Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking Notes
Critical Thinking: Strategies in Decision Making
 Problem Identification & Formulation
 Decision MakingCritical Thinking:
Strategies in Decision Making
 Decision Implementation
 Evaluation of Decision Outcome & Processes
Trigger points: positive and negative
 Framing the problem
• Identify the problem
• Define objective (s)
• Define goals
• Define criteria
Evaluate effects of the problems
The five thinking errors
1. Personalization:
egocentric thinking in which the world is seen to revolve unduly around the individual.
2. polarized thinking:
also called “black and white thinking” or “dichotomous thinking,” categorizing complexities into one extreme or the other (later we examine it as the “either/or fallacy”).
3. Overgeneralization:
drawing broad conclusions on the basis of a single incident.
4. Catastrophizing:
a common characteristic of anxious people in which they consider the worst possible outcome of an event.
5. Selective abstraction:
focusing on one detail of a situation and ignoring the larger picture.
Decision making process

 Decision-making style
• Intuitive
• Objective
• Autocratic
• Collaborative/consensus
Cause and effect diagram
              CAUSE Effect
  Money Problem
Machinery
          Manpower
Materials
Environment

PROBLEM STATMENT
A persuasive problem statement consists of three parts: 1) the ideal, 2) the reality, and 3) the consequences for the reader of the feasibility report.
Example
STATEMENT 1   (DESCRIPTION OF THE IDEAL SCENARIO)
Describe the goals, desired state, or the values that your audience considers important and that are relevant to the problem.
 
(BUT)
Connect statements 1 and 2 using a term such as "but," "however,"
"Unfortunately," or "in spite of";
 
STATEMENT 2 (THE REALITY OF THE SITUATION)
Describe a condition that prevents the goal, state, or value discussed in statement
1 from being achieved or realized at the present...