Critical Thinking in Psychology - paperclips and toasters

1. How many uses can you
think of for a paper clip?

2. Learning Objectives:
By the end of this lesson you:
• Should be able to describe (AO1) what critical
thinking is.
• Have reflected (AO1) on your critical thinking skills.
• Should be able to describe (AO1) what goes into a
toaster.
• Have evaluated (AO2) the conclusion from a study
we have studied.

3. 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
What do you know about ‘critical thinking?’
– what is it? – how can it be used?

4. What is critical thinking?
Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and
rationally. It includes the ability to engage in reflective
and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking
skills is able to do the following :
– understand the logical connections between ideas
– identify, construct and evaluate arguments
– detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning
– solve problems systematically
– identify the relevance and importance of ideas
– reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values

6. How to make a piece of toast?
In small groups you have 2 minutes to
write a set of instructions as to how to
make the perfect piece of toast.
Now, imagine you don’t have a toaster
… what would you do?
How could you make the
toast?

7. 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

8. What is
critical rational
thinking in
psychology?

10. 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 they make sense?
[5minutes]

11. 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. Southern Black soldiers preferred Southern to
Northern White officers
5. As long as the fighting continued, soldiers were
more eager to return home than after the war
ended.

12. 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. Southern Black soldiers preferred Northern to
Southern White officers
5. After the war ended soldiers were more eager to
return home than when the fighting continued.

13. RT| 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)

14. RT | Contradictory Common Sense
Question: How does separation
affect bonds of affection?
Common sense or
“the wisdom of the ages”
Answer: Separation strengthens
bonds of affection (“absence makes the
heart grow fonder”)
Answer: Separation weakens
bonds of affection (“out of sight, out of mind”)
Question: How can we reduce
aggression from others?
Common sense or
“the wisdom of the ages”
Answer: By responding to aggression in kind
(“an eye for an eye”)
Answer: By acting in a passive,
forgiving manner
(“turn the other check”)

15. “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.

16. 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?

17. TASK
Choose a study that we have
covered over the last 6 weeks
and using the evaluation
framework consider the
conclusions that the
researcher came to. Are there
any other explanations?
[10 minutes]

19. Learning Objectives:
By the end of this lesson you:
• Should be able to describe (AO1) what critical
thinking is.
• Have reflected (AO1) on your critical thinking skills.
• Should be able to describe (AO1) what goes into a
toaster.
• Have evaluated (AO2) the conclusion from a study
we have studied.