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Ch UNIT 7 & Ch 15 (see Reading Agenda)
Critical Thinking & Reasoning
As a follow-up to our discussion of IQ and g ,well discuss several
habits of thinking that can improve or compromise our everyday
judgments. This info (along with all youll learn about psychology and
research in this course) is designed to make you a more critical
consumer of information you encounter.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Discomfort or tension that exists
when theres a conflict between
our beliefs and/or behavior
Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)
Two groups bribed to say the enjoyed a
boring task
The group paid less money later claimed to
enjoy it more. Why?
To avoid guilt about deceiving others,
they convinced themselves it wasnt
really that boring.
The $20 group had so much external
motivation to lie, they didnt need to
reduce their guilt
HEURISTICS & BIASES
Heuristic
A cognitive shortcut or rule of thumb used to make
judgments & solve problems
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Confirmation Bias
tendency to seek evidence that supports our beliefs and neglect
or distort contradicting evidence
E.g.:
Depressed man knows people dont like him. Seeks out
e.g.s of this & ignores e.g.s suggesting people DO like him
seeking only instances/quotes that enhance your opinion
of a favored political candidate
o or seeking only unflattering ones of a candidate you
dislike
sticking to a theory and only selecting research/evidence
that supports it
Attributions
Our causal explanations for events/behavior
Internal: attribute behavior to the person
persons characteristics/disposition
External: attribute behavior to the situation.
Fundamental Attribution Error
overestimating the impact
of dispositional influences
on anothers behavior
using more internal
attribs. & downplaying
situational influences
o assume theyre
late b/c theyre
irresponsible,
instead of
traffic, a late
bus, etc.
Self-Serving Attribution
using internal to att. explain your success;
external att. to explain your failures/shortcomings
Representativeness Heuristic
Estimating likelihood of things based on how well the
characteristics match or represent a stereototype.
E.g.s: Linda-bank teller; Dave-truckdriver
Availability Heuristic
Estimating likelihood of events based on their availability in
memory
how easily we can retrieve them based on vividness,
recency, frequency
E.g.s:
Fear of airplane crashes
Swimmers fear of shark attacks
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Some Obstacles to Critical Thinking:
(See CT questions outlined in CT Tutorial on Blackboard)
Impatience or Intellectual Laziness
It takes time and effort
Low Tolerance for Complexity or Ambiguity
Needing quick/straight/easy/"the right" answers
Seeing CT as wishy-washy, preventing you from taking a
position; fear of "paralysis by analysis"
Shyness, Diffidence
Unwilling to ask questions; fear of looking/sounding stupid
Ego-defensive
Confirmation bias to protect our cherished
beliefs/values/opinions or general certitude
Needing to appear right/smart/consistent/certain
Applying CT to others' thinking but not our own; focusing
on argument as a win-lose verbal battle (rather than a joint
exploration and exchange of information)
Lack of Reinforcement
Traditional education often reinforces *
generation/memorization of content, rather than
evaluation of content
o through teacher praise; test scores;
assignment/course grades
Often more social reinforcment for spouting
knowledge/facts (rather than asking questions),
memorizing and reciting material
Equating "Critical" Thinking with thinking/discussing that is
criticizing, hostile, rigid, cold/unfeeling
or presenting it that way
CT is not about embarrassing, "showing up," or making
yourself appear smarter; it's about clarifying your
understanding and helping you make informed decisions
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