Barriers to critical thinking

No one in Collin’s circle of friends likes rap music. They all say that it sounds like noise; it has no melody and it takes no talent to produce, they claim. Personally, Collin tends to like rap, and he thinks that a lot of skill and knowledge would have to go into producing something that complex. But if everyone else hates it, he reasons that he is probably wrong, so he eventually convinces himself to hate rap too.

• Conformity

• Relativism

• Wishful thinking

• Confirmation Bias

Jeannette has an upcoming exam in anatomy and physiology. It will cover the four chapters read and discussed over the last month. Jeannette hasn’t studied. Though there are well over 200 terms she will be expected to remember, Jeannette knows that her memory is great. She will remember the terms just from having heard them mentioned in class. After all, because of her excellent memory, she got through high school without studying. Despite her faith in her memory, her lack of studying results in an F on the exam.

• Relativism

• Subjectivism

• Wishful Thinking

• Conformation bias

Paul’s girlfriend goes out of town for the week with her friends. While she is away, Paul runs into Gina, a girl he has had a crush on for several years. Gina asks Paul to “hang-out” on Friday. Paul knows that if he does, his girlfriend will be upset. His girlfriend knows about Paul’s crush on Gina. Paul says yes to Gina; after all, if Paul’s girlfriend cared, she would have invited him on her vacation. Plus, Paul thinks, she was not nice to him before she left. So, according to Paul, it’s really his girlfriend’s fault. If his girlfriend had been a better girlfriend, he wouldn’t be tempted to hang-out with Gina.

• Conformity

• Wishful thinking

• Egocentrism

• Rationalizing

Barriers to critical thinking include _________, ethnocentrism, conformism, ___________, relativism vs objectivism and intimidation by authority.

• A. Egocentrism, unexamined assumptions

• B. Objectivism, positive thinking

• C. Egocentrism, objectivism

• D. Positive thinking, unexamined assumptions

What is critical thinking?

• understanding the why and how behind the details

• unpaid volunteer service that is embedded in courses across the curriculum

• the ability to think for yourself and to reliably make decisions that affect your life

• the ability to recognize, understand, use, and manage moods, feelings, and attitudes

This means thinking and good judgement.

• Alternative

• Analogy

• Reasoning

• Fallacy

Being unreasonable and lacking sense is ____________.

• Illogical

• Persuading

• Generalizing

• Logical

This means being sensible and reasonable.

• Reasoning

• Generalizing

• Illogical

• Logical

Mike finished ahead of Paul. Paul and Brian both finished before Liam. Owen did not finish last.

Who was the last to finish?

• Owen

• Brian

• Paul

• Liam

A woman reads a book for her book club and really enjoys it. When she attends her book club meeting, the other members all disliked the book. Rather than go against the group opinion, she simply agrees with the others that the book was terrible.

• Group bias

• Conformism

• Cultural relativism

• Wishful thinking