Thinking Critically in Psychology

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Thinking Critically in Psychology

• Introduction to Psychology
• Simon Fraser University

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Critical Thinking A Statement of Expert
Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment
and Instruction

• group of 46 experts used to articulate
  definition of Critical Thinking (CT)
• Philosophy 52
• Education 22
• Social Sciences 20
• Physical Sciences 6
• CT found to include both skill and dispositional
  dimensions
• six core cognitive skills
• seven dispositions

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CONSENSUS STATEMENT REGARDING CRITICAL THINKING
AND THE IDEAL CRITICAL THINKER

• We understand critical thinking to be purposeful,
  self-regulatory judgment which results in
  interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and
  inference, as well as explanation of the
  evidential, conceptual, methodological,
  criteriological, or contextual considerations
  upon which that judgment is based. CT is
  essential as a tool of inquiry. As such, CT is a
  liberating force in education and a powerful
  resource in one's personal and civic life. While
  not synonymous with good thinking, CT is a
  pervasive and self-rectifying human phenomenon.
  The ideal critical thinker is habitually
  inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason,
  open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation,
  honest in facing personal biases, prudent in
  making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear
  about issues, orderly in complex matters,
  diligent in seeking relevant information,
  reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused
  in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results
  which are as precise as the subject and the
  circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating
  good critical thinkers means working toward this
  ideal. It combines developing CT skills with
  nurturing those dispositions which consistently
  yield useful insights and which are the basis of
  a rational and democratic society.

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Interpretation

• To comprehend and express the meaning or
  significance of a wide variety of experiences,
  situations, data, events, judgments, conventions,
  beliefs, rules, procedures or criteria.

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Interpretation Sub-Skills

• Categorization
• Decoding Significance
• Clarifying Meaning

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Analysis

• To identify the intended and actual inferential
  relationships among statements, questions,
  concepts, descriptions or other forms of
  representation intended to express beliefs,
  judgments, experiences, reasons, information, or
  opinions.

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Analysis Sub-Skills

• Examining Ideas
• Identifying Arguments
• Analyzing Arguments

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Evaluation

• To assess the credibility of statements or other
  representations which are accounts or
  descriptions of a person's perception,
  experience, situation, judgment, belief, or
  opinion
• and to assess the logical strength of the actual
  or intend inferential relationships among
  statements, descriptions, questions or other
  forms of representation.

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Evaluation Sub-Skills

• Assessing Claims
• Assessing Arguments

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Inference

• To identify and secure elements needed to draw
  reasonable conclusions
• to form conjectures and hypotheses
• to consider relevant information and to educe the
  consequences flowing from data, statements,
  principles, evidence, judgments,
  beliefs,opinions, concepts, descriptions,
  questions, or other forms of representation.

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Inference Sub-Skills

• Querying Evidence
• Conjecturing Alternatives
• Drawing Conclusions

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Explanation

• To state the results of one's reasoning
• to justify that reasoning in terms of the
  evidential, conceptual, methodological,
  criteriological and contextual considerations
  upon which one's results were based
• and to present one's reasoning in the form of
  cogent arguments.

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Explanation Sub-Skills

• Stating Results
• Justifying Procedures
• Presenting Arguments

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Self-Regulation

• Self-consciously to monitor one's cognitive
  activities, the elements used in those
  activities, and the results educed, particularly
  by applying skills in analysis and evaluation to
  one's own inferential judgments with a view
  toward questioning, confirming, validating, or
  correcting either one's reasoning or one's
  results.

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Self-Regulation Sub-Skills

• Self-examination
• Self-correction

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Skepticism

• APA report on undergraduate education
• students develop skills in
• learning
• critical thinking
• reasoning
• students should become amiable skeptics about
  the information they encounter

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Some tools that skeptics use

• Differentiating between fact and opinion
• Recognizing and evaluating author bias and
  rhetoric
• Determining cause-and-effect relationships
• Determining the accuracy and completeness of
  information
• Recognizing logical fallacies and faulty
  reasoning
• Comparing and contrasting information and points
  of view
• Developing inferential skills
• Making judgments and drawing logical conclusions

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The CRITIC Acronym

• C Claim?
• R Role of the claimant?
• I Information backing the claim?
• T Test?
• I Independent testing?
• C Cause proposed?

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The CRITIC Acronym

• Claim
• what claim is being made?
• can claim be assessed?
• is claim falsifiable?

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The CRITIC Acronym

• Role of the Claimant
• who is making the claim?
• is the claimant objective/unbiased?
• does claimant have something to gain?

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The CRITIC Acronym

• Information backing the claim?
• what evidence is cited to support claim?
• how reliable is evidence?
• where was evidenced obtained?
• can evidence be replicated?

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The CRITIC Acronym

• Test?
• how was claim tested?
• proper controls used?
• internal validity of experiment?
• correlation vs. causation?

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The CRITIC Acronym

• Independent testing?
• is there an independent/unbiased test of the
  claim?
• replication?

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The CRITIC Acronym

• Cause Proposed?
• is the causal explanation for the claim plausible?

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The Skeptical Inquirer

• Near Death Experiences
• Darkness, Tunnels, and Light