Week of September 24 - September 30: #3

One concept that I found interesting from this week's reading in Boss' "Think" was the role of emotion in critical thinking. Boss states, "an empathetic person is more flexible and open to others' perspectives and is motivated to use critical analysis, important skills in formulating a satisfactory logical argument regarding a plan of action". I believe that this is extremely true, which reminded me greatly of what my store manager has been telling us associates. We must encourage our customers to open reward and credit cards for our store because our manager wants our store to succeed. If I come across a customer and he/she seem interested in the items that our store has, I will mention the benefits of opening a card. If he/she is hesistant, I might mention a couple more benefits. However, if he/she has a bitter expression and sounds angry, I won't continue on. I understand the perspective of the customer and I won't force him/her to do anything, no matter what my manager is asking me to do. Reading others' emotions by their facial expressions can help us critically think through our decisions and make us better understanders and communicators.

Week of September 24 - September 30: #2

According to atheist Richard Dawkins, evolution and a belief in God are incompatible. I agree with the statement that Dawkins made. In the bible, God created both animals and man, separately. Evolution states that human beings are closely related to apes To believe in both evolution and what God has created is a huge contradiction.

If Thomas Aquinas (a believer that the existence of God can be proven through reason) were still alive today, I think he would disagree with Dawkins in this statement. Although he seems to believe in God, it doesn't sound like he does in his "proofs". There are many claims in his written arguments that can be used to say that evolution and a belief in God are compatible. For example, Aquinas states "... that which does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing". This could be used to prove that human beings may have come from apes because they existed before human beings existed.

Week of September 24 - September 30: #1

I believe that I am strongest in pros vs. cons reasoning. Whenever I have to make a decision about something, I always write down good things (pros) and bad things (cons) on a list about my problem. After writing everything down or debating about in my head, I make a decision based on the things on my list. It generally makes it a little easier for me to decide because I see my thoughts on paper.

You can use this type of reasoning for anything. It could be something little, like buying a $20 shirt, to something big, like choosing a college to go to. Because I am thinking about becoming a dietitian in the future, I can use pros vs. cons reasoning to decide meal plans for specific types of people. Because I want the best for all my patients, I must give them the best plan. This is not something easy and will take time to build. In my opinion, pros vs. cons reasoning can be used in any situation and any career choice.

Week of September 10 - September 16: #3

One concept that I have decided to discuss is "the need for effective communication in organizations" that O'Hair and Wiemann write about in The Essential Guide to Group Communication. Communication is the most important thing while working in an organization, or in this case, a group. O'Hair and Wiemann state that "the only way that organizations can succeed, or even exist for that matter, is through communication".  By communicating with group members, everyone will know how and when to assign goals and tasks. You can only know through communication what group members have done and not done, what everyone needs to do, and exactly who will do it. A good example of this is our current group project. If I don't communicate the days that I am free to work on my project, we wouldn't be able to pick a date to meet. My group members wouldn't even know if I was alive! Although I am sometimes bad with communicating, I plan to work on it immediately so that my group can count on me.

Week of September 10 - September 16: #2

When the Joe Camel ads for Camel cigarettes were first introduced, Dr. Antonia Novello (Medical Problem Solver) saw a correlation with the increase of children and teens smoking. By using inductive reasoning, she put together that viewing these ads and being exposed to them are most likely why children and teens have gotten into smoking. This is labeled as inductive reasoning because Dr. Novello wasn't 100% sure that it was the ads that caused more children and teens to smoke; it is a conclusion that probably follows the premises. Even knowing that these events may not be related, Dr. Novello still decided to work to educate the children and teens in school about smoking. She also worked to ban cigarette ads that targeted youth. Although nobody knows if those ads really did make children want to smoke more, Dr. Novello chose to not take the risk of ignoring it. This changed many children's lives.

Week of September 10 - September 16: #1

Most college students paying for school are committed to getting good grades. I am a college student paying for school. Therefore, I am probably committed to getting good grades.

I have thought about this argument a lot, even before I knew it was considered an inductive argument. Because college is a choice (an expensive choice, might I add), I always assume that everyone is in college because they want to receive good grades to eventually get that dream job. To get those grades means that one needs to work hard. However, I see a lot of younger college students forgetting to do assignments, taking tests without studying, and skipping classes. Although there are people in college that just don't care, there are also many more people willing to work hard to succeed.

