As we shall see later, the most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquiring the attitude of suspended conclusion, and in mastering the various methods of searching for new materials to corroborate or to refute the fist suggestions that occur. To maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry — these are the essentials of thinking. (Final lines of Chapter 1 in John Dewey’s, How We Think)
Psychology 4180: Critical Thinking in Psychology
2018 - 2019
General Description
The basic skills required to gather, interpret, and critically evaluate research findings in Psychology are discussed and developed in the course. Alternative definitions of critical thinking are considered, as are the contributions of cognitive psychology to an understanding of critical thinking. Both contexts for enhancing critical thinking and contexts that impede it are explored. Emphasis is placed on the concepts of argument and rhetoric in the service of persuasion. Students practice applying their growing knowledge of critical thinking by evaluating research studies in Psychology - both correlational and experimental studies, both qualitative and quantitative studies. Critiques of Psychology itself are also considered.
Students apply their developing critical thinking skills in various contexts. Students present the results of primary source research articles in a manner appropriate for the general public - for example, preparation of guidelines for teachers on the use and misuse of the learning styles concept, or a brochure for lawyers regarding the reliability of eyewitness testimony. The actual topics explored are discussed in class and online and are mutually agreed upon by the students and the Course Director. Students also critically evaluate the accuracy and utility of current media reports about psychological findings.
Skills emphasized in the course include:
Locating research articles on emerging trends and demonstrating critical thinking about research findings in Psychology,
Critically assessing the methodology used to address specific research questions,
Effectively interpreting results from reported research,
Evaluating the credibility of scientific evidence and differentiating it from scientific conjecture,
Communicating, in writing and orally, the methods, results, and conclusions of research studies in lay terms,
Critically assessing and communicating, in writing and orally, the value of media reports about psychological concepts and studies.
Instructor
Ron Sheese, Course Director
S342 Ross Building
Evaluation
Attendance (10%)
Weekly exercises and reflections (10%)
Project 1 (15%), October 18. Critique of a popular article and its academic source.
Project 2 (15%), December 6. Critique of a psychology research article
Project 3 (25%), February 28. Critique of a set of related psychology articles
Project 4 (25%), April 18. Plain-language recommendations regarding an applied psychology issue.
Reading Assignments
September 6
Reynolds, G. (August 16, 2017). How exercise could help you learn a new language. New York Times.
September 13
CBC Radio, SPARK (June 27, 2018). We need a survival guide for thinking because we're bad at it.
Liu, F., Sulpizio, S., Kompetpanee, S., & Job, R. (2017). It takes biking to learn: Physical activity improves learning a second language. PLoS ONE 12, e0177624.
Willingham, D. T. (2007). Critical thinking: Why is it so hard to teach? American Educator, 31(2), 8-19.
September 20
Eyal, N. (2018). Fundamental attribution error: Why you make terrible life choices. Nir&Far. [Available: https://www.nirandfar.com/2018/09/fundamental-attribution-error.html]
Damasio, A. (2003). Looking for Spinoza: Joy, sorrow, and the feeling brain. Orlando, FL: Harcourt. (Page 149)
Mercier, H., Boudry, M., Paglieri, F., & Trouche, E. (2017). Natural-born arguers: Teaching how to make the best of our reasoning abilities. Educational Psychologist, 52(1), 1-16.
Wheeler, L. K. (2017). Toulmin model of argument. [Available: web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Toulmin.pdf]
September 27
Graff, G. (2003). Clueless in academe: How schooling obscures the life of the mind. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Pages 1-25, 30-32, 65-67, 275-277)
Hadidi, A. (2016). Cognition and Rhetoric in English Language Learners’ Writing: A Developmental Study. PhD dissertation, York University. (Pages 308-309, 352-353)
Psychology Research Guide. York Libraries
Stapleton, P., & Wu, Y. (2015). Assessing the quality of arguments in students’ persuasive writing: A case study analyzing the relationship between surface structure and substance. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 17, 12-23. (Focus on pages 12-14, 20, 22)
October 4
Cranney, J., & Dunn, D. (2011). The psychologically literate citizen: Foundations and global perspectives. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (page 34 – tip sheet handout)
Flaherty, C. (September 5, 2018). A philosophy blogger resigns. Inside Higher Ed online.
