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Advancing Disciplinary Practice Through Critical Thinking: A Rejoinder To Bensley, Stephen Yanchar, Brent Slife, Russell Warne
Advancing Disciplinary Practice Through Critical Thinking: A Rejoinder To Bensley, Stephen Yanchar, Brent Slife, Russell Warne
Russell T Warne
The authors respond to Bensley’s (2009) comment on their alternative formulation of critical thinking in psychology (Yanchar, Slife, & Warne, 2008). They argue that Bensley’s defense of the traditional critical thinking approach—which they term scientific analytic reasoning (SAR)—fails to address their main objections to SAR and their reasons for presenting an alternative. In particular, the openness, fairness, and generativity that Bensley references as strengths of SAR are themselves informed by scientific analytic assumptions and values, which, they argue, illustrates their original contention—that SAR offers an insular and insufficiently critical approach to critical thinking. The authors conclude by calling for future …
Critical Thinking As Disciplinary Practice, Stephen Yanchar, Brent Slife, Russell Warne
Critical Thinking As Disciplinary Practice, Stephen Yanchar, Brent Slife, Russell Warne
Russell T Warne
Critical thinking in psychology has traditionally focused on method-centered tasks such as the assessment of method use, data analysis, and research evidence. Although helpful in some ways, this form of critical thinking fails to provide resources for critically examining the scientific analytic foundation on which it rests and, when used exclusively, prohibits sufficiently critical analysis of theory and research. An alternative view of critical thinking--that emphasizes the identification and evaluation of implicit theoretical assumptions--is advocated. It is suggested that this alternative approach improves on method-centered approaches by addressing not only implicit assumptions but also rule-following concerns. This approach is intended …