Critical thinking lib studies LBS 201- 1st edition (The World of The image: by Trudy Smoke, Alan Robbins 12th edition (Asking the right questions: By M Neil Browne, Stuart M, and Keeley Class notes: dis#6  couple things. I was standing at the checkout, and the guy behind me bumped his cart into me. “OW!” I thought. I’m sure it was an accident, so I just ignored it. Then, “OW!” Again! The cart hits me in the back! “What the…?” “Holy cow! A third time? You have got to be kidding!” So I turned around, only to realize that the man behind me is blind. Oh my. We’ve all had experiences like this, where someone behaves negatively toward us and we jump to conclusions and assume negative things about them. For example, in this case I assumed the man behind me was intentionally bumping his cart into me to be rude, or that he was simply being irresponsible and careless with his cart. This is called fundamental attribution error, and it involves how we judge the actions of others without having a true understanding of the motivation of their behavior. In becoming a critical thinker, we need to consider rival causes before making judgments. We need to continually ask what else might have caused this act. What other way can I interpret this situation? What might I see if I look at this from a different point of view? Let’s switch gears now and take a look at a brief report on a study about children who are bullied. In an article in the Science Daily in 2003, it was noted that young children who are bullied at school show signs of antisocial and depressive behavior as a result. Dr. James Snyder and his colleagues at Wichita State University acknowledged that many children will get harassed, but that most handle it effectively and that the harassment centers only on a small group of perpetual victims. Snyder’s researchers watched 266 students from a single elementary school interact on a playground on multiple occasions from the start of kindergarten to the end of first grade, counting the instances of aggression and victimization.  They reported that boys who experienced growing harassment were more likely to demonstrate antisocial behaviors such as arguing, bullying, and tantrums and depressive behaviors such as appearing sad, lonely, and withdrawn. Those boys in turn seemed to illicit more victimization. Parents and teachers reported that girls who were victimized were more likely to engage in antisocial behavior at home as they got older while they acted more and more depressed in school if their victimization at school increased. Snyder held that substantial rates of victimization were observed. On average, children were targets of peer, physical, and verbal harassment about once every three to six minutes. Both the boys’ and the girls’ antisocial behavior made them more likely targets for victimization. So the conclusion is that bullying causes both boys and girls to have antisocial and depressive behaviors, and children who have these behaviors .

1. Critical thinking lib studies LBS 201-
1st edition (The World of The image: by Trudy Smoke, Alan
Robbins
12th edition (Asking the right questions: By M Neil Browne,
Stuart M, and Keeley
Class notes: dis#6
couple things. I was standing at the checkout, and the guy
behind me bumped his cart into me. “OW!” I thought. I’m sure
it was an accident, so I just ignored it. Then, “OW!” Again! The
cart hits me in the back! “What the…?” “Holy cow! A third
time? You have got to be kidding!” So I turned around, only to
realize that the man behind me is blind. Oh my. We’ve all had
experiences like this, where someone behaves negatively toward
us and we jump to conclusions and assume negative things
about them. For example, in this case I assumed the man behind
me was intentionally bumping his cart into me to be rude, or
that he was simply being irresponsible and careless with his
cart. This is called fundamental attribution error, and it involves
how we judge the actions of others without having a true
understanding of the motivation of their behavior. In becoming
a critical thinker, we need to consider rival causes before
making judgments. We need to continually ask what else might
have caused this act. What other way can I interpret this
situation? What might I see if I look at this from a different
point of view? Let’s switch gears now and take a look at a brief
report on a study about children who are bullied. In an article in
the Science Daily in 2003, it was noted that young children who
are bullied at school show signs of antisocial and depressive
behavior as a result. Dr. James Snyder and his colleagues at
Wichita State University acknowledged that many children will
get harassed, but that most handle it effectively and that the
harassment centers only on a small group of perpetual victims.
Snyder’s researchers watched 266 students from a single

