Critical Thinking Essay

Critical Thinking Writing Assignment Brandi Ellzey Critical thinking is essential in everyday life. Hockenbury Hockenbury states that critical thinking is the active process of minimizing the influence of preconceptions and biases while evaluating evidence. It also says that determining the conclusions that can reasonable be drawn from the evidence and considering alternative explanations for research finding or other phenomena (17). In my own words I think critical is determining if something is true by gathering data or evidence or if in fact it is just hearsay or an opinion, also know a pseudoscience or fake science. There are five key attitudes and mental skills that characterize critical thinking. The first is the critical thinker is flexible yet maintains and attitude of healthy skepticism. The second is the critical thinker scrutinizes the evidence before drawing conclusions. The third is the critical thinker can assume other perspectives. The fourth is the critical thinker is aware of biases and assumptions. The last key is the critical thinker engages in reflective thinking (17). This means a good critical thinker is flexible, yet skeptical and gathers evidence rather than opinions, accepts other perspectives, minimize the influence of their own biases, and avoid knee-jerk responses.
I use critical thinking daily from deciding what we will have for dinner to which route I’m going to take to go to class. An example of a time that I used critical thinking that majorly impacted my life was when I decided to quit working at a job that I did not like and was not happy at to continue my education and work towards a degree in something I love. I had to weigh the pros and cons of having a job, income, and benefits and how losing these things would affect my life. I also had to decide on a school that was affordable, convenient, and offered a great program for the field I wanted to study. It was tough to decipher between my emotional decision and

References: Hockenbury, D.H. & Hockenbury, S.E. 2011. Discovering Psychology, 5th edition. New York: Worth Publishers. Houran, J., and R. Lange. 1996. Diary of events in a thoroughly unhaunted house. Perceptual and Motor skills. 83:499-502 Cook, C.M., and M.A. Persinger. 1997. Experimental introduction of the sense presence’ in normal subjects and an exceptional subject. Perceptual and Motor Skills 85: 683-93.