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Critical Thinking and Decision Making
What is critical thinking?
Critical thinking is the process of applying a set of skills to the thinking process. The thinking process involves the processing of data from many different stimuli. Thinking involves input from sensory input such as seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting, but also involves the intangible aspects of applying past experience, perception and assumptions to the data we collect. Critical thinking is applying the use of tools such as questioning ambiguity, searching for logic or reasoning in assumptions, the weighing of facts versus opinion, the ability to draw conclusions based on these findings and a willingness to let go of assumptions when the critical thinking process leads to a conclusion different from those already held to be true. Critical thinking is a process that allows people to analyze data and draw conclusions based on a critique of the data, while limiting the influence of ambiguity, assumptions and poor logic.
What is decision making?
Decision making, in its simplest form, is the end result of the thinking process in general. A simple example is the process of making a decision to act upon a sensory stimulus. When the stimulus is heat from a fire and the sense of tough causes a person to remove himself from the heat, this is a decision based upon the data provided. In its more complex form, decision making is the ability to receive data, decipher the data into all of its components, analyze the data for vagueness, determining the logic behind the data, weighing the data for its intrinsic value, drawing conclusions about the data and, finally, choosing to take action or not take action based on all of the findings about the data.
Approximate Word count = 1223
Approximate Pages = 4.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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