Wednesday, October 26, 2011

AOC: Choice Contexts & Informed Intuition

Haley Scholar Reading Groups

By Danielle Hall

In The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar's discussion of automatic and reflective choosing, heuristics, and self control (or our lack thereof) is fascinating. She addresses the idea about the importance of learning to understand how our acts of choosing derive "context" or "emotion" (pp. 111-19).

Iyengar also highlights the use of intuition, sometimes what we call our hunch or gut feeling, but even that must be developed. She brings up Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 hours" of practice to achieve expertise in an area, but suggests that practice alone is not enough. Here, she states that it also takes both practice and self-critique to have an "informed intuition," which involves sorting through our reflective and heuristic modes of thinking (p. 129).

Towards the end of the chapter, Iyengar points to the pursuit of happiness and automatic choosing as a collective discourse, through observation, conversation, and by seeking advice (pp. 138-39).

What can we--as a university community--do to ensure that we are fostering informed intuition among students? Or, how do we develop a space that encourages more appreciation for the diversity of contexts that inform people's different choices here?

16 comments:

Ralicia G.Hawkins said...

I honestly feel that communication is essential in order for people to appreciate the diversity of contexts that inform people's different choices here at SIUE. I feel that everyone makes choices based on who they are and their way of making choices is determined by how they have made choices in the past. What I'm saying is that as a person grows and finds their own way, their goals change and consequently, so should their choices.
However, despite the fact that those choices, or their informed intuition may be different from another persons's doesn't necessarily mean that one way is right or wrong, or that one way is more advantageous than another. I feel that informed intuition varies from individual to individual, so it's natural that not everyone understand someone else's "Art of Choosing".
I feel that if people begin to communicate more openly about what they think and how they think, people might not always agree, but it does give them the opportunity to appreciate the diversity of contexts that inform people's choices here at SIUE.

Jennifer Johnson said...

to ensure that as a university community we foster informed intuition among students, we must continue to self critique ourselves and not just bias our skills. Though we may be really good at some task, we can always become better .

Rohan Genge said...

I think feedback is the most important aspect of developing a sense of informed intuition. In order to have an effective intuition we have to both practice it until it second nature and constantly improve it.

In order to improve it though we need to know what we are doing wrong. With our intuition it’s hard to tell because we don’t generally reflect too much on it.

So as a community we should be more open to receive criticism and professors could give in-depth evaluations of the work we do.

Rohan Genge said...

I think feedback is the most important aspect of developing a sense of informed intuition. In order to have an effective intuition we have to both practice it until it second nature and constantly improve it.

In order to improve it though we need to know what we are doing wrong. With our intuition it’s hard to tell because we don’t generally reflect too much on it.

So as a community we should be more open to receive criticism and professors could give in-depth evaluations of the work we do.

Anonymous said...

Keeping an open mind and a non-judgemental atmosphere is essential to keeping a space that encourages more appreciation for different diversity and choices. Keeping an open mind is harder for some people to accomplish than others and many different factors and situations can come into play. Being understanding, seeing both sides, and being empathetic can help one achieve this. This is crucial to someone feeling safe to "going against the flow" or making diverse choices that go against the norm.

Jim Engracia said...

I believe that communication really helps affects and informs people of their decisions. Having critiques or advice for people's decisions. For example, when teachers grade or look at papers or assignments they can add more critiques to a paper or reasons why it is wrong on a test. This allows students to learn more. It is similar to Gladwell's 10,000 hours of practice. If a student spends 10,000 hours writing papers in their lives, they can become a lot better as a writer if they were given critiques.

Natalia said...

i believe that in order for people to appreciate the diversity of contexts it is important that everyone can see both sides to a decision. We must keep and open mind in order to appreciate all aspects of a situation and not choose sides. I agree with some of the previous posts that communication is key with this. Being able to explain a certain reasoning is important.
Practice is important at getting better at something but there needs to be a standard for which we can compare ourselves to. Otherwise if you practice but do not have an idea of what the end result should be like, then you go off in a completely wrong path.

Bradley Goolsby said...

