Paul and Elder Critical Thinking

Using the web pages associated with the Foundation for Critical Thinking website, choose one of the four topics below and respond to the aspects of the prompt in at least 400 words.

The essay must be 400 words in length, excluding title and reference pages, and formatted according to APA style.  The only resources you will need to complete this assignment are the web pages of the critical thinking website that relate to your chosen topic. However, if you would like to include other sources, that is encouraged. Just be sure that you utilize the critical thinking web pages as your primary sources of information.

Choose one:

Inference and Assumption

Explain the difference between inference and assumption. Then, present four inferences you have made and connect those inferences to their underlying assumptions. Looking back, which of these were proper inferences, and which were improper inferences? Why?

Purpose, Point of View, and Decisions

Outline a problem that you currently face or have faced recently. Define the assumptions that you have about this issue. Explain your point of view, and outline the information that you have analyzed in relation to this problem. Finally, explain the implications that have arisen or will arise when you respond to this problem.    

Valuable Intellectual Traits    

Of the valuable intellectual traits listed in the online readings from this week, identify three of them that you believe you need to strengthen. Explain the traits, and then describe how you will attempt to implement actions in your life that will maximize those intellectual virtues.

Open-Minded Inquiry

Using the online reading “Open-minded Inquiry,” identify what you consider to be the three most important attributes that one must have as he or she approaches problems. Explain why you think these attributes are the three most important, and describe examples from your own life, or from the lives of those you know, in which people failed to display those attributes.

 

 

Required Resources

Websites

1. Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2011). The critical thinking community. Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/
   
   • The resources from this website relate directly to numerous critical thinking skills that will aid students in argumentation, analysis of biases and prejudice, and thinking through multiple perspectives.

For this week, you will need to access the following pages from the above website:

1. The Analysis & Assessment of Thinking
2. Defining Critical Thinking
3. How to Study and Learn (Part One)
4. Distinguishing Between Inferences and Assumptions
5. Open-minded Inquiry
6. Universal Intellectual Standards

 

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Recommended Resources

Multimedia

1. Acrobat741. (2007, November 17). The matrix and the cave [Video file].  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRNMZEDOBrM
   
   • This video relates The Matrix to Plato’s cave allegory. Students can utilize this resource to further examine the relationship between assumptions about reality and the actual truth of reality. Transcript
2. Kemick, A. (2010, August 12). Stereotyping has lasting negative impact: Prejudice has lingering effects, study shows. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/08/12/stereotyping-has-lasting-negative-impact  
   
   • This article will introduce students to the relationship between stereotyping and the level of thought that goes on when such stereotyping occurs. Students will be able to question their own stereotypical thinking and analyze methods for eliminating these forms of thinking.
3. Slinkycode. (2007, March 5). 12 angry men – This is how you deal with prejudice[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTDhgR3p12w
   
   • This video aligns with responses to prejudicial thinking and the elimination of such thinking. Transcript

 

 

 

Question 3

1-2 (illustrate your explanation with examples), 1-16, 1-22 (illustrate your explanation with examples), 2-5, 2-9 (illustrate your explanation with examples).
Source: Horngren, et al. (2014). Introduction to management accounting (16th ed., pp. 44, 45 & 85). Pearson.

1-2.   “The emphases of financial accounting and management accounting differ.” Explain

1-22. ‘The problem with accounting is that accountants never get to become top managers such as CEOs.” Do you agree? Explain. Illustrate your explanation with examples.

2-5.   “It is confusing to think of fixed costs on a per-unit basis.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

 

2-9.   “Classification of costs into variable and fixed categories depends on the decision situation.” Explain. Illustrate your explanation with examples

 

 

 

Question 4

1-48 Ethical Issues
Source: Horngren, et al. (2014). Introduction to management accounting (16th ed., p. 49). Pearson. 

Suppose you are controller of a medium-sized oil exploration company in western Texas. You adhere to the standards for ethical conduct for management accountants. How would those standards affect your behaviour in each of the following situations?

1. Late one Friday afternoon you receive a geologist’s report on a newly purchased property. It indicates a much higher probability of oil than had previously been expected. You are the only one to read the report that day. At a party on Saturday night, a friend asks about the prospects for the property.

2. An oil industry stock analyst invites you and your wife to spend a week in Tahiti free of charge. All she wants in return is to be the first to know about any financial information your company is about to announce to the public.

