Appraising the Strength of Judgement

Judgment is one of the five character strengths that comprise the Virtue of Wisdom.

Wisdom describes strengths that help you to gather and use knowledge.

What is judgment?

Judgment involves making rational and logical choices, and analytically evaluating ideas, opinions, and facts. 

To use a term that originally came from outside the character field: it is critical thinking, weighing the evidence fairly, thinking things through, and examining the evidence from all sides rather than jumping to conclusions. 

Judgment also involves being open-minded and able to change one’s mind in the light of evidence, remaining open to other arguments and perspectives. It should be clear at this point that judgment is a core “strength of the head” — it’s a very thinking-oriented character strength.

The strength of judgment is a corrective strength in that it counteracts faulty thinking, such as favouring your current views or favouring ideas that are considered the dominant view, and therefore giving less attention to the less-dominant view. It is the willingness to search actively for evidence against your favoured beliefs, plans or goals and to weigh all of the evidence fairly when it is available.

Why is judgment of value?

• People who can see things from more than one perspective are particularly skilled in dealing with times of change and transition.
• Judgment counteracts biased thinking, contributing to more accurate decision-making.
• Individuals with this strength are less swayed by singular events and are more resistant to suggestion and manipulation.

A couple of questions to consider

• What people and circumstances bring out your analytic side and what brings you to your emotional or intuitive side?
• How do you express your judgment/critical thinking to others?

Some things that you can do to practise judgment

Choose one of your work tasks where there is some disagreement about how to get it done. Use your critical thinking to examine the case for each view on the best solution. 

• Watch a political program that shares a very different or opposite point of view from your own and try to understand how others could believe that position deeply.
• As you gather information about a person, weigh it based on its merits and analyse the information rationally so you can keep any tendency to jump to conclusions in check.

For more information on the strength of judgment, go to https://www.viacharacter.org/…/judgment-critical-thinking

If you are interested in exploring how the practice of Character Strengths might be of benefit to your business and culture, contact Peter Maguire on 0438 533 311 or at info@poswork.com.au.

Acknowledgement: the primary reference for this post is “The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate And Ignite Your Positive Personality” by Ryan M. Niemiec & Robert E. McGrath (An Official Guide From The VIA Institute on Character)