2. elementary school interact on a playground on multiple
occasions from the start of kindergarten to the end of first
grade, counting the instances of aggression and victimization.
They reported that boys who experienced growing harassment
were more likely to demonstrate antisocial behaviors such as
arguing, bullying, and tantrums and depressive behaviors such
as appearing sad, lonely, and withdrawn. Those boys in turn
seemed to illicit more victimization. Parents and teachers
reported that girls who were victimized were more likely to
engage in antisocial behavior at home as they got older while
they acted more and more depressed in school if their
victimization at school increased. Snyder held that substantial
rates of victimization were observed. On average, children were
targets of peer, physical, and verbal harassment about once
every three to six minutes. Both the boys’ and the girls’
antisocial behavior made them more likely targets for
victimization. So the conclusion is that bullying causes both
boys and girls to have antisocial and depressive behaviors, and
children who have these behaviors illicit the victimization.
Well, it sounds to me as though bullying is certainly a problem
with kindergarteners and first graders, at least in the one school
involved in the study. Did you catch that? Perhaps the sample
was not necessarily too small, but it may have been a biased
sample. I would want to know how many other schools
experienced substantial rates of victimization, wouldn’t you?
What else might we ask about other possible causes? Much
comes to my mind, such as the training and the type of adults
who supervise the playground, types of activities and play
equipment available for the children or lack thereof,
socioeconomic background of the children’s families, amount of
time spent on the playground in unstructured play, percentage
of the children with learning or other developmental
and on. You see, there seems to be numerous rival causes for
the bullying on the playground. Perhaps the school is
understaffed and there is not enough supervision, or maybe the
adults are not trained in early childhood behaviors. Maybe the

3. children don’t really have any age appropriate toys or play
equipment to keep them occupied so they don’t really have
anything to do, or they have too much unstructured time and
would benefit more from structured play. Or maybe there is a
population of children who are developmentally delayed or
come from homes with inadequate care, and these problems
could be contributing to their antisocial or victimization
behaviors. You see, even though this study sounded pretty
valid, if we remember to ask the right questions, we will learn
so much more to help us determine what we want to accept or
reject and what we want to believe. I have one last story, and
that is the story of the four wise men who were blind and
wanted to know what a buffalo looks like. The first blind man
grabbed ahold of the horn of the buffalo and said, “A buffalo is
just like a spear.” The second man stroked the side of the
buffalo and said, “A buffalo is just like a rug.” The third man
grabbed onto the buffalo’s tail and said, “A buffa
Class notes for Dis#7:figures often beguile me,” wrote Mark
Twain. “There three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies, and
statistics.” This statement refers to the persuasive power of
numbers, the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments, and the
tendency of people to criticize statistics that don’t support their
positions. Let’s take a look at some statistics about the
motorcycle helmet law in Florida. A few years ago, a newspaper
reported that motorcycle fatalities involving riders without
helmets soared in the six years after the appeal of Florida’s
mandatory helmet law. Un-helmeted deaths rose from 22 in
1998 to 250 in 2004. Total motorcycle deaths increased 67%
from 259 in 2000 to 432 in 2004. With this in mind, what is the
question that the article is trying to answer with the statistics?
What information is missing? What else do you want to know?
What other evidence might be necessary to explain these
statistics that appear to be trying to alarm the reader? Well, one
point involves motorcycle registrations. They increased 87% in
Florida after the helmet law repealed. Deaths went up 67% and

