Tools of Critical Thinking: Metathoughts for Psychology

Tools of Critical Thinking: Metathoughts for Psychology is a text designed to improve one's thinking skills through the application of metathinking principles, which consist of a series of specific strategies, methods, and techniques for approaching all forms of inquiry, study and problem solving, with particular application to the field of psychology. Metathoughts are cognitive tools that can be successfully taught, learned, and utilized to consider issues from a variety of different perspectives and alternate points of view. The ideas in Tools of Critical Thinking are vividly brought to life with illustrative examples, clinical anecdotes, case vignettes, contemporary social problems and issues, challenging exercises, and clever satires — all drawn from a diverse sampling of topics within psychology and packaged in a form that is engaging, easy to read, and eminently useful. Even ideas that potentially might be confusing, obscure, or elusive are organized and presented in a manner that is straightforward, understandable, and enjoyable.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Thomas Szasz. Acknowledgments. Preface. List of Tables. List of Figures. I.  CONCEPTUALIZING PHENOMENA. 1.  The Evaluative Bias of Language: To Describe Is to Prescribe. 2.  The Reification Error: Comparing Apples and Existentialism. 3.  Multiple Levels of Description: The Simultaneity of Physical and Psychological Events. 4.  The Nominal Fallacy and Tautologous Reasoning: To Name Something Isn't to Explain It. 5.  Differentiating Dichotomous Variables and Continuous Variables: Black and White, or Shades of Grey? 6.  Consider the Opposite: To Contrast Is to Define. 7.  The Similarity-Uniqueness Paradox: All Phenomena Are Both Similar and Different. 8.  The Naturalistic Fallacy: Blurring the Line Between “Is” and “Should.” 9.  The Barnum Effect: “One-Size-Fits-All” Personality Interpretations. II.  EXPLAINING PHENOMENA. 10.  Correlation Does Not Prove Causation: Confusing “What” With “Why.” 11.  Bi-Directional Causation: Causal Loops, Healthy Spirals, and Vicious Cycles. 12.  Multiple Causation: Not “Either/Or,” But “Both/And.” 13.  Degrees of Causation: Not All Causes Are Created Equal. 14.  Multiple Pathways of Causation: Different Causes, Same Effects. III.  COMMON MISATTRIBUTIONS. 15.  The Fundamental Attribution Error: Underestimating the Impact of External Influences. 16  The Intervention-Causation Fallacy: The Cure Doesn't Prove the Cause. 17.  The Consequence-Intentionality Fallacy: The Effect Doesn't Prove the Intent. 18.  The “If I Feel It, It Must Be True” Fallacy: The Truth Hurts; But So Do Lies. 19.  The Spectacular Explanation Fallacy: Extraordinary Events Do Not Require Extraordinary Causes. IV.  INVESTIGATING PHENOMENA. 20.  Deductive and Inductive Reasoning: Two Methods of Inference. 21.  Reactivity: To Observe Is to Disturb. 22.  The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: When Expectations Create Reality. 23.  The Assimilation Bias: Viewing the World Through Schema-Colored Glasses. 24.  The Confirmation Bias: Ye Shall Find Only What Ye Shall Seek. 25.  The Belief Perseverance Effect: The Rat Is Always Right. 26.  The Hindsight Bias: Predicting a Winner After the Race Is Finished. V.  OTHER BIASES AND FALLACIES IN THINKING. 27.  The Representativeness Bias: Fits and Misfits of Categorization. 28.  The Availability Bias: The Persuasive Power of Vivid Events. 29.  The Insight Fallacy: To Understand Something Isn't Necessarily to Change It. VI.  CONCLUSIONS. 30.  Every Decision Is a Trade-Off: Take Stock of Pluses and Minuses. Epilogue: Concluding Meta-Metathoughts. Metathoughts Summary and Antidote Table. Appendix I: “Pervasive Labeling Disorder.” Appendix II: Selected Answers to Chapter Exercises. Glossary of Terms. References. Name Index. Subject Index.