Ruscio, J. (2005). Critical thinking in psychology: Separating sense from nonsense. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (page xiv – tip sheet handout)
Wingate, U. (2012). ‘Argument!’ helping students understand what essay writing is about. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11 (2), 145-154.
October 18
Angelo, T. A. (1995). Classroom assessment for critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 6-7.
Halonen, J. (1995). Demystifying critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 75-81.
Singal, J. (December 5, 2017) The creators of the Implicit Association Test should get their story straight. Daily Intelligencer, New York Magazine.
October 25
Chatfield, T. (2017). 10 Commandments for Critical Thinking. [Available: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/chatfield-ten-commandments/]
Roediger, H. L., & McCabe, D. P. (2006). Evaluating experimental research: Critical issues. In R. J. Sternberg, H. L. Roediger, & D. F. Halpern (Eds.), Critical Thinking in Psychology (pp. 15 – 36). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
November 1
Drake, T. (2011). Drake’s List of the Most Common Logical Fallacies. [Available: https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/eng207-td/Logic%20and%20Analysis/most_common_logical_fallacies.htm]
Tafreshi, D., Slaney, K. L., & Neufeld, S. D. (2016). Quantification in psychology: Critical analysis of an unreflective practice. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 36, 233-249.
November 8
Adler, S., & Aronczyk, A. (November 23, 2017). Stereothreat. Radiolab. [Available: http://www.radiolab.org/story/stereothreat/]
Winstone, N. E., Nash, R. A., Rowntree, J., & Parker, M. (2017). ‘It’d be useful, but I wouldn’t use it’: barriers to university students’ feedback seeking and recipience. Studies in Higher Education, 42(11), 2026-2041.
November 15
Beres, D. (September 13, 2016). Can we think critically anymore? bigthink. [bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/can-we-think-critically-anymore]
Engber, D. (Jan 3, 2018). LOL something matters. [Available: https://slate.com/health-and-science/2018/01/weve-been-told-were-living-in-a-post-truth-age-dont-believe-it.html]
Kahne, J. & Bowyer, B. (2017). Educating for democracy in a partisan age. American Educational Research Journal, 54(1), 3-34.
November 22
Kolata, G. (October 31, 2017). How to report when the science is sketchy. New York Times, p. A2.
Kreps, T. A., Laurin, K., & Merritt, A. C. (2017). Hypocritical flip-flop, or courageous evolution? When leaders change their moral minds. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(5), 730-752. (abstract and method section only)
Luhrmann, T. et al. (February 2018). The minds of others: The art of persuasion in the age of Trump. Harper’s Magazine, 336(2013), 27-36. {See course Moodle site for link to this set of articles.]
VandenBos, G. R. (2017). “My amygdala killed her, not me”. PsycCRITIQUES, 62(39), 1. [Available: journals.scholarsportal.info/browse/15540138/v62i0039/1_akhnm.xml]
November 29
VandenBerge, L. & Ramaekers, S. (2014). Figures of disengagement: Charles Taylor, scientific parenting, and the paradox of late modernity. Educational Theory, 64(6), 607-625.
January 3
Davis, O. (October 9, 2013). 6 ways neoliberal education reform is destroying our college system. Salon.
Finnie, R., Dubois, M., Pavlic, D. & Suleymanoglu (Bozkurt), E. (2018). Measuring critical-thinking skills of postsecondary students. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. (read pages 1-15).
Friesen, J. (November 28, 2019). One in four Ontario postsecondary students lacks basic literacy, numeracy skills, studies say. The Globe and Mail.
Pinsent-Johnson, C. (2018, December 17). HEQCO’s skills agenda is flawed - here’s why. CIHE Blog.