4. registrations went up 87%, so deaths per motorcycle have
actually been going down. Un-helmeted deaths went up steeply,
which sounds convincing until you realize that the result of not
wearing a helmet is that an accident that would have killed you
even with a helmet now counts as an un-helmeted instead of a
helmeted death. So the evidence presented in the article, taken
by itself, implies the exact opposite of what the headline
suggests. We all encounter arguments in statistical forms on a
regular basis, and it’s easy to see their use in critical thinking.
It’s important to realize, though, that not all statistics are
equally flawed. Don’t get the impression that because statistical
arguments are often imperfect that they are completely
worthless. There are many different ways for statistics to be
presented, and usually those using statistics present them in a
way most favorable to their conclusion. That is, statistics that
are used represent a choice by the individual’s collecting and
presenting them. They don’t just naturally emerge from a group
of numbers. For example, when reported by the media, statistics
are the product of multiple important choices; the choices of
those who gather the data, influenced by many factors, and the
choices of those who ultimately package the information as
news for the public, influenced by many factors. So be sure to
take a close look at the statistics and remember to ask the right
questions. Sometimes, certain information should be but is not
included in an analysis of particular topics. Another element of
evaluation involves looking for those bits of information that
should have been but were not included. A helpful technique is
to make a list of information that you think you will need in a
controversy about which you will later read. Be as thorough as
possible. Then, with your list in hand, you can compare what
the author should have included with what he actually did
include. Try practicing this with TV commercials. There is
almost always omitted information in an argument. Remember
though that some omitted information is more important than
other such information to judging the reasoning, much like some
ambiguities are more important than others. Try brainstorming

5. information you would like to have and then rank the
information in importance. Be more reflective and less reflexive
in identifying missing information. Remember, you already
have a wealth of material to help you generate examples of
omitted information. That is what you’ve been learning all
semester. Let’s do the following case study together. America is
the policeman of the world. It is our job to go in
Western democracies have not fought wars against one another,
and they are all democratic with a free market structure.
Furthermore, look at the easy transition Germany had when it
was reunited. Democracy was installed and the formerly split
West and East Germany came along just fine. In fact, the
German economy did really well with the transition. Germany
currently has the largest GDP of any country in the world, all
because of democracy and capitalism. The conclusion is
America needs to import its democracy to other countries. What
are the reasons? One is that such a policy would reduce
confrontations with such countries. A supporting reason is that
democratic countries don’t fight wars with one another. The
installation of democracy in East Germany was a success.
Lastly, Germany’s economy has flourished because of
democracy and capitalism. What does it mean to encourage the
development of democracy and free markets? How active should
the United States be in doing this? Should it encage and coup
d’etat to replace present leaders, for example? To what extent
would foreign countries resent our presence in their homelands?
Are there commonalities other than the presence of democracy
that have kept democratic nations from fighting wars with one
another? How similar is the economic, social, and religious
situation of Germany to other countries on which we wish to
impose our system? Are there other causes for Germany’s
present economic prosperity? What are possible unintended
consequences from our trying to impose our political and
economic values on countries with a long history of very
different values? So you see, there is a great quantity of
information that could have and should have been included in

6. this argument. There are numerous unanswered questions that
would need to be answered in order to make a fair judgment
about it. As you continue to build your repertoire of the right
questions to ask, you also continue to grow as a clever, first
class critical thinker. Keep thinking, stop accepting what you
hear, and continue to ask the right questions.
Class readings for Dis #3
Behave!” That was something that I can remember from a long
time ago that my mother used to say to me. And I never really
quite knew what she meant by that. I knew I was doing
something she didn’t like, and so I would just stop doing
everything. In fact, I would even say to her, “I am being-have.”
And the thing is, what’s really important for parents to do is to
be really clear with what they expect from their kids. If they say
things like “behave,” that is ambiguous and likely has multiple
definitions. Another thing is, parents say to their kids all the
time, “clean your room.” Well, a six year old’s definition of
“clean your room” could be very different from a teenager’s
idea of what “clean your room” means, and that could really be
different from what a parent means. My definition was to make
my bed and put my clothes in the hamper. My mother’s
definition included dusting the furniture and vacuuming. So
when a parent says, “clean your room,” she should add, “here,
I’ll help you.” Helping is really teaching them how they want
the room to be cleaned so that the child will know what is
expected. Something else that can be done is to take pictures of
the room when it is clean and put the pictures on the bulletin
board in the child’s room. Then the parent can say, “Clean your
room. I want it to look like this when you are done.” That way
the child has a visual and the definition of a clean room is clear.
Parents are not the only people who use ambiguity. I’ll never
forget the first class I took in graduate school. I proudly turned
in my first paper that I worked so hard on and anxiously
awaited my grade. Finally the day arrived, and the professor

