How can I stop laptop freeze/spinning wheel every time I click or type etc?

Question

I sporadically get momentary freeze and or spinning wheel when I try to do anything on the laptop. Sometimes it works fine but the majority of the time it stops on every click. The problem has been persistant for a week or two, possibly related to a mavericks update.
The dock sometimes doesn't work either - it is unresponsive, an appl will bounce but not open.
This occurs enough to be very frustrating and gets in the way of my work.
Model Name:          MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier:          MacBookPro9,2
  Processor Name:          Intel Core i7
  Processor Speed:          2.9 GHz
  Number of Processors:          1
  Total Number of Cores:          2
  L2 Cache (per Core):          256 KB
  L3 Cache:          4 MB
  Memory:          8 GB
  Boot ROM Version:          MBP91.00D3.B08
  SMC Version (system):          2.2f44
  Serial Number (system):          C0******TY4
  Hardware UUID:          ******************
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State:          Enabled
I backed up all my files, emptied the hard drive and uninstalled/reinstalled Mavericks.
This created another problem - the laptop would not boot up and I got a flashing question mark in a folder on the screen. Eventually I was able to reinstall Lion which then fixed that problem. For a short while there were no problems of latency either (maybe 20 minutes).
I have done disc scans/repairs and there were no problems there. I did an extensive hardware scan as well and no problems were detected.
I don't know much about Apple computers - I've only had this for just under two years and I have had no problems so I'm quite illiterate regarding how to repair it or scan for problems. Any pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.
<Edited by Host>
Incidentally I have had no freezes since starting to write this post - Lion seems to be more stable than Mavericks was.

Answer 1

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.