Take out straightforward points in the following statement and write them in point form
This book may well be your first formal introduction to psychology. You
will find many topics are covered, but because psychology is such a big
field, there are also many aspects that are not covered. A single book can
only introduce some of the key issues in psychology. To find out more,
you will need to read widely.
An enormous amount of information is available about every aspect of
psychology and this can be daunting. Because new ideas are emerging all
the time, a good way to keep up to date in the field is always to be on the
lookout for new, reputable books. In the field of psychology, however,
academic journals are possibly even more important than books.
Examples of South African psychological journals are the South African
Journal of Psychology, the Journal of Industrial Psychology, Psychology in
Society and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in South Africa.
There are also many excellent international journals, and many
university libraries now offer online access to these through search
engines such as PsychInfo and PsychArticles. Psychologists in academic
departments and research psychologists, as well as practitioners, will
generally publish their work in academic journals.
A big advantage of reading articles printed in good psychology journals
is that articles are assessed for quality before being accepted for
publication. In this standard process, any article sent to a journal is
reviewed by a number of experts in the field (this is called peer
reviewing). Articles that, according to the reviewers and the editor, are
not academically up to standard will not be accepted for publication.
Unfortunately, this does not mean that bad articles are never published!
The internet is a wonderful resource for gathering information easily,
but there are drawbacks. On the plus side, there are thousands of
websites that deal with every conceivable aspect of psychology. On the
minus side, a person who knows nothing at all about a subject can put
ideas on the internet as if these were fact – there is no quality control.
Nevertheless, there are many excellent websites, online journals and
discussion forums that use a peer-review process like printed journals
do. An added bonus is that sources can be accessed and read as
electronic files, rather than in print.
The key to using the internet (or any other knowledge source) is always
to assess critically the quality of what you are reading. You will not
automatically have this skill. Some old-fashioned educational
techniques, where learners are forced to memorise lists of facts or ideas
without questioning them, in fact discourage critical thinking. A key
purpose of training in psychology (and in other university subjects) is to
develop your critical thinking skills.
When we read about psychology, how do we assess the quality of what
we read? First, we cannot judge the quality of an argument on the basis of
what it concludes about people, or on the basis of whether we agree with
the author’s beliefs about people or not. It is quite possible for two
excellent psychologists to differ strongly about an aspect of human
behaviour, while both providing convincing arguments and good
evidence for reaching their conclusions. As you read more widely in
psychology, you will find that there are many differences in opinion
amongst researchers. It can even be the case that two researchers
conduct what looks like the same experiment in two different settings,
but get very different results. This does not mean, necessarily, that either
of the researchers did bad work. On the contrary, different findings from
different contexts may give us important information.
A discipline such as psychology thrives on debate. People are complex
and different ways of studying people provide different sorts of
information. It is through engaging with the debates that we learn, and
the discipline of psychology can move forward. Students studying
psychology for the first time sometimes expect it to teach them the so�called ‘facts’ about people, and assume that psychologists know
everything there is to know about the human condition. This is not the
case. It is certainly true that there are principles about understanding
human behaviour that are supported by good research evidence and
strong theories, and you will learn about some of these principles in this
book. But the discipline is developing all the time, and new evidence and
arguments make for new views about people.
In psychology, you have to be able to assess the research methods used
to support an argument before you can assess whether that argument is
well made. So you need to understand methods of research, which are
the processes whereby psychologists make systematic observations of
people and use these observations to develop theories. This is why the
second chapter of this book focuses on research methods. But even
before you are skilled in understanding the many sophisticated methods
psychologists use in their research, there are two basic questions you can
ask about anything you read in psychology:
1. Do the authors provide evidence for what they claim to be true? In
psychology, we cannot just make claims because we believe things to
be so. Good psychologists rarely generalise, and they show to what
extent there is sound evidence to support their views.
2. Do the authors provide a clear and logical argument, linking what
they report on having read and/or observed to what they conclude?
When you read a psychological text, assess how well the authors build
an argument. When you read closely, you may find that the authors
leave out steps in their argument, or jump to conclusions on the basis
of insufficient or incorrect evidence.
Learning to read critically in psychology is not something that happens
overnight; it is not easy for some students to make the leap from reading
a text for supposed facts (as they may have done in school) to reading in
order to understand and evaluate what they read. But becoming a critical
reader is crucial to becoming a successful psychology student – and it is
also fun!
As you develop your critical skills, you will start to enter the world of
scientific debate. You will no longer be someone who just reads and
accepts what you are told; you will become a partner in creating your
own knowledge.
- This book is your first formal introduction to psychology
- Many topics are covered, but not everything in the field of psychology
- To learn more, read widely and keep up to date with new publications
- Academic journals are important sources of quality information
- Peer reviewing process ensures quality of articles before publication
- Internet is a useful resource for information, but quality control is lacking
- Critical thinking is essential when assessing information from any source
- Psychology thrives on debate and different perspectives
- Understanding research methods is crucial in psychology
- Two basic questions to ask about any psychological text: evidence and logical argument
- Developing critical reading skills is important for success in psychology
- Becoming a critical reader allows participation in scientific debate and creation of knowledge