punishment is immoral.5 Pedophiles can rarely be rehabilitated.
Psychology—Science and Art
Psychology is both a science and an art. The psychologist as scientist might conduct research to determine how best to ask questions of people to encourage sincere dialogue. The psychologist as artist might use that information to help troubled teens in therapy. The science provides the theory; the art of psychology might involve applying that theory in skillful ways to help others.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on the basis of well-supported evidence. Critical thinking skills can be applied to any topic or problem.
Critical thinkers do the following:
Ask questions
Objectively define problems
Examine the available evidence
Assess assumptions and biases
Avoid emotional reasoning
Separate facts from opinion
Avoid oversimplifying
Consider alternative explanations
Tolerate uncertainty
Maintain an air of skepticism but remain open-minded (i.e., not cynical)
Critical thinking is particularly relevant to psychology. Thought and thinking are important areas of study in psychology. Cognitive psychologists in particular study problem solving, concept formation, creativity, and other mental processes we would call thinking. Moreover, thinking is a topic that interests everybody. We all want to know more about thinking processes. Researchers in psychology generate many competing findings on topics that we find personally interesting or relevant. The general public’s fascination with popular psychology has created a huge market for pseudoscientists and quacks. As a result, students of psychology must be particularly prudent when it comes to evaluating claims and beliefs. And critical thinking skills help us do that.
Critical thinking skills help us recognize different types of evidence and the kinds of conclusions we can draw from each. For example, limited personal experience and anecdotal evidence are not reliable sources of knowledge. A pervasive habit of many people is to form beliefs on the basis of limited experience. We sometimes call this the n of one fallacy. An acquaintance of ours, who should know better, believes in ghosts. Why? Because his father claimed to have seen one. One anecdote was enough for our friend to hold a belief. Limited conclusions can be drawn from such anecdotal evidence.
FYI
Do not confuse skepticism with cynicism. Skepticism is a healthy reluctance to accept new information without sufficient evidence, but cynicism is a scornful, negative attitude toward new ideas. A skeptic wants to see the evidence.A cynic is not interested in the evidence; he or she has already decided to not accept the new information.
The popular press is designed to be popular and often dramatizes or overgeneralizes research findings. Critical thinkers are aware that the popular press is a biased source of information. A critical thinker will view a single report linking urine drinking and improved health with skepticism. A critical thinker will not rely on a newspaper writer’s assessment of research (or even the researcher’s assessment) but will assess the research for himself or herself.
The Critical Thinking Process
1 Ask questions: What makes people happy?
2 Define the problem: What does happy mean? How will you know whether someone is or is not happy?
3 Examine the available evidence: Accepting a conclusion without evidence is not critical thinking.
4 Analyze assumptions and biases: Consider an advertiser who claims that medical doctors prefer her pain reliever. The conclusion she wants you to draw is that doctors prefer her pain reliever because it is a better product. But neither does she say that, nor is it likely to be true. Perhaps doctors prefer it because it is cheaper than other pain relievers. What if the advertiser says that no other pain reliever relieves pain better than hers? What does this really mean? It may mean that her pain reliever is as effective as every other pain reliever on the market. Again, remember the adage Consider the source. The advertiser has an interest in persuading you that her product is better, doesn’t she?
5 Avoid emotional reasoning: Feelings alone are not reliable guides to truth. Set feelings aside as you consider the evidence. Your feeling that something is true does not make it so.
6 Do not oversimplify: One dishonest used-car salesperson does not mean that all used-car salespeople are dishonest—at least we do not think so!
7 Consider other interpretations: In general, a critical thinker accepts the interpretation that accounts for the most evidence with the least number of assumptions. Consider the claim that interpersonal attraction occurs when the planets are aligned. This interpretation requires many assumptions about the nature of the relationship between planetary alignment and human behavior. A better interpretation of attraction might be that people like people who are similar to them.
8 Tolerate uncertainty: Psychologists know that there may be no good answer. A critical thinker knows this and is willing to accept this uncomfortable situation.
Consider a claim that we have heard many times:
“Eating raw oysters increases libido.”
First, let’s consider the possible sources of this popular belief. Perhaps someone in authority claimed that oysters increase libido. Perhaps this belief has been accepted for so long that it has become part of a general belief system (tradition). Perhaps we have had personal experience with eating oysters and the consequences thereof. Perhaps. But we think it is highly unlikely that this belief has come about as a result of scientific inquiry.
So let’s analyze this claim as a critical thinker might.
1 Ask the question: Does eating raw oysters improve libido?
2 Define the problem: How many raw oysters must we eat? How do we measure improved libido?
3 Examine the available evidence: Is there any scientific empirical evidence about oysters and libido?
4 Analyze assumptions and biases: Did the claim originate from oyster farmers?
5 Avoid emotional reasoning: Set aside our feelings about oysters.
6 Don’t oversimplify: Did we have one experience with increased libido after eating some oysters?
7 Consider other interpretations: If we have found that there is evidence that libido increases after eating oysters, could there be another explanation for this? Perhaps we only have the opportunity to eat raw oysters at fancy restaurants with candlelight and
