Critical Thinking and Decision

            Critical Thinking and Decision Making.
             This purpose of this paper is to define critical thinking and decision making in my own words as well as the academic definitions provided in the textbook Critical thinking: Strategies in decision making. I will be discussing how critical thinking and decision making relate to each other and some of the benefits of being a critical thinker. Lastly, I will discuss how I see the process of critical thinking and decision making used at my place of employment.
             For me critical thinking is what I do when I read or hear something that goes against my beliefs or against what I feel is rational. I sense a problem with or an opposition to what was written or spoken and I automatically start analyzing it for flaws in the reasoning. I find myself picking apart statements and looking for holes in the speaker or writer's logic. I then try to justify my critique by comparing my beliefs or what I feel is the rational conclusion to the speaker or writer's conclusion.
             Decision making is what I do when I"m faced with a problem or situation in which I must find a resolution or make a choice. I usually and most often subconsciously follow a process to discover the resolution or arrive at the choice. In the most basic form the process consist of first realizing a problem or situation exists. Then I do some fact finding and put some boundaries around the problem or situation. Next I analyze the facts. And finally I come to a decision based on my past knowledge and the recent facts surrounding the problem or situation. In some cases but not all, I check my decision for fallacies in my logic.
             I've found several definitions in the course material for the terms critical thinking and decision making, each with subtle differences. One clear concise definition for critical thinking comes form the week one lecture notes, "a special kind of thinking devoted to the evaluations of ideas.