As a university community we are already fostering informed intuiton through the help students can receive if they seek it out. The way teachers can assist the students through feedback and corrections help teach the student as much as simply attending the classes, and both of these have the potential to spark an interest/appreciation of the content learned. While 10,000 hours of practice could definitely help someone become an expert in their area of study, feedback and criticism is just as, if not more important, than simply learning the material as well. Without the feedback or criticism, one may not be able to improve certain aspects of their learning, whereas with it they could do much more with the 10,000 hours used.

Alexia said...

I think that by observing and talking with as many different people as possible, you can be exposed to many different view points on any matter. by conversing with others, hopefully they can point out your weak points and help you become more critical of yourself. Because you have seen how other people would react to a given situation or make some decision, you could see both sides of an option and hopefully choose the one that suits you best.

Jasmine said...

Or, how do we develop a space that encourages more appreciation for the diversity of contexts that inform people's different choices here?

In order to develop a space that encourages more appreciation for the diversity of contexts we have to first be open to learning about different people's choices. When one is not open-minded there is no way they can appreciate diversity. Secondly I think communication is key. When you talk to people about their different choices you are more likely to know their reasons for making them. When you actually know all the details you still may not be able to completely agree but you can appreciate and respect it.

Jessica Hickman said...

As a community, I feel as if SIUE fosters informed intuition among students fairly well. A group of people have to be able to give and receive constructive criticism. A choice to one person may seem good but to another it may be totally wrong. As a community, we have to be accepting of others views and opinions. This increases the flow of communication with individuals.

William Roa-Schmitt said...

I believe SIUE, as an University, can ensure it is encouraging informed intuition among students by educating them on the importance of being able to not only absorb criticism, but also how to use the criticism to better one's self. For example, some students may quickly become offended when it comes to criticism. This can lead to opportunities being missed or a lack in developing ones informed intuition.

In order to develop a space that encourages more appreciation for the diversity of contexts that inform our peer's different choices here, we at SIUE must become very open minded. This means not judging people based on their looks or beliefs. Instead be willing to observe them and maybe learn something about their differences.

Shakita Hurt said...

Having an open mind, being understanding, not judging others, and knowing how to accept the ways of different types of people encourages more appreciation for diversity and respect different choices. There are all kinds of people in this world and once we at SIUE begin to open our hearts to different ways and views , communicate with those different from yourself, we can also develop informed intuition. There are many who already demonstrate this behavior and are accepting, yet there are those who are close minded and limit themselves to certain kinds of people. To improve we must talk and be honest and have a mind to change.

Shakita Hurt said...

Having an open mind, being understanding, not judging others, and knowing how to accept the ways of different types of people encourages more appreciation for diversity and respect different choices. There are all kinds of people in this world and once we at SIUE begin to open our hearts to different ways and views , communicate with those different from yourself, we can also develop informed intuition. There are many who already demonstrate this behavior and are accepting, yet there are those who are close minded and limit themselves to certain kinds of people. To improve we must talk and be honest and have a mind to change.

Ashley Jeffers said...

In order to have more informed intuition, we need to be more open-minded and, obviously, informed about different cultures in and around our campus and world. I believe that our campus is making a valient effort at providing information for the students by having different culture days or weeks such as international week this week. The more exposed we are to the information, the more likely we are to make good decisions based on a more educated intuition.

Julian Glover said...

Communication is an important tool in the transmission of informed intuition. Effective communication can set the stage for students to begin to appreciate the way that other student reach their conclusions. Though communication is important, it is not enough to make change. The concept of Ethnocentrism is another importance tool in understanding and appreciating differences among diverse people. Once people are informed of what an ethnocentric mindset is, we can then encourage students to shift from an ethnocentric mindset to a more ethnorelative mindset which will surely allow for the appreciation of an informed intuition.
I feel that it is necessary to point out that our current society does not advocate the use of an informed intuition. Our society would rather us focus on what the media tells us to think, and be persuaded by so called "experts." Based on the definition of an expert, an informed intuition is little more than a hunch which cannot be tested, thus rendering it invalid. Until we acknowledge this fast, an informed intuition cannot grow and mature.