Rational Thinking In Psychology powerpoint to get students to consider how to reflect on the results of research in psychology. http://jamiedavi.es

1. Critical Rational Thinking in
Psychology

2. What is
critical rational
thinking?

4. TASK
In groups look at the
conclusions from Lazarsfeld
(1949) and suggest reasons for
the findings of the study.
[10 minutes]

5. Paul Lazarsfeld (1949) | The American
Soldier - An Expository Review
1. Better educated soldiers suffered more
adjustment problems than less educated
soldiers.
2. Southern soldiers coped better with the hot
South Sea Island climate than Northern soldiers.
3. White privates were more eager to be promoted
officers than Black privates.
4. Southern Black soldiers preferred Southern to
Northern White officers
5. As long as the fighting continued, soldiers were
more eager to return home than after the war
ended.

6. Paul Lazarsfeld (1949) | The American
Soldier - An Expository Review
1. Better educated soldiers suffered fewer
adjustment problems than less educated
soldiers.
2. Northern soldiers coped better with the hot
South Sea Island climate than Southern soldiers.
3. White privates were less eager to be promoted
officers than Black privates.
4. Southern Black soldiers preferred Northern to
Southern White officers
5. After the war ended soldiers were more eager to
return home than when the fighting continued.

7. RT| Criticisms of Psychology
1. Is psychology only common sense?
2. Do psychological theories provide new insight into
the human condition or do they document the
obvious?
3. Does psychology simply formalise what any
amateur already knows intuitively?
“Day after day social scientists go out into the world. Day after day they
discover that people’s behavior is pretty much what you’d expect.”
Cullen Murphy, Editor, Atlantic Monthly (1990)

8. RT | Contradictory Common Sense
Question: How does separation
affect bonds of affection?
Common sense or
“the wisdom of the ages”
Answer: Separation strengthens
bonds of affection (“absence makes the
heart grow fonder”)
Answer: Separation weakens
bonds of affection (“out of sight, out of mind”)
Question: How can we reduce
aggression from others?
Common sense or
“the wisdom of the ages”
Answer: By responding to aggression in kind
(“an eye for an eye”)
Answer: By acting in a passive,
forgiving manner
(“turn the other check”)

9. “Anything seems commonplace, once explained.”
Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes
Hindsight Bias
1. “I knew it all along phenomena”– the tendency to perceive
something as obvious or unavoidable, after learning of the outcome.
2. Study of Hindsight bias: Teigen (1986)
• Evaluate actual proverbs and their opposites
Actual Proverb
• Fear is stronger than love.
• He that is fallen cannot help him
who is down.
• Wise men make proverbs and
fools repeat them.
Opposite
• Love is stronger than fear.
• He that is fallen can help him
who is down.
• Fools make proverbs and wise
men repeat them.

10. What is the quality of the evidence?
Could the relationship have happened by chance?
Is there a control or comparison group?
Is the conclusion causal using correlational data?
Are there any confounding variables?
Are we over generalising based on an
unrepresentative sample?
Are there any biases in the research or data collection methods?
Can you actually falsify the theory?
Is the study claiming to have found the answer?

11. TASK
Choose a study that we have
covered over the last 6 weeks
and using the evaluation
framework consider the
conclusions that the
researcher came to.
[10 minutes]