How to Be a Critical Thinker PDF

How to Be a Critical Thinker! Critical thinking. Without a doubt, you\'ve heard this term before. But how to actually become a critical thinker? Critical thinking is an indispensable skill in Psychology, but its also one of the hardest to teach. Critical thinking is like a muscle - the more you pra...

How to Be a Critical Thinker! Critical thinking. Without a doubt, you\'ve heard this term before. But how to actually become a critical thinker? Critical thinking is an indispensable skill in Psychology, but its also one of the hardest to teach. Critical thinking is like a muscle - the more you practice it, the more it develops. **Critical thinking is all about the ability and willingness to assess claims by carefully examining the research evidence.** A claim is simply a statement asserting a truth. A critical thinker will : - Demand research evidence before making any conclusions. - Evaluate the strengths and limitations of each study, reflecting on what the results of the study really tell us. **Critical thinking is about looking for the flaws in any argument, considering both sides of the debate, and resisting the urge to believe something unless it is well supported by evidence.** Critical thinking can seem challenging at times, and it is. Its much easier to believe something because it \"feels right\", because its \"common sense\", or because the person making the claim is someone you trust. But only critical thinking can lead you to something that is closest to the truth. Lots of people believe all sorts of ridiculous nonsense because they fail to think critically. To get you started on your journey to becoming a critical thinker, here are some tips to keep in mind: 1\. Identify the claim being made between the variables and the behavior. 2\. Look for evidence, not anecdotes. Make sure to base your conclusions on research evidence, no matter how compelling an anecdote may seem. 3\. Consider alternative explanations. Even the best studies can produce results that are open to interpretation. In particular, remember that a correlation between two variables can have multiple explanations. 4\. Consider flaws in the research. No research study is perfect. In the next few pages, you\'ll learn some key questions to evaluate the strengths and limitations of a research study. 5\. Remember that correlation does not imply causation. Keep in mind that observing a correlation between two variables does not imply that one variable is causing the other. Generalization, Replication & Alternative Explanation Now that you know the basics of critical thinking, its time to develop some strategies that will help you critically evaluate any research study.  Whenever you come across a study, it is helpful to have a few key questions in mind.  To help you remember these questions, try to memorize this useful mnemonic:  to evaluate a study, think **GRAVE!** **G** stands for **Generalization.  **Can the results of the study be generalized to a wider population? **R** stands for **Replicability & Reliability,** as well as **Research Method**.  Can the study be repeated?  Do we get the same results each time?  What are the pros and cons of the research method used in the study? **A **stands for **Alternative Explanations.  **Are there different ways of explaining the study\'s results? **V **stands for Ecological **Validity.  **Does the study tell us anything useful about behavior in everyday situations? **E **stands for **Ethics. **Did the study follow ethical guidelines?   1. [Generalization] A certain researcher was interested in studying **gender differences **between men and women.  Hence, the target population of their study is men and women - in other words, pretty much every adult in the world!  However, their sample consisted of just 96 participants, who were all students at Florida State university. Can we really make conclusions about all of humanity on the basis of such a limited sample?  Perhaps not.  Maybe there is something about American university culture, or maybe even just the culture in Florida State university, that encourages a certain behavior.  It is conceivable that carrying out this study on a different university campus, or in a different country, or with a different age group, might produce very different results.   The aforementioned researcher's study used a sample that was not representative.  Their sample consisted only of Florida State university students, which fails to account for the diversity in men and women around the world.  Therefore, the study has low generalizability.  Unless more research is carried out with different samples, we shouldn\'t assume that these results apply for all men and women. **Generalizability **is the extent to which a study\'s findings can be applied to other people - to the entire target population.  Clark and Hatfield weren\'t just interested in differences between men and women at Florida State university.  They were interested in *universal *differences between men and women.   In order for a study to be high in generalizability, it is important for the **sample to be representative of the target population.  **That means that all of the demographic characteristics of the target population should be included in the sample.  If the target population is all men and women, then a truly representative sample would include men and women from different age groups, different cultures, different occupations, and so on. The sample should look like a small microcosm of all the men and women in the world.   Exam Tip: Evaluating Generalizability In order to evaluate the generalizability of a study, discuss the following: 1\.  What is the target population of the study? 2\.  Describe the sample of the study.  Who participated in the study?  What sampling method was used? 3\.  