Critical Thinking and Social Interactions

Can critical thinking improve our social interactions? Or should we use some other method? Critical thinking doesn’t have a section about social stuff, but as a metacognitive discipline it can help to use other methods more effectively. Of course many people can easily and effectively work with other people even without critical thinking. They probably don’t need to apply critical thinking in this area, but they may use it in other areas. Also more socially challenged people can use critical thinking to improve their social skills and learn new methods of effective communications.

Imagine a person who wants to decrease his anxiety during communication with people. He may choose a random book or a course to study human interactions. He also my go to a doctor or start drinking more coffee. These methods may or may not help because without knowledge about his own issues related to human interactions and without knowledge and skills about such interactions this person isn’t sure how to improve himself. After some time he can become quite proficient, but his way to proficiency will have many failures and dead ends.

With critical thinking this person can start a bit differently. First he can look for knowledge and skills related to human interactions. After that he can evaluate his current level. Next he can look for possible ways to improve skills and knowledge, he may need to deal with personal issues which may prevent him reaching his goals. For example, a person can have a number of dysfunctional beliefs preventing him acting correctly with other people. In this case he can work with such beliefs using critical thinking tools and if it doesn’t help, seek for a professional in cognitive or metacognitive therapy.

After finding possible solutions critical thinking tools can be used to compare them and to choose the most beneficial. As mastering new areas requires studying critical thinking can be used to analyse new information and knowledge and to process them better.