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PSYC
100: PSYCHOLOGY OF CRITICAL THINKING
(Summer 2007)
Catalog
Course
Description:
Analysis of
arguments and persuasive appeals (both deductive and inductive), common
fallacies in thinking and forming arguments, evaluating information
sources
used to justify a belief, application of critical thinking to
scientific
reasoning about human behavior.
Instructor:
David
Campbell
Office: 103 HGH
Phone:
826-3721
E-mail:
dec1@humboldt.edu
Web
site:
www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/psyc.htm
Texts: (Be sure to
purchase the correct edition.)
Bassham, G., Irwin, W., Nardone,
H., &
Wallace, J. M. (2005). Critical thinking: A student’s
introduction (2nd
ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
(ISBN 0-07-287959-9)
Stanovich,
K. E.
(2004). How to think straight about psychology (8th ed.).
New York: Allyn and Bacon.
(ISBN 0-205-48513-8
Course
Goals:
To achieve improved skill in critical
thinking. Specific attention
is given to:
n
Identifying
the premises and conclusion of arguments,
n
Evaluating
the validity of deductive arguments,
n
Evaluating
the strength of inductive arguments,
n
Understanding
scientific reasoning,
n
Identifying
common fallacies in thinking and forming arguments,
n
Constructing
and evaluating arguments of your own,
n
Evaluating
information sources used to justify a belief.
This
is a GE
course (Lower Division, Area A). As such, this course aims to
sharpen
your ability to think clearly and logically, to find and critically
examine
information, and to communicate orally and in writing. These skills
will help
you to write better papers, ask critical questions, and improve your
overall
understanding of material.
Course
Procedure:
Since
this class is being taught via the web, we will not have traditional
lectures.
You must do the assigned reading and submit homework assignments as you
would
in a traditional class. And you will have several exams over the course
material—all completed over the web except for the final exam. Beyond
that,
much of your work in this course will be in the form of participation
in a
“virtual” class discussion. Frequently during the week, you will be
expected to
logon to Moodle and contribute to the
discussion using
a bulletin board format. This will require a fair amount of your time,
but if
done conscientiously, you will find that the class debate and
discussion is one
of the most interesting parts of the whole course. The expectation
is that
the time you would have spent sitting in lecture will be devoted to
participation on the Moodle discussion
board. In summer session that comes to
about 9 hours
a week!
The publisher has a website with
chapter outlines, review quizzes, and other study aids:
http://www.mhhe.com/bassham2e
Grading
(approximate weighting)
10%
Homework assignments
Graded simply
as done/not done. Serious effort with
the homework assignments will pay off when you take the exams.
40%
2 midterm exams (20% each) over
material from the reading assignments.
Completed using BlackBoard.
25%
Final exam (comprehensive)
25%
Class participation. You
should logon to the class discussion daily.
At each of these times, you should read the
other postings and submit your own contributions to the discussion (in
the form
of “replies”). Strive for frequent,
high-quality, thought-provoking contributions.
Support your ideas with your own reasoning or evidence you have
obtained
from internet searches and other classes you have taken and you should
do fine
with this part of the course. Expect a
lower grade if you post contributions to the discussion board less
often than
most students, make short posts that show little thought, fail
to address ideas in previous posts, or provide confused and poorly
thought out
contributions.
Extra
Credit:
You can earn extra credit in this course by participating
in one or two hours of research as a participant (subject). To sign up for experiments, you need to first
create an account in the participation pool system.
Instructions are available at http://www.humboldt.edu/~cla18/partpool.htm No specific point values are associated with
extra credit work. However, such activities will be considered when
course
grades are determined and may be useful when students are near the
border
between two letter grades. Note: research participation appointments
are taken
seriously. While 2-3 hours of participation credits can improve your
grade in
borderline situations, failing to show up for scheduled research can
lower your
grade.
Student
Responsibilities:
You are expected to tackle this
course in a constructive and mature manner.
Your instructor expects you to make your work in this course a
high
priority, keep up with your reading, and complete all assignments on
time. If you must turn in an assignment
late,
notify the instructor ahead of time (e-mail is convenient). Also, be sure to review the HSU policy on academic honesty. You need to be aware of what constitutes
cheating and plagiarism (e.g., is it OK to turn in essentially the same
paper
in two classes with similar assignments, or is it OK to make use of
quizzes
provided by your roommate from the same class last semester?).
Note: Homework is
due on the date
indicated below.
DATE TOPIC
READING ASSIGNMENT
Bassham
Stanovich
May 29
Orientation
Info
--
--
May 30
Intro to Critical Thinking
1
1
June 1
Recognizing Arguments
2
2
June 4
Basic Logical Concepts
3
3
June 6
Language
4
4
June 8
Logical Fallacies—1
5
5
First
midterm exam (take Fri or Sat, June 8 or 9, anytime)
June 11
Logical
Fallacies—2
6
--
June 13
Analyzing Arguments
7
6
June 15
Evaluating Arguments
8
7
June 18
Categorical Logic
9
--
June 20
Propositional Logic
10
--
Second midterm exam
(take Wed or Thurs, June 20 or 21, anytime)
June 22
Inductive Reasoning
11
8
June 25
The Media
14
9
June 27
Science and Pseudoscience
15
10
June 29
Final Words from Stanovich --
11,12
June 29
FINAL EXAM (take Fri, June 29, anytime)