Deck 7: Creative and Critical Thinking in the Small Group

Question 1

List five common errors in reasoning that inhibit the critical quality of a person's thinking. Explain how each error can be potentially damaging to a group decision.

Answer 1

No Answer

Question 2

You conduct a survey of parking problems on your campus by talking to students who try to park between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Your results may not be valid because the survey was not _____.

Answer 2

representative

Question 3

For a group to be creative, both _____ and _____ creativity is needed.

Answer 3

[individual, group]

Question 4

Inferential errors impair a group's ability to think critically.

Question 5

One significant way members can test the adequacy and quality of information, reasoning, and sources is by asking each other _____ questions.

Question 6

Describe six member characteristics that promote creative thinking for group members. What attitudes and behaviors go into the creative thinking process?

Question 7

One method to prevent groupthink is to encourage members to _____ before they start focusing on a solution.

Question 8

Skeptical decision makers never challenge information.

Question 9

When critical thinkers gather information and ideas, the first step they take is to

A) make a list of what information is needed and where it can be found.
B) take stock of existing information.
C) decide on methods for gathering information.
D) collect needed resources by assigning members specific responsibilities for items in the master list.
E) identify holes and weaknesses.

Question 10

Creative thinking in small groups encourages the use of

A) imagination, hunches, intuition, and fantasy to generate innovative solutions.
B) wild and crazy ideas thrown out rapidly by group members.
C) systematic evaluation of data gathered.
D) ethos.
E) flights of fancy taken by group members in a daydream-like state.

Question 11

What are the two principles that differentiate critical from creative thinking, and why is it important to small group problem solving?

Question 12

The first step in evaluating information group members have gathered is to

A) identify and clarify ambiguous terms.
B) determine the credibility of all sources.
C) determine what the speaker or writer meant.
D) assess the relevance and importance of the information.
E) distinguish facts from opinions and inferences.

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT an attitude of critical thinkers?

A) desire to reach a decision as quickly as possible
B) skepticism
C) willingness to ask probing questions
D) active process of testing information
E) open-mindedness

Question 14

Critical thinkers have a _____ skepticism that indicates members want to think for themselves rather than be told what to think by others.

Question 15

Synectics asks group members to remain rooted firmly in reality when generating new ideas for solutions to a problem.

Question 16

What are the benefits and limitations of a computer-assisted search for information?

Question 17

For a group to be creative, both individual and group creativity are needed.

Question 18

An ideal time to use creativity-enhancing procedures is after members have learned something about the problem but _____ they delve into the details.

Question 19

Facts are just someone's opinion and they are usually ambiguous.

Question 20

A committee member reads that 20 percent of college students default on government-guaranteed loans, then concludes that "college students are irresponsible." This illustrates which error in reasoning?

A) overgeneralizing
B) concluding that because two things are related, one caused the other
C) attacking the source instead of the idea
D) posing a false either-or situation
E) making an incomplete comparison

Question 21

List the five requirements for assessing information during the critical thinking process.

Question 22

Two principal components are required for critical thinking: evidence and logical _____.

Question 23

Group creativity involves which of the following two concepts?

A) divergent and convergent thinking
B) crisis formation and crisis exaltation
C) cross-cultural and intra-cultural learning
D) negativity and positivity
E) symbolism and connectivism

Question 24

Experiencing pressure to conform with the rest of the group is not a symptom of groupthink.

Question 25

Asking members to choose between only two options is called _____ thinking.

Question 26

Many groups use brainstorming, a popular procedure designed to release a group's creativity, especially when they are generating ________.

Question 27

During synectics sessions, group members are asked to

A) avoid all evaluation and criticism.
B) be as specific and detailed as possible.
C) change perspectives, look for direct comparisons, and use fantasy and imagination.
D) think of the underlying issues and needs of people involved.
E) figure out what must be done, by whom, and when.

Question 28

Synectics is a technique that stimulates thinking in _____ and analogies.

