Thinking Styles and Decision Making Essay Example for Free

Thinking Styles and Decision Making Essay Levels of thinking differed from one person to another. Each thinking style is influenced by our mainstream society, how we think and develop perception on the material things happening in the surroundings. There are a lot of thinking styles that came into being since the time of old ancestors to the recent modern developers of our age. There are twenty six thinking styles that was developed but we will concentrate our discussion on the three sub-divided types namely the Sensory focus, People focus, and Task focus. Other thinking styles are used in psychological workshops and research such as analyst thinking style, realist thinking style, idealist, synthesist, pragmatist and spiritually-guided thinking style (An Introduction to Thinking Styles,).   In 1995, original concept for the thinking styles was formulated by Fiona Beddoes-Jones to enhance professional and personal development (Thinking Styles,).   Thinking styles can help in dealing with different types of problems in the workplace, academe, family and relationships. The Three Different Thinking Styles   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Before we proceed it is necessary to define the three levels of thinking styles. Sensory Focus examines things by receiving information through the senses and used the senses to perceive actual events. It is manifested in the visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and digital thinking. Watching, observing and looking pictures, diagrams, and visual imagery are the simple ways of expressing visual thinking while auditory requires the use of words and language, listening and conversing things. Kinaesthetic thinking is expressed through feelings, intuition, emotions, and physical movement and exercise as digital thinking entails the use of data, facts and statistics and the degree of data rationality. On the other hand, People Focus is how people perceived to relate with other people on their direct environment. It is focused on different levels of thinking such as internal and external thinking, self-referenced, altruistic, conforming, challenging, collaborative and competitive thinking. Internal thinking depends on own judgments and decisions and only consider self-knowledge as right and disregards feedback from other people. Some other people tend to dislike their own ideas and are not confident to explore many possible views and usually rely on other people or groups of people to give feedback on certain issues and problems. These people are external thinkers. Moreover, self referenced thinking is an approach of putting their own needs first and disregards the needs of others. In contrast, altruistic thinking involves responding to the needs of others and is willing to extend their help to other people. Conforming thinkers tends to keep away from confrontations and will certainly take a non-challenging methods, in contrast to challenging thinkers who definitely wanted to take confrontations, debates and experiments. Competitive thinkers would like to aspire for competitions and wants to gain victory from their own performance. Persons who wanted duties defined and detailed-oriented are Task Focus thinkers. They are conscious of the details especially in workplace where information is being transmitted through detailed facts and information. The Task Focus thinkers are strategic, creative, logical, options, procedural, towards, troubleshooting, proactive, reactive, simplicity, complexity, sameness, and different thinkers (Ltd., 2005). These thinking styles are distinct from each other but may sometimes closely connected together. Different patterns of these styles are being used as understanding and communicating with other people in surviving the daily response to work and life system. The amount of understanding different types of problems requires thinking styles that may influence critical thinking process. Such mentioned types of styles are good considerations in problem solving and decision making process. Sensory thinking style can help improve relationship with other people in the workplace, school, organizations, friends, and even families. Non-verbal communication somehow helps in understanding different personalities and the way you can approach them when facing a contradiction. Senses can transmit information and analyze things just by looking, observing, listening, feeling, intuitions, and physical movements. By looking at a critical situation using this kind of style, one can already define and identify the drawbacks. Most persons who don’t want confrontations tends to choose sensory focus in delivering and receiving information towards a given situation or crisis within a workplace. While others opted to choose interaction and personal touch to listen and confront problems this is somehow difficult in relating to contradictions with other people. However, it is very effective in most groups of people who are open-minded and problems can be solved instantaneously. Alternatively, task focus is a better way of coping up things since it is focused on goals and targets, detailed information, possibilities and alternatives in solving problems. These type of styles are distinct to each other and generally have an effect on critical thinking process and can possibly help the outcome of the decision making process. The positive upshot makes life more constructive by knowing which style you are most confident and at ease or difficult to cope up with in acknowledging, appreciating, expressing or solving things and difficulties. It brings people together and means more efficiency in duties, constancy in having good health, development of self-being, and gaining more friends and social groups. Reference An Introduction to Thinking Styles [Electronic Version]. Retrieved June 2, 2007 from http://www.earthtym.net/s-general.html. Ltd., T. C. F. C. (2005). Thnking Styles [Electronic Version]. Retrieved June 2, 2007 from http://www.consultingtools.com/media/thinkingstyles.pdf. Thinking Styles [Electronic Version]. Retrieved June 2, 2007 from http://www.cognitivefitness.co.uk/.