7. walked into the room with a stack of papers and began returning
them to us. He handed mine to me, and on it was a big letter
“B,” and then “not concise.” Not concise! Not concise? What
does that mean? I turned to my peers in a panic. What does not
concise mean? Certainly as a graduate student I knew what the
term meant. But shocked and disappointed with not getting an
A, I was desperate for feedback for a more detailed explanation.
I wanted to know specifically what I could have done
differently so that I would have earned an A and not a B. Yet
“not concise” was an ambiguous phrase, and there was nothing
else to help me understand. Most students who want to do well
need detailed guidelines of how to do their required
assignments. They also need explicit feedback concerning the
assignments they submit. Fortunately, teachers of all grade
levels, including college levels, are learning to develop and use
rubrics and other grading tools that provide guiding principles
for projects, papers, and assignments that would otherwise be
graded subjectively. These tools remove the ambiguity of what
is expected, thus helping students know what to do and how to
do it. Additionally, the tools clarify where points were granted
and where they were deducted, thus helping students understand
what they could have done differently to earn a higher grade.
With ambiguity everywhere, you will find that it varies in its
importance. Important ambiguities are embedded in a reasoning
structure. When analyzing someone’s reasoning, it might be
useful to specify two alternative meanings of a word or phrase,
then consider how each meaning shapes the argument in a way
different from the effect of the other meaning. You are then
able to think through the purpose of the ambiguity as a guide
for understanding the precise intent of the person. When you do
this, be sure to specify alternative meanings that are highly
plausible and what the person might realistically mean. It is
easy to come up with a meaning that is absurd but that rarely
results in further clarification. Try using “if” clauses as a way
of seeking a realistic meaning. For example, if the word or
phrase means X, then I would be likely to see the reason as

8. supportive of the conclusion. Remember, the purpose of
identifying ambiguity is to recognize its impact on the
reasoning structure. Of course, when analyzing a written work,
you’re unable to ask for clarification. But when you’re in a
conversation with a person who continues to be unclear, you
have the advantage of being able to use your questioning skills.
Avoid whys and closed questions, and ask good open questions.
Ultimately, when the reasoning remains ambiguous, the best you
will be able to do is to acknowledge the uncertainty of the
meaning. If and when this occurs, just remember to withhold
your willingness to agree or disagree until the meaning is
clarified and you are satisfied with the intended definition.
(class notes Dis#4)
I can’t stand her! She drives me crazy!” Have you ever heard
someone say these words? Or worse yet,
have you ever said them yourself?
Well, I have to confess. There was a time several years ago that
I was guilty. At the time, I was attending
an aerobics exercise class a few times a week. It seemed like
every afternoon when I got there, a woman
who also attended regularly, we’ll call here Sherry, would also
be there. Every day she would walk in with
this outlandish mammoth smile on her face and say, “Hiiii!! Hi!
How are you?” Usually, the other women
were also gathering, doing a little stretching and appearing
worn out from a long day at work; In other
words, quite opposite in appearance from Sherry.
A few of us would exchange glances, secretly sharing our
annoyance and impatience with her
enthusiasm. This is about the time I would find myself thinking
to myself, “I can’t stand this woman!” This
went on for a few weeks, I’d say, and then it suddenly occurred
to me that here I am, a highly educated
woman, in fact a professor of psychology, acting like an
immature adolescent. Even though, thankfully, I
never lowered myself to the level of actually gossiping about