3. It is time to make a forecast of the company’s annual earnings. You know that some additional losses will be recognized before the company prepares its final statements. The company’s president has asked you to ignore these losses in making your predictions because a lower-than-expected earnings forecast could adversely affect the chances of obtaining a loan that is being negotiated and that will be completed before actual earnings are announced.

4. You do not know whether a particular expense is deductible for income tax purposes. You are debating whether to research the tax laws or simply assume the item is deductible. After all, if you are not audited, no one will ever know the difference. If you are audited, you can plead ignorance of the law.

 

 

 

 Question 8

6-3, 6-4 (illustrate your explanation with examples), 6-20 (illustrate your explanation with examples)
Source: Horngren, et al. (2014). Introduction to management accounting (16th ed., pp. 268-269). Pearson. 

6-3.   “Accountants do not ordinarily record opportunity costs in the formal accounting records.” Why?

6-4.   Distinguish between and incremental cost and a differential cost. Illustrate your explanation with examples.

6-20. There are two reasons why unit costs should be analysed with care in decision making. What are they? Illustrate your explanation with examples.

 

Question 9

Decision making
Please be frank and creative in answering the following questions.
a. (i)

Suppose you’re on a TV game show, and you’re given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is a brand new car, behind the others, nothing. You pick a door. The TV host, who knows what’s behind the doors, chooses another door and opens it to show you that it has nothing. Should you change your decision?

Don’t think about this too deeply just yet. Do you feel (intuit?) that you should change your choice? Answer initially without researching the question. What is the thinking behind your answer. Conduct a survey of ten of your friends/colleagues to give their opinion. You may wish to provide them with a copy of the question. Include in your answer a table setting out the results of this survey. Also create a simple chart with Excel to present the results of your survey.

a (ii) After you answer the first part of this question, search the Internet for the Monty Hall problem. Provide your own explanation of the correct solution. Why do so many get the wrong answer? Did you?

b. A man goes to see his medical doctor to find out whether or not he has a deadly disease. The test is positive. The test is 95% accurate and one in one thousand men of his age has this disease. What is the probability he has the disease? He decides to seek a second opinion but the results are exactly the same. When this question was put to a group of doctors, 80% of them answered “95%”. He now plans to sell up all his assets, tell his boss what he really thinks of her, quit his job on the spot and live in Vanuatu in the time he has left. Is this a rational decision? Explain.

c. Suppose an urn contains 100 marbles, 75 red and 25 black. A marble is drawn at random from the urn and you are asked to guess what colour you believe the marble to be. The marble is then shown, replaced, and the urn’s contents again randomised. The aim is to maximise the number of correct guesses. Before reading any further, what strategy would you employ? What would you guess?

Assume 4 red come out in a row. What would your next guess be? Why? Include a brief discussion of the gambler’s fallacy.

d. Creatively discuss the rationality of human decision making using these and other examples. Use the Internet as a source (about 300 words for this section).

 

Question 13

Write a business report on the significance of two of the following to managers and the function of accounting.
(a) Spreadsheets 
(b) Black Swans (Taleb)
(c) “Gray” ethical areas in accounting. See http://danariely.com/tag/ethics/ 
(d) Six Sigma

About 300-400 words each. Use the Internet as a resource. Give examples to illustrate your discussion.

Refer to the earlier section ‘Assessment Information’ for essay/report writing skill resources.  The Internet can also be searched for business reporting advice

 

 

 

 

In his book Identity Matters, author Richard Jenkins says that “identification matters because it is basic cognitive mechanism that humans use to sort out themselves and their fellows, individually and collectively.” In the age of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, this identification is increasingly becoming a self that is constructed online. How does our virtual self differ from our real self? Does our portrayal of ourselves through the use of social media affect the identity that we give to ourselves and the identity given to us by others?

 

In a carefully constructed 3-4 page, thesis-driven essay, argue whether or not social media can provide an accurate portrayal of who we really are and defend your position on the consequences thereof.  

 

 

***** only the first page in the attachment ******

 

readings: 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gil-laroya/defining-our-role-in-soci_b_5595514.html

http://newamericamedia.org/2010/12/i-tweet-therefore-i-am.php

 

Homework 4

For this part of the assignment, we will focus on the demand curve. Draw the demand curve for the A-Phone. Explain how the graph, price, and quantity demanded will change if the following occurs:

• There is an overall increase in income.
• It is discovered that there are health concerns when using cell phones.

What happens to the supply of cell phones if the market price goes up?

