This document discusses critical thinking in cross-cultural psychology. It defines critical thinking as thinking about one's own thinking process, including how and why conclusions are drawn. Specific tools for critical thinking discussed include metathinking, metathoughts, and cognitive biases. Metathinking involves strategies for inquiry and problem solving. Metathoughts are thoughts about one's own thoughts that serve as "antidotes" to counter natural biases. Several cognitive biases are explained such as the fundamental attribution error and availability bias. The importance of distinguishing between correlation and causation is also highlighted.

1. CRITICAL THINKING
IN CROSS-CULTURAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Dr. Ayanna Lynch

2. THINKING
 Thinking is natural
 essential for every day life
 Critical thinking is valuable and encouraged
 Part of the BSU curriculum
 But why? What is it? How do we do it?

3. CRITICAL THINKING
 Defined: thinking about thinking
 Critical thinking involves being conscientious about the how
and why we think the way we do
 How we process information?
 Why we draw the conclusions we do?
 Why we are quick to accept some information as truth without
further analysis and treat other information as skeptical?
 When are we susceptible to making errors in judgment?
 What are the specific tools to think critically?

4. CRITICAL THINKING TOOLS
 Metathinking
 A series of cognitive skills that can be
taught and learned to develop analytical
thinking
 Specific strategies for inquiry and problem
solving

5. CRITICAL THINKING
 Metathoughts
 Thoughts about thoughts
 Serve as antidotes:
antidotes
 An antidote is a remedy used to prevent our
counteract an adverse event
 Analogous to medicine
 We need cognitive antidotes to help counter our natural
way of thinking which can be biased, rigid, simplistic, etc.

6. THE EVALUATIVE BIAS OF
LANGUAGE
 Language allows us to describe various phenomenon
 Events, situations, people
 We attempt to describe rather than evaluate/judge
 Descriptions are objective
 free of judgment; everyone agrees with perception/label
 Evaluations are subjective
 based on judgment; individual differences in
perception/label

7. THE EVALUATIVE BIAS OF
LANGUAGE
“To describe is to prescribe”
What do you think this means?

8. THE EVALUATIVE BIAS OF
LANGUAGE
 “To describe is to prescribe”
 We have a natural tendency to describe things
subjectively when attempting to do so objectively
 We unconsciously label things
 By using words that simultaneously describe and evaluate
(we are not neutral)
 Therefore, we prescribe, through our word choice, what we
like and dislike

9. THE EVALUATIVE BIAS OF
LANGUAGE
 The distinction between objective and subjective is not
always clear
 We describe things objectively
 We use the same terms to describe people subjectively
 Room temperature: hot and cold
 Person: hot and cold
Do these terms mean the same thing in each instance?
Which is objective and which is subjective?

10. THE EVALUATIVE BIAS OF
LANGUAGE
 Reciprocal influence of attitudes and language
 Our beliefs, values, perceptions influence our language
and vice versa
 How we refer to someone/thing shapes how we perceive
and treat them
 Examples: “All men cheat” or “All black women have attitudes”

11. THE EVALUATIVE BIAS OF
LANGUAGE
 Bidirectional relationships also influence the choice in
words that we use
 Politically correct terms are an example
 We have made changes in how we label others or others have
changed the way they label themselves.
 For example, ethnic groups
 People of African descent have evolved from “Blacks, Negroes,
Colored, N______) and now prefer the less derogatory term African
Americans
Can you think of other examples of politically correct terms?

12. DICHOTOMOUS VARIABLES
 Defined: two mutually exclusive or contradictory
categories
 We tend to describe things that are continuous as
dichotomous
 Black vs. white
 Old vs. young
 Pregnant vs. not pregnant (can’t be both…or in between)

13. CONTINUOUS VARIABLES
 Continuous variables: the various points between
two polar opposites
 Shades of gray
 We often confuse dichotomous with continuous variables
 Not everything is black and white
 Tend to do so when describing people or behavior
 Continuous variables tend to be more accurate and
meaningful descriptions or explanations

14. The Barnum Effect
 Barnum Statements- statements directed towards an individual or
group that is true for just about all human beings.
 Be sure to review the list of Barnum statements example provided in the
textbook
 Barnum Effect- is when individuals accept Barnum statements as
true
 Do all Black people really like fried Chicken (and red Kool Aid)?
 Is this the only culture that likes (okay, loves) fried chicken? I think not.
 Yet, we all nod our heads in agreement when we hear generalizations like
these.
 Can you think of other examples?

15. Schema
 Defined: a cognitive structure that organizes our knowledge,
beliefs, and past experiences, thereby providing a framework
for understanding new events and future experiences.
 I like to think of schema as the “lens” through which we see
the world.
 Seeing the world through rose colored glasses.
 If your glasses are rose tinted, you will see the world as rosy (and
likely full of optimism). If your glasses are cracked and dirty, your
outlook on life will likely be skewed
 What are other examples of schema that someone could have?

