| Assignment Number 2 Discussion/Writing Assignment Eight essential guidelines to critical thinking (inside cover) To the student (xxix-xxxi) About the authors (xxxii) Chapter 1. The science of psychology (2-19) |
Student
Name _____________________ Date due: 9-8-04 Introduction to Psychology 101 Hal S. Bertilson, Ph.D. |
| If this paper is late and you believe it may qualify as an excused absence please explain | __________________________________ |
| Late papers. Unexcused late papers may be turned in for one-half credit for the written portion of the assignment. |
| Spacing. Papers must be typed, double spaced. |
| 8-1/2 X 11 paper. In order to make handling papers easy and to ensure that none are misplaced, all papers are expected to be 8-1/2 X 11 inches, stapled, and with no torn, spiral notebook edges. |
| Please staple the questions to your answers or write out the questions as well as the answers. Having the questions available in the small group will facilitate discussion. |
| Critical Thinking Exercise: APPLYING CRITICAL THINKING GUIDELINES. | |||
| The following are some guidelines for critical thinking: | |||
| 1. | Ask questions; be willing to wonder. | 5. | Avoid emotional reasoning. |
| 2. | Define your terms. | 6. | Don't oversimplify. |
| 3. | Examine the evidence. | 7. | Consider other interpretations. |
| 4. | Analyze assumptions and biases. | 8. | Tolerate uncertainty. |
| Each of the statements below violates at least one of the guidelines for critical thinking. Identify the guideline that was violated and give a brief explanation for your choice. | ||
| 1. | A political editorial supporting severe penalties for the production and sale of pornography pointed out that all societies are repressive to some extent, and that it was Freud who pointed out that repression is the price we pay for civilization. | |
| a. | Which guidelines(s)?.................................................................................................. | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 2. | Since we have never been visited by extraterrestrials, and have had no communication from outer space, we can safely assume that intelligent life exists only on our planet. | |
| a. | Which guidelines(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 3. | It is pretty obvious that smoking marijuana causes people to crave more potent drugs, like cocaine and heroin. Statistics show that almost all the people who became addicted to drugs smoked marijuana before they began using more potent drugs. | |
| a. | Which guidelines(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 4. | Jezebel bought a bottle of pain reliever because a TV commercial claimed that most hospitals prescribe it. | |
| a. | Which guidelines(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 5. | You're either for us or against us. | |
| a. | Which guidelines(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 6. | I get disgusted with my science classes. We study the "principle of this" and the "theory of that." Aren't there any laws? Why can't scientists make up their minds and stop acting like they don't know anything for sure? | |
| a. | Which guidelines(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 7. | People tend to become forgetful as they get older. This is just one of the natural consequences of aging, and it would be a waste of time to look for specific causes or ways to prevent the problem. | |
| a. | Which guideline(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 8. | People of different ethnic backgrounds just can't live harmoniously in the same neighborhood. Almost everyone I've talked to thinks the same way. This is a gut feeling, and we aren't likely to be wrong. | |
| a. | Which guideline(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 9. | The increase in violence by adolescent gangs in this country is just another result of the liberal thinking that has more sympathy for criminals than for their victims. | |
| a. | Which guideline(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 10. | Why are the people in this class so much better-looking and intelligent than people in other introductory classes? | |
| a. | Which guideline(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 11. | You can tell that Alice is a lot smarter than her brother. She wears those thick glasses and has a high forehead. | |
| a. | Which guideline(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 12. | A mother was trying to dissuade her son from marrying a girl he had met three weeks before. The son's response was "But I know she's the one for me; the first time I saw her I began to tremble and see spots before my eyes, and I had flutters in my chest and strange sensations in my stomach. | |
| a. | Which guideline(s) | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 13. | I looked at several issues of the Journal of Parapsychology, a periodical that publishes research on psychic phenomena. Every article confirmed the existence of ESP, so I don't understand why most psychologists are skeptical about it. | |
| a. | Which guideline(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |
| 14. | Let's just make up our minds and buy one or the other of the houses. I'm tired of thinking about it, and all this investigation and indecision is making me nervous. | |
| a. | Which guideline(s)? | |
| b. | Explanation: | |