Thinking and Decision Making
The basic concept of critical thinking is to simply take charge of your own mind. Many believe that if a person can do just that; take charge of their mind, they can take charge of their lives by making improvements and ultimately placing themselves in the proper or desired direction. To do this requires a great deal of self-discipline and the ability to look at yourself and examine how your mind works; looking to fine-tune or modify certain aspects to change for the better. We would all have to constantly reflect on our minds impulses day in and day out to tackle our ways of thinking. Thoughts are greatly influenced by our gender, race or ethnicity, religion, and economic status, etc. Each person has an accustomed way of thinking that affects how our problems and situations are rationalized and decided upon. The way in which our issues are resolved and chosen, stems from those attributes that were of influence to the lives of us all. The various forms of thinking: Open questioning, Inductive, Emotional, and Pessimistic will be examined along with its comparisons as well as each thinking style will be related to how they are handled in the workplace or in everyday life.
When it comes to thinking and decision making, there are styles that can affect the critical thinking process. Two of the styles that will be compared and contrasted have to deal with open and closed questioning. Using the appropriate question can help uncover information or find answers needed to complete the critical thinking process (Paul & Elder, 2006). With closed questions, the question can be answered with a short phrase or single word. An example of a closed question would be, “How are you?” Typically closed questions are fairly easy to answer and provide facts. It doesn’t force deep thought or require the individual to reveal too much information about them right away. Some other uses for closed questioning are to test and individuals understanding of a particular topic.
Open questions are used when trying to a more detailed response. Open questions require the individuals think and sometimes reflect. These types of questions also tend to bring to the surface opinions and feelings. Many open questions tend to begin with, how, what, and why. An example of an open question would be, “What would an education do for you?” Comparing open questions to close, you can easily see that they both differ in the responses that received and the purpose which the type of question is used. Questions are used to seek out information and details used to better solve a piece in the critical thinking process.
Using open and closed questions to my career is very important. More often than not open questions are preferred because if you want to better try and understand a potential student, you will want them to talk about their needs and wants. Uncovering these needs and wants sometimes require questions that target true feelings and motivation (Changing Minds, 2010). These open ended question focus on depth and getting to the core. Knowing what, or how a particular situation could affect and individuals outcome is important.
When I think about all the areas that decisions can be made by thinking, it is easy to spend all our time just thinking. In my business as clergy have come upon many ways of the thinking process and can see how they have been used in ministry. Some of the styles that have been used are emotional, logical, inductive, and deductive. Everything accomplished in ministry relies on critical thinking and how it can inter-proceed, with the others as the subject of being discussed to come to an understanding. First the use of critical thinking comes into play when talking and listening. Listening is the first of the styles that comes out. By trying to help the person whom I am working with the first part of the conversation is emotional. When, by thinking about the situation the part of the emotional needs is to move on