Critical Thinking and Society Exercise: Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking and Society Exercise:

Critical thinking is a process that is used by individuals on a daily basis though many people use it without realizing it. Critical thinking can basically be defined as the process of exercising or involving skilled observation or judgment. This process requires the use of a variety of cognitive skills and intellectual capabilities to evaluate arguments, overcome personal biases and prejudices, and make intelligent and reasonable decisions (Huebner, 2013). Critical thinking is important in today's world because it contributes to accuracy, depth, fairness, relevance, precision, clarity, and logical correctness. Therefore, it is important for every individual to think creatively and critically, especially when facing challenges.

Situation Requiring Critical Thinking:

A good situation that could have involved the use of critical thinking for a better outcome is the development of tourist tax in Alaska in 2009. Generally, Alaska's economy during summer time is usually driven by tourists visiting the state to an extent that summer tourism has become so reliable in the state (Bradner, 2009). In 2009, Alaska legislators established a head tax of $50 on visitors arriving to the state, which was to be channeled to projects that would benefit the cruise line industry. The misguided tourist tax contributed to the emergence of two major problems i.e. lack of enough projects to channels the funds to and reconsiderations by several cruise line companies regarding Alaska destinations. This situation could have experience a better outcome if critical and creative thought were used to evaluate the impact and outcome of the decision. This would have involved collaboration with the cruise line companies to determine specific projects that would benefit the industry rather than hurting it. The use of critical and creative thought in such situations help in ensuring that decisions with better outcome are made by involving all relevant stakeholders.

Free Will, Knowledge, Truth, and Opinion:

Free will can be described as the ability of an individual to make decisions independently. This involves making a decision without being influenced or conditioned by other people, the society, or culture (Ruggiero, 2009, p.26). Even though every human decision and action is influenced and directed by some form of conditioning, free will is the attempt to creatively think as an individual. On the contrary, knowledge is defined as having information about something or someone through observation, experience, and reports. Truth refers to the reality of something or someone and is differentiated from what is considered, believed or asserted to be true. Opinion is an individual's feelings towards something based on emotions and personal judgment. These concepts are important in the formation of thoughts because of their role in the thinking process. There is need for knowledge of the subject in order for personal thoughts to be based upon the truth. Through gaining knowledge and truth on the specific subject, an individual can proceed to develop thoughts regarding his/her opinion.

Hindrances to Critical Thinking Process:

During the critical thinking process, an individual is usually faced with some hindrances including stereotyping, resistance to change, and face saving. Face saving is thinking that personal ideas are better than those of others while stereotyping is predetermined generalizations and resistance to change occurs when a person does not like the upcoming change. Since this process is usually affected by these hindrances, an individual should use various methods to overcome the hindrances. Face saving can be overcome through being open minded whereas stereotyping can be overcome through avoiding generalizations and resistance to change readiness to move from comfort zones. An example of when I faced hindrances in critical thinking is when I considered people from the southern part of the United States as incompetence and relatively slow in all their endeavors. After meeting a bright student from this region, I realized that I should not have made generalizations about people from this region but treat and handle them individually.

Message in Advertising:

A message in advertising is the Creepy Uncle Sam's advertisement that seeks to put off young adults from signing up in the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges. The conservative group, Generation Opportunity that was against youth involvement in insurance exchanges used an Uncle Sam costume with an oversized head to promote their campaign. Similar to the rest of the country, my perception of the advertisement or message was creepy because Uncle Sam emerged from nowhere to examine a young woman who was led to the hospital room by a nurse. My perception of the message of the advertisement as creepy was influenced by the fact that Uncle Sam appeared from nowhere to attend to the young woman in the hospital who had put on a gown, sat on an exam table, and placed her legs in a set of stirrups (Wollner, 2013). The reality of the message was initially hard to comprehend because the woman ends up screaming. However, the reality of the message is at the end where a text emerges encouraging young people to opt-out of Obamacare. My perception of the message reflects its reality that allowing the government to play doctor is disturbing.