CRITICAL THINKING UPDATED ACTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS

CRITICAL THINKING UPDATED ACTUAL
EXAM QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS

●● Critical thinking comprises three interlinking dimensions:
Answer: -Analyzing one's own thinking- breaking it down into its
component parts.
-Evaluating one's own thinking- identifying its weaknesses while
recognizing its strengths.
-Improving one's own thinking- reconstructing it to make it better.


●● Critical thinking is characteristically:
Answer: self-directed
self-disciplined
self-monitored
self-corrective


●● egocentrism
Answer: the tendency to view everything in relationship to oneself;


●● sociocentrism

,Answer: the assumption that one's own social group is inherently
superior to all others


●● In reasoning through any problem, a well-cultivated critical thinker:
Answer: Raises vital questions
Gathers and assesses relevant information
Reaches well-reasoned conclusions and solutions
Thinks open-mindedly
Communicates effectively with others


●● First-order thinking
Answer: Americans have always done it that way, and as the greatest
country in the world, it's always worked for us in the past.
How can we trust the engineering work on this building? The structural
engineers weren't educated in the U.S.
My intuition tells me to turn right here, so I won't bother to look at the
map.


●● Second-order thinking
Answer: The assumptions we've relied upon may be flawed. Let's review
them again.
I'd like to talk this over with some colleagues. They may have some
insights we are missing.

,As far as I am concerned, you're headed down the wrong path on this
project, and I'm rarely wrong on these matters.
I didn't completely understand the repercussions of my original decision,
and so now I have changed my mind and I am recommending a new
approach.This is an example of second-order thinking, which is self-
correcting.


●● weak sense critical thinkers
Answer: Ignore the flaws in their own thinking
Often seek to win an argument through intellectual trickery or deceit.
Lacks key higher-level skills and values of critical thinking
Makes no good faith effort to consider alternative viewpoints.
Lacks fair-mindedness
Employ lower-level rhetorical skills (making unreasonable thinking
appear reasonable and reasonable thinking appear unreasonable).
Employ emotionalism and intellectual trickery.
Hide or distort evidence


●● strong sense critical thinkers
Answer: consistent pursuit of what is intellectually fair and just
strive to be ethical
strive to empathize with other's viewpoints
will entertain arguments with which they do not agree

, change their views when confronted with superior reasoning.
employ their thinking reasonable instead of manipulatively.
requires fair mindedness combined with basic critical thinking skills


●● Fair mindedness yields many intellectual virtues
Answer: consider all thinking by the same standards
expect good reasoning from supporters as well as from opponents
apply the same critical criteria to our own logic as to others' reasoning
recognize the actual strengths and weaknesses of any reasoning we
assess


●● Intellectual Humility
Answer: Characterization
Commitment to discovering the extent of one's own ignorance on any
issue
Recognition that one does not—and cannot—know everything
Consciousness of one's biases and prejudices
Aware of the limitations of one's viewpoint
Recognition that one should claim only what one actually knows
Awareness that egocentrism is often self-deceiving (i.e., convinces the
mind that it knows more than it does)


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