This is an inductive argument because it is not necessarily a true statement; there is a possibility of error. In the THINK text, Boss states that an inductive argument claims that the "conclusion probably follows from the premises". This means that the statement ("I am probably committed to getting good grades") may or may not be true. It is possible that not all college students are committed to getting good grades.

Week of September 3 - September 9: #3

I found it very useful to read about leadership and decision making in Chapter 3 of The Essential Guide to Group Communication. As we have started discussing our plans in the groups that Professor Perez has created for us, it is pretty obvious to me as to who the role of leader is in our group. I think it is great that people will take the initiative and try to bring the group together by scheduling a time for discussion, a time to meet and talk, etc. In the text, O'Hair and Wiemann talk about shared leadership. I think this is a hard thing to achieve because there is always one person who feels as if they are "in charge" and that nobody is as committed as they are. Shared leadership is the best form of leadership because everyone will be doing everything it takes to meet the same goal by encouraging and working with one another.

Week of September 3 - September 9: #2

Yes, this spiritual passage (Jesus of Nazareth, "who taught us not to return hate for hate and evil for evil") prohibits the usage of death penalty. I think Jesus is saying that if someone wrongs us, we shouldn't wrong them back.

Sister Helen Prejean states that Jesus taught us to not return hate for hate and evil for evil. Some Christians disagree with her. Therefore, some Christians disagree that Jesus taught us to not return hate for hate and evil for evil. Like we have all read, most Christians are more likely to support the death penalty. It is so sad to hear that some Christians disagree with Sister Helen Prejean's statement, which comes from the Bible. The Bible is a truth that God wrote to people (Christians) that believe in him. Christians should be able to relate to the people deserving the death penalty and understand that the death penalty is wrong. As Christians, we believe that we are sinners and we deserve death because we have wronged God. However, God forgave us. Having this great forgiveness that we do not deserve and knowing that we should forgive as He forgave us, wouldn't you want the death penalty to cease?

Week of September 3 - September 9: #1

It is obvious that when it comes to assumptions, people make a lot of them. It is not something we as humans can control; in fact, I feel as if we were built to make them. If there was a man in my class who was known to steal things and a classmate (coincidentally) had her wallet stolen, an assumption would be that the man stole it. Because of his reputation, most people would think of the person who is mostly like to do such things. We may also tell ourselves to stay away or watch our bags when we are near this person. Do we know for sure that he stole her wallet? No. It is easy to point the blame on the man who is known for stealing. It is possible that he DID do it, but it is also possible that any other person in the class did it. I believe that Sherlock Holmes is saying that it is difficult to get to the real facts after being influenced by opinions and rumors. We are so affected by rumors that we think we have an idea of someone before we even meet the person.

Week of August 27 - September 2: #3

A concept in "The Essential Guide to Group Communication" that I found helpful was titled "WHAT MAKES A GOOD GROUP?" I think this is very relevant to our upcoming assignments, seeing as we will need to work with a group to complete them. There are six characteristics that O'Hair and Wiemann discuss on page sixteen, but I wanted to focus on interdependence and conflict. Group work cannot be done without interdependence; each member of a group will affect the other members in both positive and negative ways. Everything is shared, including responsibility, mistakes, and success. This means that a group needs all of its members to be contributing or the group will fail. When members are absent or have different opinions concerning the work, conflict occurs. Although conflict is inevitable, it is better to manage it than to avoid it. Some conflict may be good; this means that all issues will be discussed and everyone will have a clear sight of what is going on.

Week of August 27 - September 2: #2

When I was in high school, one of my friends took a class that I previously passed. She had some trouble with a couple of homework questions and knew that I already answered them, so she asked me to find it and share it with her. Because I don't condone copying homework, I said no and did not let her pleading change my response. Even though I had the chance of losing her as a friend, I still stood my ground. I would rather have her learn the material for herself instead of just copying my answers. I want her to succeed in the future, and copying my answers would not help her with that. Instead of just handing her a piece of paper with answers, I offered to help her out by guiding her through any questions. Luckily, she still continued to be my friend because she understood why I would not want to just feed her answers.