Critical Thinking Self-Confidence is the tendency to trust the use of reason and reflective thinking to solve problems. This habit can apply to individuals or to groups as can the other dispositional characteristics measured by the CCTDI. We as a family, team, office, community, or society can have the habit of being trustful of reasoned judgment as the means of solving our problems and reaching our goals. The opposite is the tendency to be mistrustful of reason, to consistently devalue or be hostile to the use of careful reason and reflection as a means to solving problems or discovering what to do or what to believe.