Consider a problem that you have faced or could face in school, on the job, or at home.

Write a 2- to 3-page explanation on how any of the six steps identified in the reading could be used to solve the problem.

Include a brief descriiption of the problem, the background information necessary to understand the problem, and the intended solution to the problem. You may wish to include this information in an introduction paragraph.
Summarize the steps (in your own words) and explains specifically how you might employ the step to help solve your problem. Identify specific examples of what each step could achieve.                                          

1.Regularly rearticulate and re-evaluate your goals, purposes, and needs:All of us live goal-directed lives. We form goals and purposes,and we seek to satisfy them. We form values and seek to acquire them.We have needs and seek to fulfill them. If we were to automatically achieve our goals and purposes and fulfill our needs, we would have no problems or challenging decisions to make. Therefore, problems can be recognized as either obstacles or opportunities to reach our goals,achieve our purposes, and satisfy our needs.

2.Identify the problem:We can’t solve a problem we don’t recognize we have. To become an active problem-solver is to become active in stating problems. Many leave problems at the level of vague dissatisfaction—knowing that something is wrong but not being able to identify and clarify exactly what that something is. Others Express discontent but don’t come to terms with the root cause.Identifying a problem clearly means moving from the general (“I feel bad”) to the specific (“I’m dissatisfied with my job because I don’t make enough money to support my family”). To identify a problem,ask and answer these questions:
•Is the problem personal or work or college-related?
•Is there a specific person I’m having a problem with or is it a specific situation/condition?
•How is this person or situation/condition interfering with achieving my goals?
•What feelings am I experiencing in relation to the problem (answer specifically by using such terms asanger,apathy,imbalance,intensity,or frustration).
•Am I being vague in naming the problem or am I being as specific as I can?
•Can I clarify and articulate the problem?Once you’ve clearly identified the problem, study it to make clear the kind of problem you’re dealing with. You take the time to not only formulate your problems explicitly in words but to also study your problem sufficiently to make clear to yourself the kind of problem you’re dealing with.

3.Carefully analyze, interpret, and evaluate the information you collect:Relevant information is a necessary condition to solving a problem, but it’s not sufficient. To solve a problem, you must interpret the information you have, make sense of it, and give it meaning. We Live in a glut of information—much of it unreliable, slanted, distorted,or just plain false. Information must be analyzed and evaluated. As inactive problem-solver, you must be comfortable with a wide variety of information states, and you must check information sources for reli-ability and relevance.

4.Figure out your options for action, evaluate them, and then choose one:Sometimes, the information you collect will explicitly define your options for action. Sometimes, however, you will have to make further inferences—inferences from your inferences—to figure out your options for action. In one sense, these considerations are extensions of the information-interpreting process. In another sense, they go beyond it because they take us to the level of action. As a critical thinker, you carefully evaluate these options and don’t simply go with the first one that pops into your mind. You consider all options available; there are always several. Then, you evaluate them and determine their value and appropriateness before selecting one. Being a creative and active thinker,you could choose this option or that option. Evaluating their worth gives you a better idea of which is more viable—not right or wrong—but suitable given the circumstances.
5.Adopt a strategy to resolve the problem, and follow through on that strategy:On some occasions, the best strategy to use in respond-ing to a problem may be a carefully thought-through wait-and-see strategy. However, in most cases, a more direct strategy is called for.Once we have identified the best option, we typically need to thinkthrough how to act on that option. We need some strategy for action or a set of multiple strategies.

6.Monitor the implications of your strategy:Problem-solving does not end with taking action. We evaluate the strategy to understand if the choice we made is the correct one, the one that works. We are not stuck in the choice we made but can make another choice, a different one to fit the circumstances. We can change the choice, then the strategy, to learn to make better problem-solving choices in the future.