Part II

For this part of the assignment, we will focus on the supply curve. Explain what happens to the price and quantity supplied and how it reflects on a graph if the following occurs:

• It becomes more expensive to produce cell phones.
• Another company starts producing cell phones, and now there are 3 producers in the market.

Part III

For this part of the assignment, we are going to focus on demand and supply on the same graph. Draw a graph which shows the equilibrium price of cell phones. Explain what the graph is showing.

When the new manufacturer introduces the Robo cell phone to the market, how does that affect the equilibrium price if the Robo is basically the same as the other cell phones?

Part IV

As the public’s dependence on cell phones continues to grow, the cost of the phones may be decreasing, but the stronghold that telecommunication companies have on the public in regards to contracts and climbing fees is alarming.

Additionally, all cell phone companies charge about the same prices, and the consumers do not have much choice in substituting providers. Consumers appear to need some controls in this regard, and the government decides to step in.

• What is the effect of government intervention in the cell phone market? Make sure that you use graphs to illustrate your point.
• Is this a good thing for consumers?

On the other hand, the government sees the increase in cell phone use as an opportunity to make some additional revenue, and it decides to tax service providers.

• Who is really paying the tax?
• Illustrate your conclusion on a graph.
• Do you think that there is a free market for cell phone users? Why or why not? 

 

1. Consider an amphoteric hydroxide, M(OH)2(s), where M is a generic metal.

M(OH)2(s)<-> M^2+(aq)+ 2OH-              Ksp=8×10^ -16

M(OH)2(s)+2OH- <->M(OH)4^2-             Kf =0.03

 Estimate the solubility of M(OH)2 in a solution buffered at pH =7.0

 

2. The pKb values for the dibasic base B are pKb1=2.10 and PKb2=7.79. Calculate the pH at each of the following points in the titration of 50 ml of a 0.65 M B with 0.65 M HCl

a) before addition of any HCl

b) after addition of 25 ml of HCl

c) after addition of 50 ml of HCl

d) after addition of 75 ml of HCl

e) after addition of 100 ml of HCl

 

3. You prepare a buffer solution from 10 ml of 0.100M MOPS( 3- morpholinopropane- 1- sulfonic acid) and 10 ml of 0.086 M NaOH. 

MOPS Ka = 6.3x 10^-8.     Lidocaine Kb= 8.7 x 10^-7

next you add 1 ml of 4.87x 10^-6 M lidocaine to the this mixture

Denoting Lidocaine as L, calculate the fraction of lidocaine present inthe form LH+

 

4. Phosphoric acid is a triprotic acid with the following pKa values

pKa1=2.148  pKa2= 7.198    PKa3=12.375

you wish to prepare 1L of a 0.0400 M phosphate buffer at pH 7.780. To do this, you choose to mix the two salt forms involved in the second ionisation, NaH2PO4 and Na2HPO4, in a 1L volumetric flask and add water to the mark. What mass of each salt will you add to the mixture? 

 Mass of NaH2PO4 ?

mass of Na2HPO4?

what other combination of phosporic acid and / or its salts could be mixed to prepare this buffer?

check all that apply

a. H3PO4 and NaH2PO4

b. H3PO4 and Na2HPO4

c. H3PO4 and Na3PO4

d. NaH2PO4 and Na3PO4

e.Na2HPO4 and Na3PO4

 

5. You weigh a sample of potassium hydroxide phthalate(KHP) to prepare a primary standard for a titration . You later discover that the KHP was contaminated with sugar. To determine the amount of KHP in the mixture , you take a 6.906g of the mixture and make a 100 ml solution. You then titrate 10 ml of this solution with a 0.1788M sodium hydroxide solution. You find that 15.17 ml of the NaOH solution is needed to reach the endpoint. What is the percent by mass of KHP in the mixture?

 

6.How many moles of solid Mg(OH) 2 should you add to 200 ml of 0.15M lactic acid solution to produce pH 4.0 buffer?

