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Tools of Critical Thinking

Metathoughts for Psychology

David A. Levy

This innovative text is designed to improve thinking skills through the application of “Metathoughts” (literally, thoughts about thought). Metathoughts arise from critical analysis of the way we think. These specialized tools and techniques are useful for approaching all forms of inquiry, study, and problem solving. Levy applies Metathoughts to many large issues in contemporary social and clinical psychology: defining psychological phenomena, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in various schools of psychological thought, evaluating the usefulness of psychological theories, and improving cognitive processes to explore new avenues of insight. For each Metathought, Levy offers practical examples, illustrations, anecdotes, clinical vignettes, and contemporary social problems and issues.
 

$31.95 list, 262 pages

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-316-0

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-316-4

© 1997

“Levy’s text is an essential component of my course. It is elegant, witty, and parsimonious as it explains fundamental concepts in an engaging and inviting fashion. Students in my course rave about the book and more than once referred to it in course evaluations as the ‘best’ part of the course. In my view, Levy’s book is a winner.”  — Caroline Bailey, California State University, Fullerton

“Taken together, Levy’s ‘metathoughts’ are an invaluable and portable toolkit for distinguishing sense from nonsense in psychology and other disciplines alike.”  — Robert Jensen, California State University, Sacramento

Table of Contents

Part 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

Part 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

Part 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

Part 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 Can 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

Part 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

Part 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 1: “Pervasive Labeling Disorder”

Appendix 2: Selected Answers to Chapter Exercises

Glossary