NSLC 2014 Session 2 : Critical Thinking in Psychology

1. Session 2
Paperclips and Toasters: Critical
Thinking in Psychology.
Jamie Davies
How many uses
can you think
of for a
paper
clip?

2. 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.

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

4. 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)

5. 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.

6. 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

7. What is
critical (rational)
thinking in
psychology?

8. “savvy consumers
and producers of
research”
(Sternberg, 1999).

9. Correlation not Causation

14. 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)

15. 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]

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. “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.

19. Discuss a CT class activity
How could you
embed critical
thinking into
your classroom
activities?

20. 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?

21. “… 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.

22. TheThe
ThinkingThinking
Ladder.Ladder.
Charlotte Russell
www.resourcd.com

23. Developing opinions, judgements & decisions.Developing opinions, judgements & decisions.
Critical thinking skills.Critical thinking skills.
Separating a whole an examining itSeparating a whole an examining it’’ss
component parts or features.component parts or features.
Using facts, rules, principles and applying themUsing 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, informationOrganisation and selection of facts, information
and knowledge.and knowledge.
Combining or organising information to form aCombining or organising information to form a
new whole or create something new.new whole or create something new.
Identification and recall of information. AlsoIdentification and recall of information. Also
known as Knowledge!known as Knowledge!

24. Thinking
Ladder
Tasks
Bloom-ing great!

26. Why do we study the
WEIRDest people?
http://jamiedavies.co/weird

29. “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

30. http://jamiedavies.co/nslc14
@jamiedavies
Thank You