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Critical thinking and how it affects decision making

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Please answer the following questions based on content, coverage and imaginative thought. Please answer the questions as fully, covering all aspects of the question in your response.

1. Define Critical Thinking and describe its benefits and components.
2. How can you apply critical thinking to improve your decision-making? What happens to decision-making in the absence of critical thinking?
3. Can you be a critical thinker and still believe in absolute truth when making a decision? Why or why not?
4. What attributes would define you as a critical thinker?
5. Formulate an effective problem statement using comparative methods.
6. Provide examples of tools/techniques that help identify causes of the problem. Use illustrations if necessary.
7. Describe how each of the following Influences decision making:
a. Contextual factors
b. Urgency
c. Importance
d. Constraints
e. Resource availability
f. Political support
g. Personalities
h. Diversity
i. Globalization
j. Ethics
k. Media
8. How would managers with different decision-making styles utilize decision-making tools differently?
9. Define the elements of an effective implementation plan.
10. Why do good decisions sometimes have bad results?
11. What is the importance of having a contingency plan?
12. Provide examples of evaluation tools/techniques. Use illustrations if necessary.
13. How can you tell if your decision-making process was effective?
14. How can you evaluate an implementation plan? Provide examples

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Solution Summary

Answers applied to questions and terms defining critical thinking and decision making. Includes how truth relates to critical thinking, decision making with and without critical thinking, and what makes critical thinking.

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I am not sure what you are looking for, but I will give you some basic guidance on each question. It will be up to you to add to the questions based on class work and ideas, your own experiences and examples. Each of these, again are basic ideas and you can improve them by putting in your own examples.

1. Define Critical Thinking and describe its benefits and components.

Critical thinking is a method of reviewing a problem and its needs and applying solutions and alternatives to decide what is the best solution, the worst case scenario for the solution, and the best outcome. It has the benefit of considering all possible solutions and the brainstorming solutions that can be objective and subjective. A critical thinking decision is includes understanding the problem, seeking a solution that meets the needs of the problem, and how alternatives and variables make affect the solution. Critical thinking is used in the analysis of arguments, creative thinking, decision making, and hypothesis formation and testing. It avoids incorrect thinking and fallacy, judges credible information and does not confuse opinions with facts or accept judgments proclaimed without facts.

2. How can you apply critical thinking to improve your decision-making? What happens to decision-making in the absence of critical thinking?
Any time one must make a decision, remembering to consider all the alternatives and all of the possible consequences, makes critical thinking the best way to make decisions that are completely sound. If you do not use critical thinking you may not be considering alternatives or the consequences of the decisions being made and that leads to more problems and more time consumed in examining the problems and solutions. Sometimes it is a combination of not previously considered alternatives that is the best solution and if there is no critical thought applied to the problem, then there is no way to know this.

3. Can you be a critical thinker and still believe in absolute truth when making a decision? Why or why not?

Absolutely. Why does the absolute truth have to be a hindrance to finding a working and satisfactory solution to a problem? Considering alternatives and fully considering the ramifications of both the problem and solution means you must be concerned with and consider the truth as well as the most reliable facts in the decision making process.

4. What attributes would define you as a critical thinker?

A critical thinker (ct) considers more than the problem. The ct looks at the problem and solution, but also at the things that caused the problem. The critical thinker is flexible and responsible with the ability to be imaginative and creative as needs arise. The ct collects facts from as many different parties and causes and then ...

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