The Giver :: Giver Essays

The Giver onas lives in a "perfect" world where war, disease, and suffering have all been eradicated. Everything is in order; everything is under control. The people have no worries or cares. The Community strives for "sameness," in which everyone and everything are the same and equal. To help the Community function as a cohesive unit, each member is assigned a position in society. When Jonas turns twelve, the Community selects him to be the new "Receiver of Memories." Only the "Giver" knows the truth and memories of the past, and now he must pass these memories on to Jonas. The Giver is a wonderful book. Lois Lowry skillfully crafted an intriguing and profoundly thoughtful story. She subtly creates an uneasy feeling that something is wrong with this "perfect world." The Community's advisors intend to establish security within utopian society, but they really establish a stifling dystopia. To protect people from the risks of making poor or wrong decisions in life, the advisors plan and dictate the lives of the people. In effect, the citizens have no freedom of choice; they do not choose their job or even their spouse. Moreover, the advisors inhibit the people's ability to feel because they want to spare them from the hardships and pain of life. For instance, individuals must take a pill everyday, which suppresses passionate feelings. The citizens do not know or experience true emotions like love. One of the goals of the Community is to achieve "sameness" so that no one feels embarrassed or gets excluded for being different. However, this limi ts individuality and freedom of expression because everyone conforms to a certain desired image. Finally, to relieve the population of the horrors and devastation of the world and the past, the advisors isolate the Community from the rest of the world (also known as "Elsewhere) and give the burden of holding the memories of the past to a single member of society: the "Receiver." Therefore, the Community lives only in the present, and the people have a narrow perspective of life because they only know their community and way of life. They are naive; they do not gain knowledge or wisdom from the memories. While receiving the memories, Jonas learns a different and better way to live and realizes what he and the Community have been missing.