Question 29

Describe and explain the five guidelines for promoting brainstorming in groups.

Question 30

Sometimes, it is okay to make a decision that is just "good enough" without analyzing all your choices.

Question 31

The most important "technique" to help groups do a good job of critical thinking is

A) attitude.
B) none of these answer is correct.
C) closed-mindedness.
D) creativity.
E) nonsense reduction.

Question 32

_____, or jumping to premature conclusions, is a behavior counterproductive to critical thinking.

Question 33

Which of the following is something that can be verified by observation and is not arguable?

A) an ambiguous term
B) an opinion
C) an inference
D) a fact
E) a person's recollection

Question 34

When evaluating web-based sources, you should consider which of the following?

A) worth
B) connectedness
C) relatedness
D) superiority
E) recency

Question 35

Critical thinking is characterized by

A) evidence to support opinions and generalizations.
B) logical arguments to support all claims made.
C) all of these answers are correct.
D) facts, data, opinions.
E) none of these answer is correct.

Question 36

Which of the following is often used when groups are generating ideas?

A) talking
B) thinking
C) brainstorming
D) evaluating
E) probing

Question 37

In preventing groupthink, establish a _____ of critical evaluation.

Question 38

One group characteristic that promotes creative thinking is that members think the same, possess the same skills, and share similar approaches.

Question 39

Critical thinkers are open minded, or willing and eager to consider new information and ideas, even if that information contradicts what they previously believed.

Question 40

Electronic brainstorming, especially with 8- to 10-member groups, often generates more and better ideas than traditional brainstorming.

Question 41

"As soon as we got a new division manager, profits went down the tubes. The new manager reduced productivity." This statement is an example of which of the following fallacies?

A) posing a false either-or situation
B) making an incomplete comparison
C) attacking the source rather than the idea
D) confusing causal relationships
E) overgeneralizing

Question 42

A creative group technique that stimulates thinking using metaphors and looking for similarities in different things is called

A) meta-analysis.
B) questioning discussion.
C) synectics.
D) analytical discussion.
E) synthesis.

Question 43

A tobacco company has issued a press release suggesting the effects of secondhand smoking are not as detrimental as previously suggested by healthcare professionals. A group should be sure to do which of the following in evaluating this information?

A) none of these answer is correct.
B) identify ambiguous terms
C) determine the meaning of what is said
D) clarify ambiguous terms
E) determine the credibility of the source

Question 44

What member behaviors are especially counterproductive to critical thinking during group discussions?

Question 45

The first and most important rule governing brainstorming is to

A) write all suggestions on a large piece of chart paper that everyone can see.
B) appoint a recorder who will evaluate and decline to write down ideas s/he deems unsound.
C) none of these answer is correct.
D) schedule a short amount of time for ideas to be thrown around for consideration.
E) avoid evaluation or criticism of any idea or suggestion offered.

Question 46

Group creativity involves _____ and _____ thinking, each requiring slightly different communication behaviors to succeed.

Question 47

Creativity is essential to productivity and effective problem solving.

Question 48

Alice Paul did for Women's suffrage what Malcolm X did for Civil Rights is an example of an analogy.

Question 49

You discover a tobacco company funded a study concluding that smoking has no relationship to lung cancer. You have reason to suspect the _____ of the source of the study.

Question 50

Mrs. Grundy believes that boarding schools provide the best education because after attending such a school, she found herself well prepared for college. The fallacy in her thinking is

A) the experience used as evidence has not been shown to be representative.
B) Mrs. Grundy may not know what she is talking about without having observed it firsthand.
C) she has not generalized.
D) she didn't really go to boarding school.
E) she has treated an inference as a fact.

Question 51

A group member concludes that because one of your sources is a prisoner, the group should not accept what the person said. This is an example of

A) posing a false either-or situation.
B) attacking the person instead of the argument.
C) making an incomplete comparison.
D) concluding that because two things are related, one caused the other.
E) overgeneralizing.