PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: James Randi, Crystal Ball, Critical Thinking

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Eleanor Riesen

Document Summary

Typical errors in hindsight, overconfidence, and coincidence. Gathering psychological data: description correlation, and experimentation/causation. Issues in psychology: laboratory vs life, culture and gender, values and ethics. Critical thinking refers toa more careful style of forming and evaluating knowledge than simply using intuition. In addition to the scientif method, critical thinking will help us develop more effective and accurate wayts to figure out what makes people do, think, and feel the things they do. The (cid:271)(cid:396)ai(cid:374) is desig(cid:374)ed fo(cid:396) su(cid:396)(cid:448)i(cid:448)i(cid:374)g a(cid:374)d (cid:396)ep(cid:396)odu(cid:272)i(cid:374)g. but it is (cid:374)ot the (cid:271)est tool fo(cid:396) seei(cid:374)g (cid:858)(cid:396)ealit(cid:455)(cid:859) (cid:272)lea(cid:396)l(cid:455). To improve our thinking, we will learn to catch ourselves in some critical thinking errors. The (cid:272)oi(cid:374)(cid:272)ide(cid:374)(cid:272)e e(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:396), o(cid:396) (cid:373)istake(cid:374)l(cid:455) pe(cid:396)(cid:272)ei(cid:448)i(cid:374)g o(cid:396)de(cid:396) i(cid:374) (cid:396)a(cid:374)do(cid:373) e(cid:448)e(cid:374)ts; (cid:862)the di(cid:272)e (cid:373)ust (cid:271)e fi(cid:454)ed (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause (cid:455)ou (cid:396)olled th(cid:396)ee si(cid:454)es i(cid:374) a (cid:396)o(cid:449)(cid:863) Overconfidence erro(cid:396): (cid:862)i a(cid:373) su(cid:396)e i a(cid:373) (cid:272)o(cid:396)(cid:396)e(cid:272)t(cid:863) Whe(cid:374) (cid:455)ou see (cid:373)ost (cid:396)esults of ps(cid:455)(cid:272)hologi(cid:272)al (cid:396)esea(cid:396)(cid:272)h, (cid:455)ou (cid:373)ight sa(cid:455) (cid:862)that (cid:449)as o(cid:271)(cid:448)ious(cid:863)