Sakaluk, C. (June 5, 2012). Authors accuse Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario of academic misconduct. rabble.ca blogs.
Weikle, B. (November 28, 2018). We must work to close the critical thinking gap between high school and university. Toronto Star.
January 10
Delistraty, C. (February. 2, 2018. Who gets left out of the advice to 'make your own happiness'. New York Magazine.
Horowitz, D. (2018). Happier? The history of a cultural movement that aspired to transform America. New York: Oxford University Press. (Chapter 7 - The future is here: Positive Psychology comes of age)
Pobric, B. (January 6, 2018). Habits and happiness: History of Positive Psychology with Daniel Horowitz, author of Happier? (a 50-minute YouTube interview with Horowitz)
Tavris, C. (March 29, 2018). 'Happier' and 'The Hope Circuit' reviews: How smiles were packaged and sold. The Wall Street Journal.
January 17
Crede, M. (2018). What shall we do about grit? A critical review of what we know and what we don’t know. Educational Researarcher, 47(9), 606-611.
Dubner, S. (March 29, 2017). Big returns from thinking small. Freakonomics podcast (31 minutes).
Gerald, J., & Brady, B. (2019, January 13). Time to make your mandatory-attendance policy optional? The Chronicle of Higher Education
Nudge Theory. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
Sugden, R. (2017). Do people really want to be nudged towards healthy lifestyles? International Review of Economics, 64(2), 113-123.
January 24
Ahessy, B. (2017). Song writing with clients who have dementia: A case study. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 55(complete), 23-31.
Noone, C., Bunting, B., & Hogan, M. (2016). Does mindfulness enhance critical thinking? Evidence for the mediating effects of executive functioning in the relationship between mindfulness and critical thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1-16.
Payne, B., Vuletich, H., & Lundberg, K. (2017). The bias of crowds: How implicit bias bridges personal and systemic prejudice. Psychological Inquiry, 28(4), 233-248.
January 31
Meppelink, R., de Bruin, E., & Bogels, S. (2016). Meditation or medication: Mindfulness training versus medication in the treatment of childhood ADHD: a randomized control trial. BMC Psychiatry, 16, 267.
Newman, R. (2018, September 12). The inheritance: Rob Newman’s total eclipse of Descartes. BBC Radio 4
Manjoo, F. (January 9, 2019). You should meditate every day. New York Times.
Parks, A., Della Porta, M., Zilca, R., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2012). Pursuing happiness in everyday life: The characteristics and behaviors of online happiness seekers. Emotion, 12(6), 1222-1234.
Scull, A. (2019, January 15). Egos and experiments: The travails of social psychology. Times Literary Supplement.
Taren, A. A., Gianaros, P., Greco, C., Lindsay, E., Fairgrieve, A., Brown, K. W., Rosen, R., Ferris, J., Julson, E., Marsland, A., Bursley, J., Ramsburg, J., & Creswell, J. D. (2015). Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized control trial. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1758-1768.
February 7
Hurley, P. J. (1991). A Concise Introduction to Logic, 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. [Extended Arguments, pages 57-62]
Mulnix, J. W. (2012). Thinking critically about critical thinking. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(5), 464-479.
Wai, J. (2019, January 10). What goes into the development of greatness? Psychology Today Blog.
February 14
Kahn-Harris, K. (2018, August 3). Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth. The Guardian.
Saeed, T. Khan, S., Ahmed, A., Gul, R., Cassum, S., & Parpio, Y. (2012). Development of students’ critical thinking: The educators’ ability to use questioning skills in the baccalaureate programmes in nursing in Pakistan. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 62(3), 200-203.
Shean, A. (2015). Mindless learning versus critical thinking: Educators must teach how to think. Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture, 6(2). 101-103.
February 21
Reading Week, no class
February 28
Assignment #3 due, no class
March 7 through March 28
Individual interviews as arranged, no Thursday evening classes
April 4
Ron will be available in the usual classroom from 6:00 to 8:00pm to consult with any students who wish to speak about their plans for the final assignment.