Book contents
- Critical Thinking in Psychology
- Critical Thinking in Psychology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chapter 1 An Introduction to Critical Thinking: Maybe It Will Change Your Life
- Chapter 2 Nobelists Gone Wild
- Chapter 3 Why Science Succeeds, and Sometimes Doesn’t
- Chapter 4 Critical Thinking and the Rejection of Unsubstantiated Claims
- Chapter 5 Promoting Critical Thinking by Teaching, or Taking, Psychology Courses
- Chapter 6 Avoiding and Overcoming Misinformation on the Internet
- Chapter 7 Critical Thinking Impacts Our Everyday Lives
- Chapter 8 Research Suffers When We All Agree
- Chapter 9 When All Is Just a Click Away
- Chapter 10 Critical Thinking
- Chapter 11 Evaluating Experimental Research
- Chapter 12 Critical Thinking as Scientific Reasoning
- Chapter 13 Critical Thinking in STEM Disciplines
- Chapter 14 Why Would Anyone Do or Believe Such a Thing?
- Chapter 15 Conclusion: How to Think Critically about Politics … and Anything Else!
- Index
- References
Chapter 1 - An Introduction to Critical Thinking: Maybe It Will Change Your Life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2019
Book contents
- Critical Thinking in Psychology
- Critical Thinking in Psychology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chapter 1 An Introduction to Critical Thinking: Maybe It Will Change Your Life
- Chapter 2 Nobelists Gone Wild
- Chapter 3 Why Science Succeeds, and Sometimes Doesn’t
- Chapter 4 Critical Thinking and the Rejection of Unsubstantiated Claims
- Chapter 5 Promoting Critical Thinking by Teaching, or Taking, Psychology Courses
- Chapter 6 Avoiding and Overcoming Misinformation on the Internet
- Chapter 7 Critical Thinking Impacts Our Everyday Lives
- Chapter 8 Research Suffers When We All Agree
- Chapter 9 When All Is Just a Click Away
- Chapter 10 Critical Thinking
- Chapter 11 Evaluating Experimental Research
- Chapter 12 Critical Thinking as Scientific Reasoning
- Chapter 13 Critical Thinking in STEM Disciplines
- Chapter 14 Why Would Anyone Do or Believe Such a Thing?
- Chapter 15 Conclusion: How to Think Critically about Politics … and Anything Else!
- Index
- References
Summary
We define critical thinking in several different ways that converge on the same basic idea. It is a combination of skills, attitude, and knowledge. To think critically about any topic, one needs a deep knowledge of the topic and the propensity to apply the appropriate thinking skills. These skills can be taught (and learned) in ways that transfer to different topics, but it is not easy or automatic. Instructors need to teach for transfer deliberately. Personality traits such as a concern for truth, being analytic, and being open to new ideas are some of the traits of critical thinkers. Creativity has been defined as creating something that is unusual and useful. It is a special case of critical thinking. The rules for scientific reasoning, avoiding bias, resisting persuasion, and so on are universal, thus we conclude that although culture is always important, the skills for critical thinking are the same everywhere.
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- Critical Thinking in Psychology , pp. 1 - 9Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
References
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