Critical thinking can be impacted by emotions. Negative emotions such as anger and
fear can impede the process of critical thinking. On the other hand, positive
emotions can actually intensify critical thinking. For example, an emotion such as
empathy has the effect of making an individual more open-minded and more likely
to consider the viewpoints of others. By combining emotions with reasoning, we can
make better decisions. In order to balance emotion and reason, I avoid making
decisions when my emotions are running particularly high. When I make a decision, I
consider all of the pros and cons as well as the possible outcomes. I allow my
emotions to compliment my reasoning by searching for a happy medium between
the two when I make a decision. When I was working in human resources there was
a situation in which a young woman's husband had abruptly left her and their two
small children. She was struggling mightily with everything from the loss of her
husband's income to caring for the children as a single parent, not to mention the
devastation which she must have felt about losing her partner. My heart absolutely
went out to this young woman, and I could not help but feel empathy for her.
However, her performance at work was obviously suffering. She almost constantly
arrived to work late and when she did finally make it to the office she was distracted
and made careless mistakes. In this situation, I had to balance my emotions with
reasoning. While I felt incredible empathy for this employee, reasonably I could not
allow her poor performance at work to continue. The solution that I found was to
invite her into my office for a serious discussion. I was very direct and honest with
her. I did not attempt to conceal my emotions. Rather, I told her exactly how I felt.
Then, I also explained to her that logically we had to work together to improve her
performance on the job. Her chronic lateness turned out to be simply a problem of
logistics. Getting her children ready in the morning alone was taking longer than she
had thought it would. She was able to correct this by rising earlier and using better
time management skills. Her poor performance on the job was mainly due to the fact
that she was distracted by the lingering feeling of sadness while she was at work. To
a large degree, just knowing that she had a friend and ally in me helped her to be
happier at work. She was better able to focus on her work, and her performance
improved.
Through communication, we learn another person's thought process and line of
reasoning. Understanding another person's thoughts and reasoning is a crucial
element in critical thinking. For an example of this, I will once again revisit the job
which I once had in a human resources department. In my role in human resources, I
could almost predict which employees would rise quickly in the company and which
employees would struggle in their jobs by considering their communication skills.
Almost every time, employees who possessed excellent communication skills were
promoted quickly. Conversely, employees who had substandard communication
skills often ended up quitting, being terminated, or remaining in the same position
for a very long time. I believe that the reason for this is that good communication
enhances critical thinking, so those who were outstanding communicators were more
successful in my office, which required the employees to work in teams much of the
time. Also, whenever an employee came to me with a concern, I was naturally better
able to assist him or her if he or she possessed good communication skills because
there was less ambiguity. It was easier for me to understand exactly what they were
asking of me and what I needed to do in order to help them be successful.
For me, the most interesting concept that I learned this week was that emotions can
enhance critical thinking. I had never even considered this before. In our society,
emotions almost have a negative connotation, and they are considered out of place
in the professional world. I enjoyed learning that emotions can, in fact, improve
critical thinking.
