Thinking Critically in Psychology Introduction to Psychology Simon Fraser University

The experts characterize certain cognitive skills as central or core CT skills. The experts are not, however, saying that a person must be proficient at every skill to be perceived as having CT ability. The experts to be virtually unanimous (N>95%) on including analysis, evaluation, and inference as central to CT. Strong consensus (N>87%) exists that interpretation, explanation and self-regulation are also central to CT.

Skepticism APA report on undergraduate education students develop skills in learning critical thinking reasoning students should become “amiable skeptics” about the information they encounter the goals for undergraduate education in psychology suggested by the American Psychological Association (APA Monitor, June, 1990, p.50) include: Thinking skills. We want our students to develop skills in learning, critical thinking and  reasoning. They should be able to refine and enhance their curiosity about human behavior and experience, becoming amiable skeptics about most of what they encounter. This includes the capacity to think critically about themselves and their differences from and similarities to    others who differ from themselves in gender, race, ethnicity, culture or class.

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

The CRITIC Acronym C Claim? R Role of the claimant? I Information backing the claim? T Test? I Independent testing? C Cause proposed? developed by Wayne Bartz designed to promote critical analysis application of the scientific method

The CRITIC Acronym Claim what claim is being made? can claim be assessed? is claim falsifiable?

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

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?

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

The CRITIC Acronym Independent testing? is there an independent/unbiased test of the claim? replication?

The CRITIC Acronym Cause Proposed? is the causal explanation for the claim plausible?