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Critical Thinking and Society Exercise Kevin Jackson University of Phoenix PHL/458 May 7, 2012 Jane Crawford-Muratore

Critical Thinking Page 2 of 6 Critical Thinking and Society Exercise Describe a situation in which critical and creative thought could have been used for a better outcome. Describe why it is important to think critically and creatively in similar situations. A situation in which critical and creative thought could have been used for a better outcome was with the district manager. Roger was asking stores to log him in so he can gain the expense mileage at the end of the month. Roger would do this when he was on the road from West Palm Springs, Florida, coming in to Fort Myers. Regarding Dollar Financial Group, policy the employee could not gain mileage until he or she is in the city, which he or she is assigned to work. This was unethical on two different fronts, one he was sharing his personal employee information with other managers, which was a violation. The author decided to report this violation without thinking of the re-amplifications of his actions. The author could of been forced to leave his job because of the animosity from his coworkers, or the organization itself. Instead of reporting this violation anonymous, the author went to the district manager and told him that he knew he was violating the policy. The author should have gather all reports and sent it anonymously to the loss and prevention manager, the author would have not experience a terrible outcome to this dilemma. Define free will, truth, knowledge, and opinion. Explain how we use them to form thoughts.. Free will is defined as the ability or discretion to choose. A person use free will in thinking to whether to do a certain action such as reading, changing careers, or a basic function of eating a certain food (The Fee Dictionary, 2012).

Critical Thinking Page 3 of 6 Truth according to Vincent Ruggiero (2009), is what is so about something, the reality of the matter as distinguished from what people wish were so, believe to be so, or assert to be so. When a person(s) believe, something is good or bad for him or her this is a person truth. For example, people believe that marijuana is a gateway drug, these people will fight for he or she holds truth and not let this drug become legal (Ruggiero, 2009). Knowledge is acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation: general erudition. Knowledge can shape a person thought because he or she have studied a subject. For example, a surgeon has studied how to perform open-heart surgery. He or she knows how to begin and end, and what to do in an emergency while performing this type of surgery (Dictionary, 2012). Opinions are personal thoughts and feelings. Opinions can express in taste and judgments, this can differ from one person to the next. The expression of taste describes a persons internal states and preferences. These internal states differ from one individual to the next. For example, one person may believe that everyone should own a gun for protect his or her family or him or herself. The next person may have the internal state that no one except for policing authorities should own guns that individuals should not taste the law in his or her hands (Ruggiero, 2009). Identify three hindrances to the critical thinking process. Determine methods for overcoming these hindrances. Identify a time in which you experienced a hindrance in critical thinking. Describe a method you could use to overcome the hindrances. Mine-is-better habit this type of thinking start begins in early childhood. This type of thinking does not end easily as the person becomes an adult. As adults the person can the current

Critical Thinking Page 4 of 6 world and assert that the world he or she grew up in is better than the world is now (Ruggiero, 2009). Face saving stems from a persons ego, this type of hindrance thinking have such expressions of It was not my fault, and It was not my fault I had no alternative. He or she does not want to acknowledge that he or she did something wrong. Face saving can be even more dangerous to the person thinking when he or she rationalized what he or she done was wrong (Ruggiero, 2009). Conformity can hinder a person thinking when the person wants to belong to a group or do something such as participate in hazing to avoid the risk of being different. According to Vincent Ruggiero (2009), this type of conformity is an act of cowardice, a sacrifice of independence for the lesser good (Ruggiero, 2009). A method from avoiding these types of hindrance to a persons thinking is to think about thinking. The person must be aware of his or her initial impression of problems and issues. The person should not take a stance immediately without first examining the evidence or weighing competing views the person should control his or her feeling instead of yielding and the person must force to be objective (Ruggiero, 2009) . Identify a message in advertising. Describe how you perceive the message of the advertisement. Try to determine the reality of the advertisement. Distinguish between your perception and the reality of the message. A message in advertising is the pills called Xenadrine. In the message they so people that take these pills and they lose weight of an average of 21 or more pounds. The consumer believes that just taking the pill would have him or her lose the extra weight. However, the company who makes the drug Xenadrine do not tell consumers in the advertisement that

Critical Thinking Page 5 of 6 consumer must watch what he or she eats and must exercise on a daily bases. In reality, there is no magic pill, which will have people to lose weight without eating correctly and doing exercises. The company who make Xenadrine gives a false reality to consumers to lose weight. The consumer in viewing any advertisements or listing must think critically, if not he or she can be fooled into believing that a product can help him or her without doing any type of work. In addition, there have be products that was advertise to consumers, which was taken harmed the public that was supposed to help or was good for the consumer. The author puts products like Xenadrine as folk medicine.

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References

Dictionary. (2012). Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/knowledge Ruggiero, V. (2009). The Art of Thinking (9th ed.). New York, New York: Pearson Education Inc. The Fee Dicionary. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/free+will