Thinking Critically in Psychology

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Thinking Critically in Psychology

• Introduction to Psychology
• Simon Fraser University

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(No Transcript)
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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