Critical Thinking

As an individual, you are faced with many decisions every day; whether it is where to go for lunch or what route to take home, each decision has consequences that can either benefit your well-being or lead to negative effects. Often times the difference between positive and negative outcomes is how much effort people put into their choice. To make proper decisions, you must think critically about the situation at hand.

Critical thinking comes in two forms which are “discriminating” and “reflective.” Discriminatory critical thinkers emphasize deciding whether or not something is true while reflective critical thinkers emphasize deciding what to believe . Distinguishing between these two allows individuals to examine beliefs more closely instead taking them at face value. For example: A person uses discriminatory critical thinking to identify that a statement is false and then proceeds to reflectively think about why it is false. This allows for proper decision making because the individual now has more information about the situation at hand after putting in the appropriate amount of effort.

Critical thinking can be further broken down into six steps: determining if a problem exists, gathering information, analyzing data, drawing conclusions based on evidence, identifying assumptions, and finding solutions. The process begins by asking “is there a problem?” For many people this question seems unnecessary however sometimes we fail to assess situations accurately because we do not want to acknowledge problems. Therefore asking yourself “is there a problem” helps you establish what you really need to focus on and how much effort you need to put into your choice. The next step is to gather information by using all of the resources available to solve the problem at hand. Every person has access to certain resources depending on their situation which can include other people, websites, books, or other tangible items. Large problems may require more than one person while smaller problems typically do not take much time and therefore only require one resource used in a limited fashion. For example: A simple homework problem would only require the book that it came from whereas an essay assignment requires research through multiple sources. Finally, after gathering information relevant to solving the problem determine what steps are necessary by analyzing data within the context of different perspectives. Each perspective offers unique insight about how individuals perceive situations which affect how they analyze the data. For example: A news article from a liberal newspaper may offer an opinion about a particular issue where as a conservative newspaper may present facts for people to decide their own opinions. In order to accurately draw conclusions it is important to take time and consider each perspective so that the decision at hand reflects what you want instead of being influenced by one perspective or another. Sometimes individuals fail to put in enough effort because they do not understand how assumptions can affect outcomes. Assumptions exist in any situation and often times we make them without realizing it, which makes us overlook their possible consequences. An easy way to determine if someone suffers from this problem is when they ignore relevant facts in order to maintain their assumption; therefore taking time to identify assumptions allows us to make better decisions. Finally, the last step is to come up with a solution which can be done effectively if we determine what would be best for different groups of people before taking action. For example: A company may choose to offer free shipping on orders over $25 in order to increase revenue; however, this strategy could negatively impact lower income individuals who need their products shipped quickly and cannot afford it. The group that benefits most from this scenario is middle class workers who purchase more than $25 worth of goods and also do not mind waiting longer for items to arrive at their doorstep.

As seen above, there are multiple steps involved in critical thinking which makes it an effective tool for solving problems as well as making good decisions. If we think critically, we ensure that our choices achieve what we want and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5827788/the-six-step-solution-to-doing-anything

Critical thinking is the ability to thoughtfully discern what one thinks or wants to say through careful evaluation of evidence, concepts and ideas. [1] It requires making fact-based judgments and then analyzing and accepting (or rejecting) them. [2] Critical thinking skills contribute to an individual’s ability to articulate thoughts coherently and effectively; they enhance clear communication between individuals while decreasing the chance that a misunderstanding will occur . [3] Through active use of fluid reasoning abilities, critical thinking skills facilitate a person’s ability to discern information from misinformation, thereby reducing the risk of being misled. [4]

In order to use critical thinking effectively it is important to have a variety of perspectives available when solving problems which contribute to effective problem solving. For example: A simple homework assignment requires using one resource in a limited fashion whereas an essay assignment may require multiple resources and time spent researching that exceeds the required minimum for the paper’s length. In order to accurately draw conclusions it is also important to take time and consider each perspective so that the decision at hand reflects what you want instead of being influenced by one perspective or another. Lastly, in order for a solution to be most effective it should account for how different groups of people will benefit before taking action. When a solution does not consider different perspectives or who it impacts most its effectiveness is reduced.

As seen above, there are multiple steps involved in critical thinking which makes it an effective tool for solving problems as well as making good decisions. If we think critically, we ensure that our choices achieve what we want and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.