16. Schema
 When we encounter new information or experiences, we can do
one of two things:
Accommodate or assimilate the information.
 Accommodation- modifying our schema to fit the data
 Changing our lenses to make sense of the new info/experience
 May cause one to rethink their values or beliefs
 Assimilation- modifying the data to fit the schema
 Trying to make the new info/experience match what our existing
lenses wants us to see
 May cause one to distort the truth just to hold on tight to their original
values for dear life

17. Assimilation Bias
 Assimilation Bias- the tendency to engage in
assimilation rather than accommodation
 To reject rather than accept information

18. Heuristics
 Heuristic- A mental shortcut or rule of thumb strategy for problem
solving.
 Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
 I before E except after C
 In general, heuristics can be great as they allow us to process
information quickly
 Who has time to fully process everything
 However, shortcuts sometimes cause errors in processing that could
have been avoided if we had fully processed the information
 At times, using heuristics might cause us to make underestimations
or overestimations

19. Representativeness Bias
 Representativeness Heuristic- a method used to
estimate the probability of two entities are related
 Representativeness Bias- when representativeness
heuristic cause a systematic error in information
processing.
 Think back to the DC Sniper. Tell the truth, what was the
racial profile that most people assumed fit the sniper?
 Based on our “representation” of a sniper, we made a MAJOR
error in judgment about who the perpetrators were.

20. Availability Bias
 Availability heuristic- process by which individuals determine frequency,
incidences, or the likelihood of an event based one how accessible it is from
memory.
 Availability Bias- when Availability heuristic cause a systematic error in
information processing.
 When we can easily conjure up an image in our minds about an event, we are
more likely to overestimate it. We are likely to underestimate events that are
hard to imagine.
 How many airplane crashes are there per year?
 How many bicycle accidents are there per year?
 Which was harder to guestimate?

21. Availability Bias
 Tell the truth, when you heard about Whitney Houston’s death, did
you assume it was a drug overdose?
 Isn’t it much easier to conjure up images of celebrities and drug
overdoses rather than accidents or natural causes?

22. Fundamental Attribution Error
 Fundamental Attribution Error- individual’s tendency to
associate behaviors with internal factors and give external
factors less consideration or completely ignore them.
 Cognitive Bias- errors produced by our limited thinking
capacity
 e.g. caused by fatigue, distraction, low IQ
 Motivational Bias- errors produced by efforts to satisfy our
own selfish needs

23. Self Fulfilling Prophecy
 Defined: When people’s attitudes, beliefs, or assumptions
about another person actually produce the expected
behaviors.
 Can happen intentionally or unintentionally
 Knowledge of a person’s low expectations of may subconsciously
cause someone to perform below their capabilities
 Affirmations are positive examples of SFP’s: you can speak
positivity into your existence

24. Self Fulfilling Prophecy
 An important note about SFPs (which most students often
overlook)
 There are actually four parts to this phenomenon:
h Awareness of an expectation (either someone elses or your own)
n Subconscious internalization of this expectation
t This subconsciously impacts the person’s behavior (either
deflating or boosting their confidence or motivation)
s The predicted behavior is manifested or demonstrated
It is not enough to simply be aware of an expectation…the
prophecy (the prediction) has to actually come true.
 Can you think of personal examples of a self-fulfilling prophecy?

25. Correlation & Causation
 Correlation- there is a relationship among the variables,
positive or negative
 does not recognize cause and effect
 Correlation ≠ causation!
 Just because there is correlation or relationship between
crime and urban neighborhoods, living in “the hood” does
not “cause” someone to commit crime.

26. Correlation & Causation
 Causation: There is a direct influence between variables;
one explains the presence of the other
 Bidirectional Causation-
 Event A causes Event B and Event B causes Event A
 Multiple Causation-
 More than one cause
 Event A, B and C caused/contributed to Event D

27. Naturalistic Fallacy
 Defined: An individual’s tendency to determine whether
something is good or bad based on frequency
 There are Four Types (grouped into 2 pairs)
Common = Good
Uncommon = Bad
Common = Bad
Uncommon = Good
Most people tend to use one pair or the other to guide their
thinking and behaviors.

28. Naturalistic Fallacy
Common = Good and Uncommon = Bad
Those with this type of thinking would believe the following:
If something is really popular (common), “that’s hot”
If something is unpopular (rare/uncommon), it’s “not the business”
Common = Bad and Uncommon = Good
Those with this type of thinking would believe the following:
If something is really popular (common), “I’m doing just the opposite”
If something is unpopular (rare/uncommon), “That’s for me”
Which thinking style describes you?

29. Belief Perserverance Effect
 Occurs when an individual’s beliefs are being
challenged.
 The individual tends to protect his/her belief.
 As a result, the individual will hold on to his/her belief
despite facts that dismiss the belief