Critical Thinking Paper

Thinking and Decision Making Paper University of Phoenix MGT/350 December 13, 2010 Cyndie Shadow Critical thinking and decision making are more related than people know. Critical thinking affects the way people think, the way people live, and the decision they make. Good decision making is the backbone of sound management. This paper will analyze the three different types of thinking styles. Also, this paper will provide you with critical thinking and decision making processes by discussing workplace examples that highlight each of the three different types of thinking. The three different types of thinking are scientific, creative, and persuasive. After reading this paper learning more about critical thinking and decision making you will then have a better understanding of their relationship. This paper should provide you with the benefits of both critical thinking and decision making both personally and professionally. Persuasive Thinking Persuasive thinking is the thought process that is trying to influence someone to accept a message (Kirby & Goodpastor,  2007). This type of thinking is extremely too difficult to master, but when done well can be very effective. The main points to consider when using this type of thinking an individual must understand; human nature, emotions, and think carefully before attempting to get someone to accept a message. An individual must also be aware of the time and the place the message is being communicated, and understands his or her involvement in the message it’s self. Most important, the message being conveyed must be understood, the audience, and the audiences’ values. A thinker that can understand all of these complex pieces of persuasive thinking will be successful at getting the people they are attempting to persuade to accept his or her message. Scientific Thinking Scientific thinking and the scientific method have been a part of problem solving and communication since before the modern era. The scientific method has four specific steps used in the thinking process. The first is observation, and brainstorming the causes and effects of a certain situation or phenomenon. This is the beginning of thinking. The second step to the scientific method is hypothesis, a tentative statement about the relationship between two variables, usually in the form of a prediction (Kirby & Goodpastor,  2007). The hypothesis is similar to an educated guess that formulates the experiment. Experimentation is the third step of the scientific method. This is necessary to test the hypothesis and determine the correct cause and effect through various types of research. The final step of the scientific method is verification, or the analysis of data to see if that data supports or disputes the hypothesis. If the hypothesis is not supported the communication was incorrect somewhere and needs to be restarted at step one. Creative Thinking According to â€Å"VirtualSalt, 2010† Creative Thinking is the ability to imagine or invent something new. Unlike Persuasive thinking, Creative thinking is much easier to master. It is basically taking your own ideas and sharing that information into an objective. Anyone can think creatively, in fact, much of everyone’s thinking is some form of creatively. A person only thinks of creativity as a gift or skill, but a person could learn creative techniques from a teacher. Creativity starts with brainstorming. Brainstorming allows the mind to flow from thought to thought. Being creative is a benefit of having fun. There’s five creative methods in creative thinking process which are; evolution, synthesis, revolution, reapplication, and changing direction. Many organization work effectively together by using each other’s strengths, rather than punishing each other because of their difference. Our creativity can generate an astonishing amount of material, and creativity is involving continually in all areas of our thinking (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007). Compare and Contrast Creative thinking, scientific thinking, and persuasive thinking have many similarities. Although they share similar traits, these thinking styles are also different from each other. A few of the similarities between these three thinking styles are that they all play an important role in critical thinking and commonly used in the decision making process to reach a solution. Creative thinking is when something new is created due to an individual’s thoughts. Many people use creative thinking in their daily routine which helps in tackling complex Creative thinking can be challenging at times as people don’t realize when they use this style. Creative thinking is one of the first steps of the critical thinking process however it can be used at any time during the process. Creative thinking is used in many situations such as creating a new product, creating a schedule, or even dealing with children. Without creative thinking there wouldn’t be consistence and frequent growth in new inventions. Unlike creative thinking, scientific thinking is a more serious thinking style. Scientific thinking is one of the most reliable types of thinking. It is also used by a lot of people in all areas of their everyday lives. There are four major steps in scientific thinking and at the end of that process we may be able to reach a persuasive conclusion. And last but not least is persuasive thinking. Persuasive thinking is when individual’s can encourage others to share their thoughts. Persuasive thinking is used by many people in their everyday lives however most people are not aware of it. We are more likely to be persuaded by someone who is knowledgeable, objective, rational, honest, attractive, convinced, similar to us, and by someone who appeals to our values, ours needs, and our wants (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007). Unlike the scientific thinking process the persuasive structure process has five steps. These five steps are very important when using persuasion. Another thing that plays an important role in persuasive thinking is the audience. The audience’s demographics, their values, and their needs are very important when it comes to persuasion. Critical thinking is a very complex subject to break down and be able to fit the ideas in a few paragraphs. Any action that leads to a reaction by humans requires some form of critical thinking process and be able to judge the outcome of the reaction created. Scientific, persuasive and creative styles of thinking are a process within the critical thinking map. These are styles that simply help mitigate risks. Scientific styles plays an important role in critical thinking as it could either be a start of an idea, or there could be some form of scientific style that plays an important role when the thought has matured, or it could be the ultimate solution to the thought. This style is used for effectiveness and being able to prove the impacts of these thoughts. Creative style helps in the exploration of a critical thought. This style helps in thinking outside the box and molds us to think of alternate solutions. Thinking about open ended questions is a very crucial part of this style. This helps the mind explore into unknown territories. This style can be used in the day to day routines in personal and professional lives. Decorating a home to creating a PowerPoint presentation requires this style. Creative style also helps in building, developing and creating a short term and long term vision of the thought. In the corporate environment this style has become very popular and employers have given this style quite an importance. For e. g. Google has a very lengthy interview process where one of the interviews is all about how creative you are and whether or not you are able to come up with a solution with this style. They are not looking for a right or wrong answer but is able to test and reason their creative thoughts on the given problem. The last but not the least is the persuasive style. This style requires expertise and the ability to gain confidence of your audience to convince them about your message. One may have a brilliant thought, but not being able to persuade your audience can cause a huge problem. There may be finances involved with your thought but not being able to effectively convince your audience on how, the thought remains a thought. Persuasive style requires some scientific and some creative thinking as these go hand in hand. For e. g. There is a software idea that helps resolve the needs of a sales team. In order to prove this idea, scientific and creative thinking can help in the building blocks to the software. The next step is to be able to prove this idea and this requires persuasiveness. The need to connect with your audience and at the end of the day be able to persuade and convince them to buy the software for their sales team. Conclusion Thinking is something that everyone does on daily basis. This paper described the persuasive, creative, and scientific thinking styles that could be used by an individual or group to determine the best solution for a given problem. One thinking style may work in a particular situation while another is best for a different situation entirely. Each individual is different and therefore has a thinking style that works best for them in a given situation. Understanding each thinking style and selecting the style that best suits the individual is the key to finding the best possible decision. References Kirby, G. R. & Goodpaster, J. R. (2007). Thinking (4th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Kirby, G. , & Goodpastor, J. (2007). Thinking: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Critical and Creative Thought. Retrieved from  https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/TOC. aspx? assetdataid=d714d42b-a9b3-4644-abe2-bd0499f8f9ca&assetmetaid=8b8803a8-2bba-48b1-be11-f0f4106b8920. Virtualsalt, 2010 retrieved on December 13, 2010 from http://www. virtualsalt. com/crebook1. htm