CRITICAL THINKING IN HOMELAND SECURITY

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Introduction

Critical thinking is the scholarly disciplined progression of dynamically and skillfully intellectualizing, applying, examining, synthesizing, and/or assessing information collected from, or produced by, observation, experience, reflection, perceptive, or communication, as a guide to credence and action. It is based on worldwide intellectual principles that rise above subject matter division: accuracy, clarity, consistency, precision, relevance, good reasons, sound evidence, fairness depth and breadth.

Homeland security refers to an American canopy term referring to the effort of the nation in preventing attacks by terrorist in the interior of the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism, and minimize the damage that could occur from an attack. The term arose following a reorganization of numerous U.S government agencies in the year 2003 to form the United States Department of Homeland Security after the September 11 attacks. It may be used to refer to the actions of the department.

Biases refers to the shared beliefs that are not only associated with personal characteristics, but also the pattern of behavior of groups of individuals. In most cases, biases are directly connected with the creation of mindsets, which refer to the shortcuts that are used to find quick solutions to problems that are not efficient. Mindsets makes use of similar thinking approaches and solutions that were deployed to solve past problems and applying them in the current problems (Moore, 2012). In order to avoid being victims of mindsets and biases, it is important for individuals to ascertain the various ways through which mindsets and biases are formulated, with the main objective of devising strategies to overcome the formation of mindsets and biases in the critical thinking methodology that is applied by individuals (Richards, 1999). This paper discusses how mindsets are formed and the strategy that can be used to overcome. In addition, the paper also discusses specific instances of biases that have appeared in the Homeland security context.Mindsets and biases can be perceived to a form of mechanical instincts of individuals, in the sense that they determine the prejudice of people (Richards, 1999). The effect of prejudice in individual thinking is that individuals usually find too problematic to think, or rather they deploy an effortless thinking towards the formulation of solutions to current problems. There are diverse ways than mindsets and biases manifest itself in people according to the situational context. Mindsets and biases are an integral element of an individual’s cultural heritage. In addition, they are just transmitted in an analogous manner to the way in which values, habits, principles, beliefs are transmitted (Richards, 1999). Mindsets and biases are subjective to factors such as the language, religion, gender, social circle, race and the place that one is living. These factors shape the individual perception of the world and the things that happen around them. This means that different people will have different viewpoints towards an issue depending on the above factors on the sense that people are quick to make and generalize assumptions concerning situations and other people basing on factors that shape their perception of the world (Richards, 1999). Mindsets and biases can be as result if parental influence, who in most cases are the first foundation of knowledge. The media can also result to the formation of mindsets and biases, owing to the fact that it is influential in the process of making unconscious assumptions regarding certain problems and issues that we are facing. The assumptions basically reflect the way of thinking that an individual used in problem solving (Richards, 1999). Cognitive factors also play a significant role during the formation of mindsets. It is the nature of human kind to make conclusions that are erroneous in certain scenarios basing on cognitive elements rather than the available evidence. The human mind can be perceived as a data processing machine makes use of various approaches that are not based on the diverse information around us. The underlying argument is that despite the fact that the approaches deployed by the human mind facilitate easy information processing; an outcome of this is that it results to the formation of mindsets and biases (Richards, 1999). Cognitive biases comprises of mainly mental errors that are as a result of simplified approach to information processing by the human mind. Cognitive bias is distinctive from other kinds of bias that may be in the form of cultural, organizational and self-interest biases, which are mainly imposed by self-interest. It is important to note that cognitive bias is not imposed by emotional and intellectual factors that predispose individuals towards certain decision making methodologies. Instead, cognitive bias is an outcome of the subconscious mental procedures that are used for processing information around us in the subconscious mind (Richards, 1999).In order to overcome mindsets and biases, it is imperative for individual to appreciate the significance of being open-minded, and learn the various methods that can be deployed in reviewing the thinking process. It is also helpful to reform our individual thinking strategies and develop strategies that can be used for categorization and differentiation of the information that caused the current issue or problem (Moore, 2010). The initial step in overcoming mindsets and biases is to admit individually that it is the nature of human beings to be biased. The next step is to identify problem and the potential cause of the problem. It is important to take into consideration all the facts without avoiding external and internal influences. This is an effective strategy in confronting prejudice and cases involving the omission of other interpretations possibly due to rejection and ignorance. Basically, countering biases and mindsets entails having an understanding of the problem without basing on prediction, formulation of alternatives, and clarification of any assumptions made and the core variables involved in each of the formulated alternatives. In addition, it is vital to resist any instances of temptations that may try to eliminate cases of analytical uncertainty (Moore, 2010).An example of mindsets and biases in the homeland setting is the events that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks that resulted to a perception that individuals originating from the Middle East are potential terrorist attackers (Secunda & Moran, 2007). The main cause of the mindset and bias after the 9/11 attacks were the grief and ignorance that was due to the fact that the people responsible for the attacks were from Middle East and they were residing among the United States population. The outcome of this mindset and bias saw the government pass the Patriotic act into a legislation that aimed at increasing the immigration policies, incarceration of individual perceived to associated with terrorism, which were mostly from the Middle East. The second example of mindsets and bias in the context of homeland setting is the War against Iraq initiative. This was because of the high level of ignorance by the government and decision making process regarding the war against Iraq was based on its preconceptions (Secunda & Moran, 2007).

ReferencesMoore, D. (2010). Critical Thinking and Intelligence Analysis. New York: DIANE Publishing.Richards, H. (1999). Psychology of Intelligence Analysis. New York: Bernan Associates.Secunda, E., & Moran, T. (2007). Selling war to America: from the Spanish American War to the global war on terror. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.