Psychology Commons^™

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 …