Analyzing Critical Thinking in Practical Scenarios Case Study

This case study delves into the practical application of critical thinking skills in a real-life scenario involving an individual named Sally. It examines the challenges of critical thinking, including reluctance and misunderstanding, and how they manifest in Sally's interactions. The analysis explores the interplay of reason, emotion, and communication, and how they impact Sally's decision-making processes, particularly in her interactions with peers and her manager. The case study highlights the importance of logic, deductive reasoning, and open-mindedness in critical thinking. It also identifies a key fallacy and argument, and concludes with a summary of the importance of critical thinking in daily life.

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APPLICATION OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN PRACTICAL SCENARIOS
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Application Critical Thinking Skills in Practical Scenarios
The practical application of critical thinking skills is often met with challenges (Paul &
Elder, 2019). These are evident in the case study of Sally, whose critical thinking skills will be
explored in the following sections.
Elements of Critical Thinking
Reluctance is a barrier of refraining from critiquing ideas different from one’s comfort
zone. Misunderstanding is the perception that critical thinking is negative in nature and occurs
due to less awareness. These are presented in the case in the form of Sally feeling reluctant to
share her views and deciding not to speak or meet her friends at dinner for fear of confrontation
(Cottrell, 2017).
Sally possesses critical thinking skills of being flexible enough to present an alternative
to the customer and being honest regarding her own issue of punctuality. Sally however needs to
work upon being confident in her ability to reason with friends and be open-minded to diverse
views held by her peers (Paul & Elder, 2019).
Reason, Emotion, and Communication
The concept of reason implies the ability to think with logic and proper judgment. It is
present in the form of Sally not being deterred by her manager’s argument on her punctuality in
the process of gaining approval for her new warranty proposal. Emotion was found to affect
Sally’s thinking as she felt reluctant and incompetent to critically argue with her friends (Wilde-
Larsson et al., 2018). Sally engaged in a passive-aggressive style of communication which is
characterized by an individual refraining from communicating but holding an internal
resentment. The reason to believe this is because despite agreeing with her peers, Sally chose to
never meet them again (Cottrell, 2017).

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Fallacies and Argument
The key fallacy which did not meeting the argument is the manager criticizing Sally for
her punctuality. The main argument presented is the need to extend the current warranty period
to 18 instead of 12 months. The argument is valid since it is based on deductive reasoning in the
form of data highlighting that an increased number of customers face issues after the warranty
period (Smith, Rama & Helms, 2018).
Conclusion
This paper thus provides an insight into the practical application of critical thinking in
daily life. To conclude, critical thinkers must use logic and deductive reasoning like Sally, but
must also be open and confident to counteract different worldviews.

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References
Cottrell, S. (2017). Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2019). The miniature guide to critical thinking concepts and tools.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Smith, T. E., Rama, P. S., & Helms, J. R. (2018). Teaching critical thinking in a GE class: A
flipped model. Thinking skills and creativity, 28, 73-83.
Wilde-Larsson, B., Aiyub, I., Hermansyah, H., Hov, R., Høye, S., Valen Gillund, M., ... &
Nordström, G. (2018). Critical thinking, research utilization and barriers to this among
nursing students in Scandinavia and Indonesia. Nordic Journal of Nursing
Research, 38(1), 28-37.