Blocks to Critical Thinking

Cultural Conditioning Block

Cultural conditioning refers to how society's standards and values are passed on to all members of society. Cultural conditioning is a block to critical thinking when people accept society's standards blindly, with this impacting how a person thinks by creating bias and selective perception.

Example: When Nolan tells Keating he does not approve of his unorthodox teaching methods, he is basing his judgment on the fact that Keating's methods and expectations of the students are different to the accepted standards of the school. This is an example of the cultural conditioning block because Nolan does not actually judge Keating's views but shows bias against them because they go against the school's standards and values.

Reliance on Authority Block

Definition: Reliance on authority is a block to critical thinking when people accept the views of the majority in place of thinking for themselves and forming their own opinions or when people accept the views of the authority figures in place of forming their own views.

Example: Cameron shows a block to critical thinking where he describes how he told the teachers about the club because the honor code of the school includes that you tell the truth when asked a question by a teacher. This is a reliance on authority because Cameron is not making his own decision about what to do, but is instead acting based on what the authority figures of the school say he must do.

Hasty Moral Judgment Block

Definition: A hasty moral judgment is a quick judgment made on the basis of what is initially seen. Hasty moral judgments are a block to critical thinking because they are not based on reason and so limit insight and understanding.

Example: Neil's father is an example of a hasty moral judgment because of the way he hastily assumes that Keating is the reason for Neil disobeying him. This is a hasty generalization because he is judging Keating based on initial perceptions of his actions, without actually knowing or understanding Keating.

Black and White Thinking Block

Definition: Black and white thinking refers to how people place things in either/or categories. For example, a person might think that someone is either their friend or their enemy, or think that another person is either completely right or completely wrong. This is a block to critical thinking because it ignores the complexity of issues.

Example: When Neil kills himself, he is thinking based on a black and white view related to being an actor. His thinking is that he will either live his life being allowed to act, or he will not act at all. If Neil was able to look at the issue in more detail, he would see that there are more options available.

Labels Block

Definition: Labels refer to how issues, individuals, and experiences are labeled and categorized. Labels are a block to critical thinking because they can cause things to only be seen based on the label, including that individual differences can be ignored.

Example: Both McAllister and Nolan label and categorize all the students based on their age and their position as students. This is seen in several places where they refer to their age and put the emphasis on conformance, rather than individualism. This is a block to critical thinking because they consider all students the same and do not recognize their individual differences.

Resistance to Change Block

Definition: Resistance to change refers to the tendency to accept the old ways. This is a block to critical thinking because it causes people to reject new ideas, while also meaning that people tend not to seek new ideas or new ways of doing things.

Example: When Nolan explains to Keating that he does not approve of this teaching, he says that the curriculum has been proven and so there is no need to change it. This is an example of the resistance to change block because he is rejecting Keating and his methods just because they are new, while insisting that the old ways are best.