Critical thinking in North America: A new theory of knowledge,learning, and literacy

The pace of change in the world is accelerating, yet educational institutions have not kept pace. Indeed, schools have historically been the most static of social institutions, uncritically passing down from generation to generation outmoded didactic, lecture-and-drill-based, models of instruction. Predictable results follow. Students, on the whole, do not learn how to work by, or think for, themselves. They do not learn how to gather, analyze, synthesize and assess information. They do not learn how to analyze the diverse logic of the questions and problems they face and hence how to adjust their thinking to those problems. They do not learn how to enter sympathetically into the thinking of others, nor how to deal rationally with conflicting points of view. They do not learn to become critical readers, writers, speakers and listeners. They do not learn how to use their native languages clearly, precisely, or persuasively. They do not, therefore, become literate, in the proper sense of the word. Neither do they gain much in the way of genuine knowledge since, for the most part, they could not explain the basis for what they believe. They would be hard pressed to explain, for example, which of their beliefs were based on rational assent and which on simple conformity to what they have been told. They have little sense as to how they might critically analyze their own experience, or identify national or group bias in their own thinking. They are much more apt to learn on the basis of irrational than rational modes of thought. They lack the traits of mind of a genuinely educated person: intellectual humility, courage, integrity, perseverance, and faith in reason.Happily, there is a movement in education today striving to address these problems in a global way, with strategies and materials for the modification of instruction at all levels of education. At its foundation is an emerging new theory of knowledge, learning, and literacy, one which recognizes the centrality of independent critical thinking to all substantial learning, one which recognizes that higher-order, multilogical thinking is as important to childhood as to adult learning, and as important to foundational learning in monological as in multilogical disciplines. This educational reform movement is not proposing an educational miracle cure, for its leading proponents recognize that many social and historical forces must come together before the ideals of the critical thinking movement will become a full academic reality. Schools do not exist in a social vacuum. To the extent that the broader society is uncritical so, on the whole, will be society's schools. Nevertheless, the social conditions necessary for fundamental changes in schooling are increasingly apparent. The pressure for fundamental change is growing. Whether and to what extent these needed basic changes will be delayed or side-tracked, thus requiring new periodic resurgences of this movement, with new, more elaborate articulations of its ideals, goals, and methods — only time will tell.     

Why psychology needs conceptual analysts: Wachtel's “discontents” revisited

Commenting on Wachtel's “Investigation and its Discontents” [Wachtel, P. L. (1980). Investigation and its discontents: Some constraints on progress in psychological research. American Psychologist, 35, 399–408], I agree that lack of support for a career path of conceptual analysis and critique is a serious problem. Psychology requires a strong conceptual component because it is subject to unusual distortions and self-deceptions in theory formation and evidential evaluation due to issues of power, self-esteem, and social ideology. I agree with Wachtel that pressures for quantity of publication are detrimental to scientific quality, but dispute his suggestion that excessive focus on quantity in assessing productivity can be addressed by having tenure and promotion candidates submit only their three best papers. Such reviews must be based on the entire record, so improvements must involve journals’ acceptance standards. Regarding Wachtel's concern about the influence of grants on reviews, I argue that grants should be relevant only to the extent they bear on the candidate's scholarly goals.     

Report of the Working Group on Governance and Administration

Prepared by the Working Group on Governance and Administration from the November 1995 Georgetown conference sponsored by the Association of Medical School Psychologists, this paper delineates the various trends in health care that may impact upon organizational structures for psychologists within academic medical centers. Ten variables that describe various functional issues within academic medical centers or health science centers are defined. Finally, seven organizational guidelines and recommendations pertaining to governance of psychological services are detailed.     