9. her, I was still embarrassed when I finally
came to grips with the fact that I even had such negative
thoughts about a human being. And for what
reason?
You see, we all at one time or another make descriptive
assumptions about the causes of the behavior of
others. What was it about her behavior that I didn’t like? What
assumptions was I making about Sherry
and her bubbly greetings? How did my assumptions influence
my conclusions about her and her
behavior? So calling upon my own critical thinking skills, I set
out to reflect about my assumptions and my
conclusions and tried to figure out why I felt that I couldn’t
stand her. After a great deal of deliberation, I
deduced that her behavior appeared out of synch with the
behaviors of the rest of us who in many cases
dragged ourselves in to a rather challenging exercise class after
a long, hard day at work. Now none of us
were being force to be there, and we all knew the ultimate
benefits of taking the exercise class. But not
one of us truly felt anywhere near as bubbly and enthusiastic as
did Sherry. So that was part of it.
With my somewhat well-oiled insight into human behavior and
my critical thinking skills, I delved even
further and made another descriptive assumption that lead to a
new conclusion. I concluded that poor
Sherry was more than likely a quite troubled young woman who,
yes, was doing something positive for
herself by going to an aerobics class, but was covering up her
true feelings of perhaps inadequacy,
insecurities, and maybe even more troublesome personal or
family issues. I felt as though I had a
resolution when I realized that it wasn’t that I couldn’t stand
her, it was simply that she was
misrepresenting herself and her true feelings. She was a phony.
So I felt better when I acknowledged to

10. myself that it’s not always easy to trust someone who maybe
even unknowingly puts on a front.
Consider the last time that you had an experience with someone
who did something that you didn’t like.
What conclusion did you infer from that act? In drawing that
conclusion, what did you assume? How did
your assumptions about the causes of other peoples’ behavior
influence your conclusions about their
behavior?
Many of us deal with what we consider to be difficult people all
the time. If we complain to a friend or a
peer, they tell us, “Oh, don’t take it personally.” Good advice.
But that’s not necessarily an easy thing to
do, don’t you agree? It’s even more difficult if the person is
angry, uncooperative, or even malicious.
This is where, in good practical real life sense, we can put our
critical thinking skills to work for us. Here’s
how: The first step is to stop! That’s right. Stop and listen. I
don’t know about you, but if somebody starts
pushing my buttons, no matter what comes out of my mouth, it
won’t be of any value. So I have to talk to
myself, hold my tongue, and listen. And yes, it’s ok to talk to
yourself; in fact, it’s strongly recommended.
Say to yourself, “this person has some issues and those issues
really don’t have anything to do with me
personally.” Ask yourself, “what is it that’s really going on with
her?” Look at the big picture objectively,
and be a good detective. Search creatively so that you can
accurately analyze what it is that has this
person behaving in this manner.
When you stop and listen and talk to yourself, you can start to
hear what’s going on with the person. You
can start to evaluate their behavior before jumping to a
conclusion and making a wrong assumption. By
taking this sort of action, you can indeed prevent yourself from
taking it personally. Because by talking to

11. yourself and asking the right questions, you automatically
separate your emotions from the situation. Ask
questions such as, “I’m trying to understand what happened” or
“I’m confused. Can you help me
understand?” By using these techniques and having this attitude,
you will come across as more
empathetic than she’s expecting. It demonstrates to the person
that you care about helping her resolve
whatever the difficulty is that she’s having.
In conclusion, critical thinking skills are not only for analyzing
articles in science, anthropology,
psychology, art, and the media, or for critiquing movies or
books. Critical thinking skills help us make
better personal decisions, deal with a variety of personal
experiences, gain insight into the behavior of
others, and in general become a better person
Discussion Guidelines
The following is a provided rubric for you to use to assess your
participation in discussions. Please take the time throughout the
course to check and see where your participation level falls.
This document is for your use, so you know what is expected of
you and how your instructor will be grading you.
LEVEL 4
· Provides concrete examples from the readings to support
postings
· Integrates prior readings in postings
· Integrates personal observations and knowledge in an accurate
and highly insightful way
· Presents new observations
· Constructively responds to classmates’ postings
· Participates in all module discussions
· Posts are organized