Is the sample representative of the target population, or is the sample biased?  To explain why, you could discuss the strengths and limitations of the sampling method 2\) Alternative Explanations When psychologists carry out a study, they try to explain their results. However, it is always important to consider whether there are other ways of explaining the results - known as **alternative explanations**.  Maybe there are cultural differences or other environmental or personal factors at play.   It is especially important to be aware of alternative explanations when looking at correlational research.  When observing a correlation between two variables, X and Y, many people conclude that X must be the cause of Y.  However, there are other, equally feasible alternative explanations - Y may be the cause of X, or a third factor (Z) may be causing both X and Y, or the correlation may simply be random.   When there are different possible explanations for a study\'s results, more research is needed to find out which explanation is correct.  For instance, a study could be repeated in different cultures or environmental conditions to determine any possible differences. Exam Tip: Evaluating Alternative Explanations When evaluating alternative explanations of a study, discuss the following: 1\. What conclusions do the researchers draw from the results? 2\. Are there any other ways of explaining the results?  In particular, did the researchers consider how both biological and cultural factors might explain the results? 3\.  If the study is correlational, what are some different ways of interpreting the correlation? 3. Replicability & Reliability As you should now see, we should be careful about making any firm conclusions from just one research study.   So how do we resolve questions to reach conclusions ?  The answer is simply to *carry out more research.  *For instance, we could **replicate** the study with different groups of men and women, repeating the procedure of the study in different settings, with different age groups, even in different countries. Replicating a study just means to repeat the study again.  If the same results are obtained over many replications, the findings are said to be **reliable.** It is considered important for research studies to be replicable.  When researchers publish a study, they are supposed to describe, in minute detail, exactly how they carried out their research.  They should make it possible for anyone to replicate the study, and see if the same results are obtained.  There are, however, a number of exceptions that make a research study difficult or impossible to replicate. - Case studies often involve unique, one of a kind situations, and so are often impossible to replicate.   ​ - Some famous studies have later been deemed to be unethical - in other words, they should have never been carried out in the first place, due to the harm they inflicted on participants.  It is ethically impossible to replicate these studies, unless significant modifications are made to address ethical concerns By replicating a study many times, in different cultures, we can investigate whether a behavior is *universal *(the same all around the world) or *culture-dependent *(a product of culture).  It seems like no matter what country you study, or what the local culture is, men are more receptive to offers of casual sex from a stranger than women are.  When a human behavior is consistent across very different cultures, biology must be playing a role. 4)Ecological Validity **Ecological validity** refers to the extent that results from a study can be generalized to real-life settings.  Psychology experiments are often very different from real-life situations.  For instance, it would be very interesting if we could design an experiment that would involve studying police officers in simulated life-or-death situations, but of course that would be impossible.  We can\'t (ethically) create or observe these situations in the same way that they would happen in real life.   Exam Tip Many Psychology students tend to evaluate lab experiments by writing \"*since this experiment took place in a lab, it has low ecological validity*\". This is not strong critical thinking.  In order to evaluate the ecological validity of a study, you first need to identify the real-life behavior that is the subject of investigation.  Then, consider whether the experiment involves a realistic simulation of what happens in real life, or whether the experiment involves a high degree of artificiality.  If the study is indeed highly artificial, you could argue that the results are not generalizable to real-life situations. 5)Research Method When evaluating a study, it is always a good idea to identify and describe the research method, and to discuss the strengths and limitations of this methodology.  For instance, when discussing an experiment, you could identify the independent and dependent variables, and explain how a cause-and-effect relationship has been established.  You could also discuss the sampling method, or point out any concerns with demand characteristics and ecological validity. 6\) Ethics in Research Research in Psychology often involves experiments on people.  In their pursuit of knowledge, some Psychologists were blind to the damage they were doing to innocent people.  As a result, there are now strict ethical guidelines to protect the rights and dignity of participants.  Below are the key ethical issues in research, and how to ensure a study is ethical. Some of the key ethical guidelines are described below.  By following these ethical standards, Psychologists can ensure that their research upholds ethical standards and will be approved by the relevant ethical committee. - Informed Consent - ​Protection from Harm - Right to Withdraw - Confidentiality and Anonymity - Deception and Debriefing