Critical Thinking Decision Making Model

Essay by jwdog03University, Bachelor'sA, February 2007

download word file, 4 pages 4.0

Critical thinking is the ability to be fair and open - minded while thinking carefully about what to do or what to believe. Critical thinking will allow one to assess the reasons for and against doing something and make a decision on the basis of a fair assessment, not on the basis of emotions. Decision - making involves identifying a symptom as a problem. A symptom is a sign or indication of something that appears to be the problem. This paper will attempt to examine critical thinking and the decision - making model.

Critical Thinking and Decision - Making Concepts

Critical thinking and decision - making have a great deal in common. In order to arrive at a conclusive decision, one must be able to think rationally. To think rational is to think critically. Eichhorn (1991) came to a conclusion that people believe that people have to understand what someone else is thinking as well what he or she are thinking.

"Critical thinking emphasizes logic and requires the questioning of assumptions; therefore, it can challenge people's biases and prejudices and cause students discomfort."(Eichhorn, 2001, p.4). "Judgment refers to cognitive aspects of the decision-making process." (Bazerman, 2002, p.2). Life can be viewed as a constant series of decisions. Only by making rational decisions does one "take charge" of their lives. Some decisions seem unimportant but are important. For example, every minute or two we answer, by our behavior, the question: What is the best use of my time right now? Any one decision about the next couple of minutes of our lives may be trivial but taken altogether the cumulative effect of making those millions of decisions determine the outcome of our lives, religion to accept and what to do socially with peers.

Decision - Making Model

According to (Bazerman 2002),