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| Module Availability |
| Semester 2 |
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| Assessment Pattern |
Journal article critiques (2 sides A4) - Weighting 10%
Exam (2 hours) - Weighting 90%
Qualifying Conditions
Students must achieve 40% in each component of assessment |
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| Module Overview |
| The main aim of the course is to develop the skills needed to think critically about psychological research. |
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| Prerequisites/Co-requisites |
| N/A |
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| Module Aims |
The main aim of the course is to develop the skills needed to think critically about psychological research. The process of critical thinking will be explained and then developed through the analysis of journal articles. Critical thinking is a skill that develops through practice, and so the majority of the lectures and tutorials will involve group work on structured tasks rather than following a traditional lecture format. These tasks will focus on analysing the conclusions that can be drawn from a study, the methods used in research, and the ethical implications of the research. They will encourage you to develop your own position on each of these issues, and they will show you how to ensure that this position is sound. Using all of these skills, you will assess existing journal articles and write original, well argued critical analyses of them.
It is a further aim of this course that the skills you will learn on it will be of use throughout your psychology degree as they can be applied to develop good analyses of all psychological research, and used to improve your own written work. Finally, critical thinking is a useful skill on placement and in your future career either within or without psychology as it will help you to identify poor thinking in any situation, correct it, and clearly express a better alternative. |
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| Learning Outcomes |
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Draw sound conclusions from research and evaluate the conclusions that others draw
- Design sound methods for empirical research and evaluate the methods that others use
- Evaluate the ethical considerations and implications of research
- Articulate your critical analyses with: clarity; sound argument; depth; breadth; originality; significance; relevance and fairness, in both written and oral form
- Develop and defend your own responses to psychological questions
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| Module Content |
1. Introduction to critical thinking.
2. Being critical: Theories, methods, and measurements.
3. Writing critically.
4. Thinking critically about Social Psychology.
5. Research design.
6. Thinking critically about Cognitive Psychology.
7. Epistemological debates within Psychology.
8. Thinking critically about Developmental Psychology.
9. Evaluating the ethics of research.
10. Thinking critically about Biological Psychology.
11. Exam preparation. |
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| Methods of Teaching/Learning |
The eleven lectures will be of two hours duration and involve a combination of traditional lecturing and problem-based learning. The five tutorials will be conducted in groups of approximately 30 and will be in one hour blocks. |
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| Selected Texts/Journals |
Essential Reading
Bonnet, A. (2008). How to argue. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Four selected articles from the reading lists of other Level 2 modules for critical evaluation. Other modules have not yet published their reading lists.
Recommended Reading
This module does not attempt to teach critical thinking through learning facts and so the list of essential reading on the topic is short. Instead, critical thinking is taught through analysis of journal articles. Therefore it is recommended that the skills taught on this module are applied to reading on the other modules in order develop these skills fully. |
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| Last Updated |
| 5.5.11 |
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