Critical Thinking Techniques for Insider Threat Analysts

Introduction to Critical Thinking

Definition: Critical thinking is the deliberate and systematic means of processing information to arrive at better decisions.
Purpose: Critical thinkers consciously develop habits to accurately interpret evidence from the world around them.

Essential Skills for Critical Thinkers

To engage in critical thinking, the following skills need to be developed:

Interpreting: Understanding the significance or meaning of information.
Analyzing: Breaking down information into its component parts and examining them in detail.
Connecting: Correlating between related items or pieces of information.
Integrating: Combining different pieces of information to understand their interconnected relationships.
Evaluating: Judging the value, credibility, or strength of something.
Reasoning: Creating an argument through logical steps.
Deducing: Forming a logical opinion about something based on the available information or evidence.
Inferring: Arriving at a conclusion through reasoning based on evidence, experience, or ideas.
Generating: Producing new information, ideas, products, or alternative ways of viewing information.

Intellectual Standards for Critical Thinking

According to the Foundation for Critical Thinking (Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2013. Critical Thinking: Intellectual Standards Essential to Reasoning Well within Every Domain of Human Thought, Part Two), there are at least nine basic intellectual standards that, when practiced, lead to reliable conclusions. Analysts should ask the following questions to facilitate critical thinking:

Clarity: Ensures understanding, addresses confusion, and removes ambiguity.
- Questions to ask: Could you give an example? Could you illustrate what you mean? Could you elaborate further? Is the meaning being grasped from confusion and ambiguity?
Accuracy: Verifying the correctness and truthfulness of information.
- Questions to ask: How could we check on that? How could we verify or test that? How can we make sure all information is correct?
Precision: Seeking specific details and exactness.
- Questions to ask: Could you be more specific? Could you give me more details? Could you be more exact?
Relevance: Ensuring information directly relates to the problem or main issue.
- Questions to ask: How does that relate to the problem? How does that bear on the question? How does that help us with the main issue?
Depth: Exploring the complexities and difficulties of a problem; ensuring sufficient detail.
- Questions to ask: What factors make this a difficult problem? What are some of the complexities of this question? What are some of the difficulties we need to deal with? Is it detailed enough?
Breadth: Considering all viewpoints and ensuring no critical information is missing from the scope of the topic.
- Questions to ask: Are all views considered? Is anything missing in the scope of the topic that would help the analyst achieve enough breadth?
Logic: Forming a logical opinion based on available information or evidence.
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