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Hi Nancy, I also have e-mails of pictures I need to send you. Thank you,

 

Individual Ethical Dilemmas

Resource: The Neighborhood: Season 2, Episode 9; Grading Criteria: Ethical Dilemmas   Access The Neighborhood using the link on the student website.   Read the story of each of the Allen family members up to Season 2, Episode 9.   Develop a 10-12 slide (not including the title, introduction, conclusion, and reference slides)  Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation to present to the class at least two ethical dilemmas potentially faced by the Allen family in this simulation.   Select and discuss which of the following ethical principles are related to the case of Pamela Allen and her family:   ·       Autonomy ·       Beneficence ·       Nonmaleficence ·       Fidelity ·       Advocacy ·       Veracity ·       Respect   Include in your presentation the role of the nurse (real and theoretical) in caring for this family and how an ethical decision-making model could be applied in searching for a resolution.   Include at least two current (less than 5 years old) in-text citations and full references from a scholarly resource beyond textbooks formatted according to APA guidelines.   Submit your PowerPoint to the Assignments link.

 

Using this week’s required readings as references, select one of the two topics below and respond to the aspects of the prompt in at least 400 words.

The essay must be 400 words in length, excluding title and reference pages, and formatted according to APA style. If you would like to refer to APA samples and tutorials, review the APA Checklist within the Ashford Writing Center (https://awc.ashford.edu/cd-apa-checklist.html) located in the Learning Resources tab in the left navigation bar. This assignment can be completed by using the primary materials related to each prompt. Although you are required to use only one of these corresponding sources, you may choose to supplement your analysis with outside sources.

Choose one:
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
Describe the movement of the person in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” Identify all the stages in this movement and then explain how this allegory relates to your own life. Analyze what Plato is trying to convey about the nature of social reality and the outcomes of that reality for most of us? Finally, examine Plato’s idea about the best type of life. How does one reach this best form of existence? Do you think that Plato’s ideas about the best type of life actually reflect the best type of life? Why or why not?

Dubois’s “Of the Sons of Master and Man”
What is Dubois’s primary goal in this work? Explain two of the interactive relationships that Dubois examines in this essay. Next, determine how Dubois claims the African American experience differs from or is similar to the White experience in these two relationships. Explain an instance from your own life or the life of someone you know that reflects biased treatment of a certain ethnic group. What were the assumptions of the people who treated others this way and were those assumptions justified? Why, or why not?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using the web pages associated with the Foundation for Critical Thinking website,choose one of the four topics below and respond to the aspects of the prompt in at least 400 words.

The essay must be 400 words in length, excluding title and reference pages, and formatted according to APA style. If you would like to refer to APA samples and tutorials, review the APA Checklist within the Ashford Writing Center (https://awc.ashford.edu/cd-apa-checklist.html) located in the Learning Resources tab in the left navigation bar. The only resources you will need to complete this assignment are the web pages of the critical thinking website that relate to your chosen topic. However, if you would like to include other sources, that is encouraged. Just be sure that you utilize the critical thinking web pages as your primary sources of information.

Choose one:
Inference and Assumption
Explain the difference between inference and assumption. Then, present four inferences you have made and connect those inferences to their underlying assumptions. Looking back, which of these were proper inferences, and which were improper inferences? Why?

Purpose, Point of View, and Decisions
Outline a problem that you currently face or have faced recently. Define the assumptions that you have about this issue. Explain your point of view, and outline the information that you have analyzed in relation to this problem. Finally, explain the implications that have arisen or will arise when you respond to this problem.    

Valuable Intellectual Traits    
Of the valuable intellectual traits listed in the online readings from this week, identify three of them that you believe you need to strengthen. Explain the traits, and then describe how you will attempt to implement actions in your life that will maximize those intellectual virtues.

Open-Minded Inquiry
Using the online reading “Open-minded Inquiry,” identify what you consider to be the three most important attributes that one must have as he or she approaches problems. Explain why you think these attributes are the three most important, and describe examples from your own life, or from the lives of those you know, in which people failed to display those attributes.

800-1000 words

Details:

Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time. You just opened a flower shop and are trying to understand pricing issues. You were told that elasticities are very important in determining prices and what products to supply, so you decide to investigate this concept. You call your friend, an economics professor, and ask, “What is the price elasticity of demand? What determines it? What is elastic and inelastic demand?” To really understand it, compute the following price elasticities of demand: The price of a laptop increases by 20% and there is a 40% drop in the quantity demanded. The price of a pack of cigarettes increases by 10% and there is a 5% drop in the quantity demanded. Of the above examples, which is more elastic, and which is the least elastic? Why? Answer the following questions: Why is elasticity an important concept for a business?  Bridge tolls Beachfront properties Gourmet coffee Gasoline Cell phones   Now that you are an expert on elasticities, what do you think would be the best time of year to raise prices, and why?   What do you think the elasticities are in the flower business? Please submit your assignment.