Heavy Drug Usage: Why Some Individuals Have More Addiction Over Others Essay

In order to understand why some individuals are more addictive than others, we need to look at the issue of addiction in our country’s usage of cocaine, crack, or methamphetamine. We also need to look at their dependency on them, and why some addictions carry more weight for some than for others. Heavy drug use is the highest among youth and young adolescents   especially young males   which is presently at its highest level in 9 years for that age, according to the 2006 PRIDE statistics. (PRIDE, 2006). According to their surveys, the fourth grade and the ninth grade were the highest users of heavy drugs (i. . other drugs or illicit drugs), even though they had a more difficult time getting them than the older adolescents. Marijuana is a minor drug, but one that the majority of drug users begin with to start the addictive path. Addiction begins in the brain, with the brainstem considered as the most primitive part of our body, controlling the heart rate, inhalation and exhaling, and resting. How drugs influence this area in regard to addiction is because the drug particle is similar in size and shape to natural neurotransmitters. Once they lock into the brain, they begin to release neurotransmitters. More and more â€Å"drugs† once entered into the brain will lock and release, with more and more neurotransmitters that become unnatural flooding into the brain. Many of the illegal drugs – – nicotine, crack, crank, cocaine, and marijuana – – affect the limbic system of the brain, which is the â€Å"reward† system, responding to pleasurable experiences by releasing dopamine, the main creator of pleasurable feelings or simply â€Å"feeling good†. Excess drugs will bring on a â€Å"drug high† or overdosing. Without addictions, there would not be serious drug usage for any individual. Addictions cause the â€Å"I have to have it† feeling that originally began as an minor experiment or a fun thing to do. As the body and mind becomes dependant on the drug for a good feeling, it eventually needs more and more in the system to maintain that feeling of goodness, until the craving becomes a number one obsession – – with the level of craving depending on the type of drug used. According to the American Heritage English Dictionary, the word addiction means, â€Å"Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance,† or â€Å"The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something. This compulsion or addiction has ruined many lives, with drug incarceration in the U. S. the highest it ever has been, with an increase in 35% since 1995. (Colson, 2006, pg 2). Addictions begin because drugs are considered â€Å"the painkillers of physical and emotional pain. † Not everyone becomes addicted because not everyone is unhappy, has physical or emotional pain, or lives with huge amounts of unsolvable problems. But the foremost causes of addiction in youth or adolescents are also peer pressure, manipulation, or boredom, with other factors being included. There are three theories why addictions occur in someone: the first is the â€Å"biochemical† predisposition where some people react different than others do, regardless of the situation; the second theory is the â€Å"disease concept† where addiction is considered an inherited disease, where the individual is permanently ill at a genetic level; and the third theory is that addiction is a â€Å"mental weakness or flaw†, where a person can overcome it through will-power or mental processes – – another part of this theory is that of â€Å"falling from grace†, where recovery comes from a higher power. But so far, none of these theories have proved correct, which is why they are still theories. Kids continue using drugs because the feelings of unhappiness or hopelessness are buried by drug usage when using them. The addiction becomes the only way of life to live for someone to experience â€Å"happiness† or to feel â€Å"pleasure† – – anyway, as long as the money holds out for the drug purchases. If not, theft and selling drugs will begin another way of life for them to support their habit. After that, prison or death is the next and final level. Different levels of addictions are experienced by different individuals, because people are different: they are mentally and physically different; their life experiences are different; their values and ethics are different; and their problems or happiness are on different levels. Because of this, peer pressure and powers of persuasion affects different people in different ways. Peer pressure has a lot to do with influencing youth to begin using drugs of any kind. After all, nobody wants to look like they don’t belong, do they? Combined with the power of persuasion, an unhappy individual with lots of problems or filled with boredom cannot fight against it, as it promises a false sense of happiness that does not really exist, yet they still believe it is the easy way out. Self-concept of an individual has a lot to do with the usage of drugs and is considered the most vital ingredient in a happy and content individual. Once this begins to go down, drug usage and depression have an open door, as it falsely raises the lowered self-esteem. By keeping this part of the personality up, peer pressure and manipulation won’t have such a hold on the individual. To develop peer pressure, the individual needs to have friends or a group they run with – – or seek to belong to – – by doing things that goes against their personal moral beliefs, such as using drugs for the first time. Individuals who do not care what others think, will not be influenced on the same level of peer pressure. To impress someone, these peer groups exert a lot of influence over prospective new members, forcing them to conform to the group standards. Adolescent peer pressure has always been referred to in a harmful undertone, causing members to become involved in destructive behavior, such as using alcohol or drugs. Peer pressure or drug pushers use the power of persuasion as a marketing tool to obtain desire results. New members are prodded, manipulated, and debased by peer groups to do things they never would have done before, working against an individual’s vulnerable inability to fight against it. Once the individual is on the drugs, it usually is a one-way street to nowhere. Culture and social beliefs come into play with what is accepted as normal in a certain segment of society. Various racial or ethnic groups may hold specific morals, ethics, or biases about certain things that will affect what they consider normal or abnormal. But recent developments in our professional field over the past ten years or so have found that each culture has its own strengths, limitations, and differences – – yet that does not mean they are unequal to another race or culture as they were previously judged by courts, laws, and professionals. Prior to 1990, the U. S. began to undergo a lot of radical demographic changes with diverse populations. Unfortunately, drug usage began to go up with these changes, as it was not considered as abnormal in their own countries as here. When President Reagan began his drug war in October of 1982, certain segments of society, based on certain cultures, felt they were being targeted. But prior to that, society had already set the scene against drugs, â€Å"In 1982, when the drug war began, the recreational use of illegal drugs was in decline. Tonry points out that in 1982, surveys conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse showed significant drops in drug usage over long periods for a wide range of age groups. This decline impacted the use of both legal and illegal substances. For example, the percentages of respondents 18 to 25 years of age reporting marijuana use during the preceding year dropped by approximately 15% between 1979 and 1982, and continued to decline sharply throughout the decade of the 80s. Reported use of cocaine by the same age group also dropped by approximately 15% between 1979 and 1982, and continued to decline throughout the decade. Finally, 18 to 25 year olds who reported using alcohol during the preceding year rose only slightly from 1979 to 1982, but also declined sharply following a peak in 1985. According to Tonry, these statistics ‘signal a broadly based and widely shared change in American attitudes toward the ingestion of dangerous or unhealthy substances that can have little to do with the deterrent effects of law enforcement strategies or criminal sanctions. ‘ Consequently, Reagan’s declaration of war tapped into a growing public sentiment against illegal drug use. (Nunn, 2006). Drug efficacy is the power of a drug to produce a desire effect, or its effectiveness. Another meaning is the treatment against the drug users; â€Å"medical professionals have called for a greater emphasis on treatment for drug users rather than incarceration and felony convictions that made it hard for former users to get their lives on track. † (Connecticut News, 2005). The prisons are already over-crowded, and the drug usage does not seem to be getting any better. The drugs alcohol and marijuana are considered â€Å"gateways† to the heavier drugs or more addictive substances. Under the newer laws where non-violent events are punished with prison terms, and the youth or adolescent individual is convicted of these minor drugs, they carry a lifetime of punishment that prevents them from getting on with their lives. They feel the mistake stays with them the rest of their life, so why quit anyway? Professionals feel that because of this attitude, better treatment instead of prison or jail punishment needs to be the number one choice; due to the fact the United States has a highest population of their own citizens in prison than any other industrialized nation. (Nunn, 2006). Bibliography http://www.pridesurveys.com/customercenter/ue05ns.pdf http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-2/613/613_02_Prison.shtml http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/crime09.htm

How does the Mass Media Influence the Modern Society

How does the Mass Media Influence the Modern Society? The Mass Media is a unique feature of our modern society, a society that completely depends on information and communication. Its flow penetrates us through TV, papers, Internet and influences our actions, engagements, leisure time and even standards of life. We have a trust in the media as an authority to give us news, entertainment and education. However, it can influence the public opinion in different ways depending on who is the manipulator and what is the objective. Very often the mass media is a tool, both more influential and more malleable than anything previously used for impacting people and changing certain modes of belief within society especially in the political campaigns. And it is rather dangerous, as the major part of the population consider the mass media to be independent and impartial. Thus people have to be vigilant because instead of merely helping us to live more efficient and healthy lives, the media almost takes our decisions for us and despite our personal preferences. We shouldn’t take the information in all good faith and ask themselves to look for other, different opinions and evaluate those facts by their own rather than blindly believe in medias version of the truth. The mass media should only be a mirror that reflects the reality without pinning any labels (and that is a challenge for the conscious journalists). If used constructively, it can be