Critical Thinking - Assignment Example

Wallys Dilemma Wallys Dilemma First, I would identify the problem and then summarize it. Wally is having a problem with his studies and his friend is confusing him even more by telling him not to study. If he doesn’t study, then he will be relying on luck and this might make him to be a total failure in this subject.Wally’s own perspective is at cross heads. He doesn’t know if he should continue to study psychology and continue failing or he should not study because if he doesn’t study, he passes his exams.

In helping Wally to get to a decision, we are going to consider his friend’s perspective and other sober perspectives. If Wally goes on and doesn’t study like his friend suggests Wally might end up with the worst grades in this subject because he will know nothing during the exams. His friend is egocentric and biased. Critically thinking about how he feels about his failure, I should challenge him to have an open mind of accepting a new idea looking at the evidence at hand. Everybody who studies hard is bound to success.

Any lazy person does not succeed. This is a fact with evidence all around him. I will ask him why he thinks he fails. Is it because he is not working hard enough? I should help Wally in challenging his first believe that if he studies he fails and vice versa. These believe does not have any evidence whatsoever and following it might lead him into becoming a failure in life. Wally has his own point of view and the decision will be made by him anyway because everyone views things differently. I cannot force him to accept my decision.

If he takes his friends advice, he will be using his emotions rather than being rational. He should stay away from self deception and should not have selfish motives in making this decision because a critical decision like this one may affect his future and his family. He should realize that he is designed for the society and not for himself. (Kurland, 2000), argues that, self- awareness will help him weigh the influences of his motives so that he can make the right decision. By asking him the following questions ‘why do you think you failed?

Do you think that your friend’s advice is correct? What do you think you can do to improve your grade in psychology? Do you love this subject?’, and analyzing them, I would be able to make him aware of his problem. Together we will examine all inferences that makes sense, we are going to take our time to come with our judgment .We are going to consider all the above procedures so that we can come up with a sound judgment. As we make our judgment, we will embrace all the evidence we have gathered above.

Finally, I will suggest this to Wally, Looking at the evidence at hand it will be safe for Wally to study even more seriously. This is the only sure way for him to do well in his psychology course, but remember that I only helped Wally to make up his mind, the decision is all his.ReferenceKurland, D. J. (2000). What Is Critical Thinking. Retrieved November 29th , 2011, From Http://Www.Criticalreading.Com/Critical_Thinking.Htm.