Problem Solving

Definition

problem-solving n. and adj. (a) n.the action of finding solutions to difficult or complex issues; (b) adj. involved in or related to this activity; that solves problems.

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Chronology of Usage

• 1854 Putnam's Monthly Mag. Aug. 199/1 The substitution of general methods and investigations for fragmentary and tentative *problem solving, is a mathematical reform still incomplete in this country.
• 1884 Amer. Naturalist 18 369 This problem-solving age will ask, What law is at work that makes..the steep hills face southward and the more gentle northward?
• 1931 Psychol. Rev. 38 337 Problem-solving by insight is regarded..as qualitatively different from problem-solving on the basis of trial and error.
• 1979 Yale Apr. 4/2 Man is a problem-solving animal.
• 2004 A. GREIG In Another Light (2005) 250 There should be more to living than problem solving, tholing, and some energetic sexual shenanigans.

See also

• Problems