To criticize means to express a denouncement against someone or something due to an error or errors made; it can also defined as the act of praising someone for what he has done. A person that criticizes is called a critic. Anyone can be criticized at any time for doing something; which means that everybody should be ready to be criticized; an African adage says ‘if you pound yam for a whole town, you will receive praises from some people and some people will be like; did we tell him we are hungry?’ no matter what you do, there will come to you a point in your life when people will start to talk about you and whatever you do at that time, criticism is the next thing you receive. It may not be because you are doing bad or wrong thing at that time, even if you use all your life to do good and helping people, there is no way you can escape being criticized.
Criticism can take any form; a person maybe criticized for doing something good while a person can be criticized for doing something bad.
Many a times, people see criticism as a way of bringing out someone’s wrongs and some people see it as a way of fighting back at someone who has in way or the other offended them. There are different types of criticism, namely; self-criticism, logical criticism, positive criticism, negative criticism, constructive criticism, just to mention but a few.
Self-criticism: if a person does something and he judges himself as per whether he has done the right thing or not, such an evaluation is termed as self-criticism. For example, a boy that steals a meat from his mother’s pot, after he eats the meat, and his guilty conscience comes to play, he realizes that he has done a wrong a thing; he may, in the first place was desperate to eat the meat so he had no concern about whether he was doing the right thing or not. But, as he removes the meat, he realizes that he was on a wrong path; he feels guilty and he blames himself for doing such; such an after-thought attitude is known as self-criticism.
Furthermore, logical criticism takes place on the ground that something done or said is viewed as illogical, groundless, unreasonable, unscientific and irrational. It means that there is something wrong from the subject matter logically. It generally suggests the opposite of something, when something is done and does not follow the basic convention. To criticize logically, the critic looks at the subject matter critically and analytically with the active use of the mind to judge.
Lastly, constructive criticism can be defined as the process of making persuasive, well-founded and well-constructed comments about someone or something. It usually involves either of the two aforementioned types of criticism or both. Some people get angry easily when they are criticized for doing something unacceptable, but a constructive critic knows how to offer his opinions well-reasoned and in a friendly manner, that the person being criticized will admit his fault(s) calmly and gently.
Constructive criticism is more of like using words that are friendly to the ears and well-formulate
If a person is criticized, how should he deal with such a situation?
First and foremost, he should be able to accept the criticism as a challenge without him becoming annoyed with the critic(s). He should not be too sentimental; he should be able to listen, reason and understand intention of the critic(s) honestly.
Secondly, there is an English adage that says ‘to err is human…’ anybody can make one or two mistakes at any time and so, if a person is criticized for doing something or saying things that are considered erroneous, he should be able to admit his faults and try hard to avoid such errors again.
Thirdly, if a person is criticized positively, he shouldn’t think that he has the best of behaviors or that he is the best of all, he should try hard to work more on his action so as to award him more credit. Comparatively, if a person is criticized negatively, he should not think that he has done the worst of the worsts or if a person is criticized negatively for his behaviors and attitudes, he should not think that he has the most awful or atrocious behaviors; he should accept as a challenge and make sure he works on it.
More so, if a person is criticized he should learn how to appreciate, acknowledge and show gratitude to the critic instead of engaging in unneeded and avoidable arguments.
Be that as it may, if a person is criticized, he should not be too submissive; he should know the appropriate time for him to respond the critic and he should do so kindly. Though, he may let the critic know how bad he feels when he is criticized.
And lastly, if a person thinks that people criticize him for no reason than to show their ill-feelings and hatred for him, he should learn how to move away from such people because if the criticism continues, a day will come when he will be hurt badly and prevention they say, is better than cure.
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