潘菽心理学思想的后经验主义蕴含

今年是中国心理学泰斗,理论心理学奠基人潘菽先生诞辰110周年。纪念潘菽先生,意味着继承和发扬潘菽先生的心理学思想。从后经验主义理论心理学的视角来看,潘菽先生的心理学思想仍然具有当代性和启发性,特别是在强调理论对经验研究的优先地位、强调理论对经验现实的建构作用、强调理论的实践品性、强调理论的历史性向度,以及强调理论研究的中国心理学归宿等方面,显示出卓越的远见。     

中学心理学教师健全人格结构的研究

本研究采用调查分析法,从中学校长和中学生对心理学教师人格特征期望的视角,来探讨师范大学如何培养具有健全人格的心理学教师,建构心理学教师人格结构模型。结果表明,中学心理学教师健全人格结构包括:教师职业理想,教师态度品质,积极情感品质和坚强的意志品质。     

Chances and frequencies in probabilistic reasoning: rejoinder to Hoffrage,Gigerenzer, Krauss,and Martignon

Do individuals unfamiliar with probability and statistics need a specific type of data in order to draw correct inferences about uncertain events? Girotto and Gonzalez (Cognition 78 (2001) 247) showed that naive individuals solve frequency as well as probability problems, when they reason extensionally, in particular when probabilities are represented by numbers of chances. Hoffrage, Gigerenzer, Krauss, and Martignon (Cognition 84 (2002) 343) argued that numbers of chances are natural frequencies disguised as probabilities, though lacking the properties of true probabilities. They concluded that we failed to demonstrate that naive individuals can deal with true probabilities as opposed to natural frequencies. In this paper, we demonstrate that numbers of chances do represent probabilities, and that naive individuals do not confuse numbers of chances with frequencies. We conclude that there is no evidence for the claim that natural frequencies have a special cognitive status, and the evolutionary argument that the human mind is unable to deal with probabilities.     

冯特心理学遗产的历史重估

以从近代哲学向现代哲学转换的哲学史背景为基础,揭示冯特心理学体系的理论性质并探明其历史命运,以澄清关于冯特的各种历史的及现代的误解。指出冯特心理学体系作为哲学是一个在现代哲学氛围中建立起来的、以近代哲学精神为基础的理论体系,因而难逃被哲学自身的历史所否定的命运;这是理解冯特心理学体系并澄清关于冯特的种种误解的根本之所在。     

关于"自我"的社会建构论学说及其启示

从后现代主义的立场出发,社会建构论认为传统心理学有关自我的研究都是本质主义的．社会建构论以“关系的自我”取代“本质的自我”,认为自我并非行为背后的精神实体,而是人际互动的产物,是一种文化的建构物。这种观点对于我们正确认识自我具有一定的启发意义。     

Influence of character strengths on mental health stigma

We examined traits of open-mindedness, kindness, hope, and social intelligence in the context of mental health stigma. Stigma – a process that objectifies and dehumanizes a person who has mental illness – diminishes people’s ability to control their behavior as coping with stigma requires self-regulation. Exploring mental health stigma through the lens of character strengths allows for understanding individual differences and kinds of characteristics that help decrease the ramifications associated with stigma of mental health. Several tasks explored the effects of character strengths on implicit and explicit mental health stigma: implicit association task, measures of willingness to interact with those with a mental health disorder, and a social distance task of self, friend, and person with a disorder. Character strengths of social intelligence and kindness were indicative of less stigma of mental health. More open-minded individuals tended to not hold individuals diagnosed with a mental health disorder personally responsible for acquiring that disorder.     

A method for combining occurrence and nonoccurrence interobserver agreement scores

Various statistics have been proposed as standard methods for calculating and reporting interobserver agreement scores. The advantages and disadvantages of each have been discussed in this journal recently but without resolution. A formula is presented that combines separate measures of occurrence and nonoccurrence percentages of agreement, with weight assigned to each measure, varying according to the observed rate of behavior. This formula, which is a modification of a formula proposed by Clement (1976), appears to reduce distortions due to "chance" agreement encountered with very high or low observed rates of behavior while maintaining the mathematical and conceptual simplicity of the conventional method for calculating occurrence and nonoccurrence agreement.