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PSYC 100: PSYCHOLOGY
OF CRITICAL THINKING
(Fall 2008, section 1)
Catalog Course
Description: Analysis of arguments
and persuasive appeals (both deductive and inductive), common fallacies in
thinking and forming arguments, evaluating information sources used to justify
a belief, application of critical thinking to scientific reasoning about human
behavior.
Instructor: David
Campbell
Office:
444 BSSB
Phone:
826-3721
Office
Hours: Continuous (by e-mail) , at
announced Live Chat times, and usually 9-11 Wed in my office.
E-mail:
dec1@humboldt.edu
Web
site: www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/psyc.htm
Groups:
Creative Puzzlers (Last names
Deep Thinkers (Last names D to K)
MasterMinds (Last names L to R)
Clear Cogitators (Last names S to Z)
Texts: (Be sure
to purchase the correct edition.)
Bassham, G., Irwin, W., Nardone, H., & Wallace, J. M. (2008). Critical
thinking: A student’s introduction (3rd ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
(ISBN 978-0-07-340734-0)
Stanovich, K. E. (2007). How to think straight about psychology (8th
ed.). New York: Allyn and Bacon. (ISBN 0-205-48513-8)
Course Goals:
To
achieve improved skill in critical thinking. Specific
attention is given to:
Identifying the premises and conclusion of
arguments,
Evaluating the validity of deductive
arguments,
Evaluating the strength of inductive
arguments,
Identifying common fallacies in arguments,
Constructing and evaluating arguments of
your own,
Evaluating information sources used to
justify a belief.
This is a GE
course (Lower Division, Area A). As such, this course aims to sharpen
your ability to think clearly and logically, to find and critically examine
information, and to communicate orally and in writing. You will learn about
errors in thinking and ways to test the validity of reasoning. These skills
will help you to write better papers, ask critical questions, and improve your
overall understanding of material.
Course
Procedure:
Since
this class is being taught via the web, we will not have traditional lectures.
You must do the assigned reading and submit homework assignments as you would
in a traditional class. And you will have several exams over the course
material—all completed over the web except for the final exam. Beyond that,
much of your work in this course will be in the form of participation in a
“virtual” class discussion. Frequently during the week, you will be expected to
logon to Moodle and contribute to the discussion using a bulletin board format.
This will require a fair amount of your time, but if done conscientiously, you
will find that the class debate and discussion is one of the most interesting
parts of the whole course. The expectation is that you will spend a total 4
hours each week participating in class discussion (note that we are using
the 4 hours you would normally spend going to, waiting for, and sitting through
lectures each week).
The publisher has a website with chapter outlines, review quizzes, and other
study aids: http://www.mhhe.com/bassham3e
Grading
(approximate weighting). Note:
Details on the grading of each course component are provided on our Moodle
site.
15%
Homework assignments Graded as done/not done. Serious effort
with the homework assignments will pay off when you take the exams.
40%
2 midterm exams (20% each) over material from the reading assignments.
25%
Final exam (comprehensive).
20%
Class participation. You should logon to the class discussion at
least three times a week: early (Sun-Tues), mid (Wed-Thurs), and late
(Fri-Sat). At each of these times, you should read the other postings and
submit your own contributions to the discussion (in the form of
“replies”). Strive for frequent, high-quality, thought-provoking
contributions. Support your ideas with your own reasoning or evidence you
have obtained from internet searches and other classes you have taken and you
should do fine with this part of the course. Expect a lower grade if you
post contributions to the discussion board only once a week, make short posts
that show little thought, fail to address ideas in previous posts, or provide
confused and poorly thought out contributions.
Extra Credit:
You can earn extra credit in this course by participating in one or two hours
of research as a participant (subject). To sign up for experiments, you
need to first create an account in the participation pool system.
Instructions are available at http://www.humboldt.edu/~cla18/partpool.htm
No specific point values are associated with extra credit work. However, such
activities will be considered when course grades are determined and may be
useful when students are near the border between two letter grades. Note:
research participation appointments are taken seriously. While 2-3 hours of
participation credits can improve your grade in borderline situations, failing
to show up for scheduled research can lower your grade.
Student
Responsibilities:
You are expected to tackle this course in a constructive and mature
manner. Your instructor expects you to make your work in this course a
high priority, keeping up with reading, and completing all assignments on
time. Exams, in particular, must be taken when scheduled. There are no
make-up exams in this course. Also, be sure to review the HSU policy on academic honesty.
You need to be aware of what constitutes cheating and plagiarism (e.g., is it
OK to turn in essentially the same paper in two classes with similar
assignments, or is it OK to make use of quizzes provided by your roommate from
the same class last semester?).
Schedule of
|
Wk # |
WEEK |
TOPIC |
READING
ASSIGNMENT |
|
1 |
Aug 25-29 |
Orientation (An orientation session is scheduled at 1:00
on Wed in NR 101) |
-- |
|
2 |
Sept 1-5 |
Intro to
Critical Thinking |
Bass: Ch 1;
Stan: Ch 1 |
|
3 |
Sept 8-12 |
Recognizing
Arguments |
Bass: 2; Stan: 2 |
|
4 |
Sept 15-19 |
Basic Logical
Concepts |
Bass: 3; Stan: 3 |
|
5 |
Sept 22-26 |
Language |
Bass: 4; Stan: 4 |
|
6 |
Sept 29-Oct 3 |
Logical Fallacies |
Bass: 5; Stan: 5 |
|
7 |
Oct 6-10 |
More Logical
Fallacies |
Bass: 6, Stan: -- |
|
8 |
Oct 13-17 |
Analyzing
Arguments |
Bass: 7; Stan: 6 |
|
9 |
Oct 20-24 |
Evaluating
Arguments |
Bass: 8; Stan: 7 |
|
10 |
Oct 27-31 |
Categorical Logic |
Bass: 9; Stan: -- |
|
11 |
Nov 3-7 |
Propositional
Logic |
Bass: 10; Stan:
-- |
|
12 |
Nov 10-14 |
Inductive
Reasoning |
Bass: 11; Stan: 8 |
|
13 |
Nov 17-21 |
The Media |
Bass: 14; Stan: 9 |
|
|
Nov 24-28 |
Vacation |
-- |
|
14 |
Dec 1-5 |
Science and
Pseudoscience |
Bass: 15; Stan:
10 |
|
15 |
Dec 8-12 |
Final Words from
Stanovich |
Bass: --; Stan:
11,12 |
|
-- |
Dec 15-19 |
FINAL EXAM Comprehensive final: Take-home part to
provided in last week of classes, online part to be taken on Wednesday of
finals week. |
|