12. · Information is presented in a logical sequence
· Word choice and sentence structure are suitable
LEVEL 3
· Refers to examples from the readings to support postings
· Integrates personal observations and knowledge in an accurate
way
· Presents new observations
· Constructively responds to classmates’ postings
· Participates in all module discussions
· Posts are organized
· Information is presented in a logical sequence
· Word choice and sentence structure are suitable
LEVEL 2
· Alludes to the readings to support postings
· Integrates personal observations and knowledge in a cursory
manner
· Does not present new observations
· Constructively responds to classmates’ postings
· Posts are somewhat disorganized and information is not
presented in a logical sequence
· Word choice and sentence structure are not suitable
LEVEL 1
· Does not refer to the readings to support postings
· Does not integrate personal observations or knowledge
· Does not present new observations
· Responds in a cursory manner to classmates’ postings
· Posts are disorganized and information is not presented in a
logical sequence
· Word choice and sentence structure are not suitable
Discussion #3
View the following trailer for Ellen’s stand-up comedy
special: https://youtu.be/bWJvNd9JMlU
Consider this or most other comedy routines. Reflect upon what

13. it is that makes us laugh? How does ambiguity play a role in the
language used in creating laughs? Pay particular attention to
those concepts about which you are reading in your course text
and in the module. Give your impressions and any conclusions
that demonstrate application of textbook and course content
concepts to these particular situations. Please ensure that you
cite from your readings in proper format within your initial post
and place the format-compliant reference at the end in order to
earn Level Four concrete examples from grading rubric.
Discussion#4
Several times over the period of a day or so, try to catch people
using fallacies in real-life encounters. Choose one to discuss.
Report on what the person said, what fallacy was used, whether
the fallacy was noticed, whether or not anyone challenged it,
and your overall impression of your experience with your
encounter. Give your impressions and any conclusions that
demonstrate application of textbook and course content
concepts to these particular situations. Please ensure that you
cite from your readings in proper format within your initial post
and place the format-
compliant reference at the end in order to earn Level Four
concrete examples from grading rubric.
Disscussion#5: Consider the fact that literally anyone can post
information of the internet. As a result, it is most important to
use our best critical thinking skills to evaluate the credibility of
information found on a websites as sources of evidence. Use
your favorite search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, AltaVista,
or Bing and identify and explore several websites that focus on
the credibility of internet sources. Examine the criteria that are
used to determine whether sources of evidence are reliable. Pay
particular attention to those concepts about which you are
reading in your course text and in the module. Give your

14. impressions and any conclusions that demonstrate application of
textbook and course content concepts to these particular
situations. Please ensure that you cite from your readings in
proper format within your initial post and place the format-
compliant reference at the end in order to earn Level Four
concrete examples from grading rubric.
Disscussion#6: Choose one of your own behaviors or traits such
as getting angry easily, being compulsive, or not being athletic,
and reflect on the possible causes for the behavior or trait.
Contemplate whether it is reasonable to expect any behavior or
trait to have the same general cause for everyone. If it is not,
what are the limitations of asking the question, “What
is the cause of various human behaviors?” You should consider
various different perspectives, such as the biological,
psychological, socio-cultural causes you use in deciding on
important causes. Give your impressions and any conclusions
that demonstrate application of textbook and course content
concepts to these particular situations. Please ensure that you
cite from your readings in proper format within your initial post
and place the format-compliant reference at the end in order to
earn Level Four concrete examples from grading rubric.
Disscussion#7: Think about some strategies you might use to
develop the habit of looking for omitted information in
someone’s arguments. What are some tactful ways you use to
ask for omitted information when you are having a debate with
someone? What are some of the obstacles that you face in
successfully applying the critical question of what significant
information is omitted? Please ensure that you cite from your
readings in proper format within your initial post and place the
format-compliant reference at the end in order to earn Level
Four concrete examples from grading rubric.
Disscussion#8
Reflect on all that you learned this semester about developing

15. your critical thinking skills and think about your own biases.
One of the biggest obstacles to critical thinking is the
willingness to truly listen to others because we already know
the “right” conclusion. We tend to believe that others disagree
with us because they are biased, yet we are not! Ask yourself
what obstacles to critical thinking you have noticed in your life
and share these with your peers. Suggest strategies you might
use to counter these tendencies and what you might do to
overcome your own biases. Please ensure that you cite from
your readings in proper format within your initial post and place
the format-compliant reference at the end in order to earn Level
Four concrete examples from grading rubric.