Traits That Help Critical Thinking
Posted January 18th, 2016
Everybody values good critical thinking skills. It is a skill that many employers also value and seek out. Most people see critical thinking as involving basically cognitive abilities – analyzing, evaluating, inferring. And these abilities are certainly involved and important. But there are also other factors that affect a person’s critical thinking, factors people don’t usually associate with it.
These factors go toward making up a person’s disposition or personality. Studies have found that people with these types of personality traits generally are better at critical thinking because these traits help with critical thinking. Here they are:
1. Curiosity.
This is simply the desire to find answers to questions, the desire to fully understand something. But it is also the ability to accept that the full answer may be beyond reach.
2. Being open-minded
This is the ability to see things from points of view other than your own, to look at things in a disinterested way, without favoring your won biases. It is also being receptive to feedback and criticism. It is also being able to change your mind when you receive new or contradictory information.
3. Self-confidence
Having faith in your own abilities and judgment, the belief that you are able to solve problems.
4. Attention
This is the ability to focus and concentrate.
5. Being goal oriented
A mindset of working toward goals. This is someone who routinely set goals and then works to reach them.
6. Perseverance
This is pretty much self-explanatory. It is the ability to work through obstacles, frustration and failure.
7. Being organized
This is the ability to work systematically.
8. Objectivity
A person with objectivity is one with the desire to find the truth about something, regardless of whether that truth conflicts with his values or beliefs. Being objective also means being able to challenge assumptions and conventional wisdom.
9. Being skeptical
This is an attitude of demanding proof for something, not simply accepting it on the basis of hearsay or someone’s authority.
10. Deliberation
This is a kind of introspection, a willingness to examine your own opinions, motivations and behavior. It is the realization that you may never have all of the information you need, that some problems are just messy and ambiguous and may have more than one answer. Looking for work in the San Francisco Bay area?
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