brain engaged in learning, but once he is engaged he learns quickly. If the environment is not engaging his senses and brain, he can become distracted or bored. Because of his need to please others, he may not always make the best choices so that others will continue to like him. His quick reactions may sometimes come off as impulsive. Overall, this type of thinker will be an active, engaging, individual who may have inconsistent focus. Individuals with this type of ‘thinking’ may be diagnoses with ADD, ADHD, or Dyslexia.
Batman
The least common type of thinker is the ‘Batman’ thinker. Batman is known for his high intelligence and problem-solving skills by using facts and patterns. He has a tendency to notice small details others might overlook and is less concerned about others’ opinions than about getting the job done. These types of thinkers are extremely reliable when they give their word, faithful, highly focused, with a deep desire to do what is right. Because they care more about doing the right thing than how they appear to others, they can often seem to be uninterested in the social world or awkward in social situations. Where their ability to notice details is a relative strength, it can also cause them to have difficulty with getting the big picture of things, such as with reading clues from context, whether in socials situations or in books, and having productive conversations. These types of thinkers may be diagnosed with high-functioning Autism or Asperger syndrome.
Working Together
If you know your comics (or even your Marvel movies), most of the time these super heroes couldn’t save the world on their own. Maybe when it comes to their cities, whether it’s Gotham, Metropolis, or New York, they can succeed mostly on their own, but when it comes to the world – they have to work together. Each use their specific superpowers and ‘thinking’ strengths to work for the good of others. It takes all sorts of thinkers in this world, and learning about how others process information will not only make us more compassionate and understanding of them, but will also make us aware of their strengths. We rarely make big differences on our own, but we need the unique gifts, talents, and ‘thinkers’ to have the greatest impact.
