Session 2 Paperclips and Toasters: Critical Thinking in Psychology.

Jamie Davies

How many uses can you think

of for a paper clip?

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the session participants:

•Should be able to describe what critical thinking is.

•Have reflected on teaching critical thinking skills.

•Should be able to describe what goes into a toaster.

•Have discussed strategies to embed critical thinking skills into the curriculum.

Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart;

intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the

manner in which information is collected and used.

Carl Sagan

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.

- Analysing arguments, claims, or evidence (Ennis, 1985; Facione, 1990; Halpern, 1998; Paul, 1992)

- Making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning (Ennis, 1985; Facione, 1990; Paul, 1992; Willingham, 2007)

- Judging or evaluating (Case, 2005; Ennis, 1985; Facione, 1990; Lipman, 1988)

- Making decisions or solving problems (Ennis, 1985; Halpern, 1998; Willingham, 2007). 

(Lai, 2011)

How to make a piece of toast?

Now, imagine you don’t have a toaster … what would you do?

How could you make the toast?

In small groups you have 90 seconds to write a set of instructions as to how to make the perfect piece of toast.

Left to his own devices he

couldn’t build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich and

that was it. Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless, 1992

It takes an entire civilisation to build a toaster

What is critical (rational)

thinking in psychology?

“savvy consumers and producers of research”

(Sternberg, 1999).

Correlation not Causation

CT| Criticisms of Psychology

1. Is psychology only common sense?

2. Do psychological theories provide new insight into the human condition or do they document the obvious?

3. Does psychology simply formalise what any amateur already knows intuitively?

“Day after day social scientists go out into the world. Day after day they discover that people’s behavior is pretty much what you’d expect.”

Cullen Murphy, Editor, Atlantic Monthly (1990)

TASK

In pairs look at the conclusions from Lazarsfeld (1949) and suggest reasons for the findings of the study.

What could have led to his findings?

Do the conclusions make sense?

[5 minutes]

Paul Lazarsfeld (1949) | The American Soldier - An Expository Review

1. Better educated soldiers suffered more adjustment problems than less educated soldiers.

2. Southern soldiers coped better with the hot South Sea Island climate than Northern soldiers.

3. White privates were more eager to be promoted officers than Black privates.

4. As long as the fighting continued, soldiers were more eager to return home than after the war ended.

Paul Lazarsfeld (1949) | The American Soldier - An Expository Review

1. Better educated soldiers suffered fewer adjustment problems than less educated soldiers.

2. Northern soldiers coped better with the hot South Sea Island climate than Southern soldiers.

3. White privates were less eager to be promoted officers than Black privates.

4. After the war ended soldiers were more eager to return home than when the fighting continued.

“Anything seems commonplace, once explained.” Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes

Hindsight Bias

1. “I knew it all along phenomena”– the tendency to perceive something as obvious or unavoidable, after learning of the outcome.

2. Study of Hindsight bias: Teigen (1986)• Evaluate actual proverbs and their opposites

Actual Proverb• Fear is stronger than love.• He that is fallen cannot help

him who is down.• Wise men make proverbs

and fools repeat them.

Opposite• Love is stronger than fear.• He that is fallen can help

him who is down.• Fools make proverbs and

wise men repeat them.

Discuss a CT class activity

How could you embed critical

thinking into your classroom

activities?

What is the quality of the evidence?

Could the relationship have happened by chance?Is there a control or comparison group?

Is the conclusion causal using correlational data?

Are there any confounding variables?

Are we over generalising based on an unrepresentative sample?

Are there any biases in the research or data collection methods?

Can you actually falsify the theory?

Is the study claiming to have found the answer?

“… science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of

myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the

invention of experiments, but with the critical discussion of

myths, and of magical techniques and practices.” 

Popper (1963) p66. 

The The Thinking Thinking Ladder.Ladder.

Charlotte Russellwww.resourcd.com

Developing opinions, judgements & decisions. Developing opinions, judgements & decisions. Critical thinking skills.Critical thinking skills.

Separating a whole an examining it’s Separating a whole an examining it’s component parts or features. component parts or features.

Using facts, rules, principles and applying them Using facts, rules, principles and applying them to examples or to solve a problem. to examples or to solve a problem.

Organisation and selection of facts, information Organisation and selection of facts, information and knowledge. and knowledge.

Combining or organising information to form a Combining or organising information to form a new whole or create something new. new whole or create something new.

Identification and recall of information. Also Identification and recall of information. Also known as Knowledge!known as Knowledge!

Thinking Ladder Tasks

Bloom-ing great!

Why do we study the WEIRDest people?

http://jamiedavies.co/weird

“Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also

judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.”

Carl Sagan

“savvy consumers and producers of research”

Sternberg

http://jamiedavies.co/nslc14@jamiedavies

Thank You