How Psychologists Think: The Discipline of Critical Thinking

The Discipline of Critical Thinking

Exploring psychological perspectives, research methods, and the assumptions underlying our understanding of human behaviour.

Research does not happen in a vacuum.
It needs to be contextualised and understood within the environment

and climate in which it takes place.

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Psychology Is More Than One Way of Seeing

P(caps)sychology is not one field with one way of asking questions. It is a collection of perspectives, each with its own assumptions, methods, and interests.

That matters because the way we approach a question influences what we are able to see. A researcher interested in cognition may focus on how information is processed. A social psychologist may look at relationships and group dynamics. A developmental psychologist may ask how psychological functioning changes across the lifespan.

The subject may be the same. The lens is different.

Different Schools of Thought in Psychology

School	Focus	Key Question
Cognitive	How the mind processes information	How do we perceive, remember, and think?
Social	How individuals interact within broader contexts	How do group dynamics shape individual behaviour?
Developmental	How individuals change over time	How does psychological functioning evolve across the lifespan?
Biological	How physiology and the nervous system affect behaviour	How do hormones and brain function influence what we do?
Individual Differences	How individuals differ from each other	What makes each person unique in intelligence, personality, and motivation?

Psychology is not one discipline with one method. Different questions require different tools. The question determines the method — not the other way around.

Critical Thinking in Psychology

Critical thinking is not about being negative or finding fault with everything. It is about making a judgement while remaining willing to question the reasoning behind it.

Elder and Paul (2012) describe a well-cultivated critical thinker as someone who:

• Raises vital questions and formulates them clearly
• Gathers and assesses relevant information
• Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and tests them against criteria
• Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought
• Communicates effectively in working towards solutions

Four Stages of Critical Thinking

Stage	Question
Understand	What is the issue? Why does it matter?
Analyse	What evidence exists? What methods are available?
Evaluate	Which approach is most appropriate?
Judge	What is the best way forward?

Example: Questioning a Familiar Claim

Consider the statement: "Social media is making people more lonely."

Critical thinking begins before accepting or rejecting it. What exactly do we mean by lonely? What evidence supports the claim? Are we looking at correlation or causation? Could different people experience social media differently? What alternative explanations might exist?

The point is not to make the question unnecessarily complicated. It is to make sure that the conclusion is proportionate to the evidence.

Strong research does not come from finding the answer you want. It comes from being willing to question the answer you already have.

Ontology, Epistemology and Methodology

Before choosing a research method, there is a deeper question: What do we believe about reality and knowledge in the first place?

Term	Meaning
Ontology	The philosophical study of being. What is real? Does truth exist independently of us?
Epistemology	The theory of knowledge. What can be known, and how can we know it?
Methodology	The theoretical rationale behind the choice of research method.
Methods	The tools and techniques used to gather and analyse data.
Data	What is collected when a method is applied — behaviour, text, numbers, experiences.

Two broad frameworks provide a useful contrast.

Positivism

Positivism generally assumes that reality exists independently of the researcher and can be investigated through objective, measurable, and testable methods. Quantitative approaches are commonly associated with this framework.

Constructivism

Constructivism emphasises the idea that people interpret and construct meaning through their experiences. Rather than asking only what is objectively measurable, research may explore how individuals understand and experience their world. Qualitative approaches are commonly associated with this framework.

The method you choose is not neutral. It reflects assumptions about truth, knowledge, and reality.

Consider happiness.

A positivist might ask: "Is there a relationship between chocolate consumption and happiness?"

A constructivist might ask: "How do individuals experience happiness?"

Both are legitimate questions. But they are asking about different aspects of the subject and therefore require different ways of investigating them.

Putting Critical Thinking Into Action

The contrast becomes clearer when the same subject is approached from different research paradigms.

Aspect	Positivist Approach	Constructivist Approach
Research Question	What is the relationship between chocolate and happiness?	How do individuals experience the feeling of happiness?
Method	Survey — measuring chocolate consumption and happiness scores	Interviews — exploring subjective experience
Data	Statistics	Text
Ontology	Reality is treated as something that can be objectively investigated	Reality is explored through the meanings individuals construct from experience

Neither approach automatically produces a "truer" answer. The usefulness of a method depends, in part, on the question being asked and the kind of knowledge we are trying to understand.

Different Questions Require Different Designs

Meltzoff and Cooper (2018) identify several types of research questions:

Type	Question
Existence	Does X exist?
Description	To what extent does X exist?
Composition	What makes up X?
Descriptive-Comparative	Is X different to Y?
Relationship	Is there an association between X and Y?
Causal	Does X lead to Y?
Causal-Comparative	Does X cause more change in Y than Z does?

The question determines the design. If the question and the method do not correspond, the conclusion becomes difficult to defend.

Critical Thinking at Every Stage

Critical thinking is not something that happens only when the final results are being interpreted. It belongs throughout the research process.

Stage	Critical Questions
Planning	Are there other methodological paths I could take?
Reading	What are the writer's purposes and opinions? What are mine?
Data Collection	Is there a better way to collect this data? Have I analysed it correctly?
Interpretation	Is this biased? Am I influenced by a broader social or political message?
Writing Up	Could this have been done differently? What are the shortcomings?

Research does not happen in a vacuum. It is shaped by the environment, culture, and time in which it takes place. Without context, interpretation, and critical thinking, data can easily be misunderstood.

Seeing the Bigger Picture

The Question Shapes the Answer

A question is never completely neutral. The way it is framed determines what we look for, what we measure, and what we may overlook.

Methods Carry Assumptions

Choosing a method means making assumptions about what counts as useful knowledge. Numbers can reveal patterns that individual stories cannot. Personal accounts can reveal meanings that numbers alone may miss.

Good Thinking Leaves Room for Revision

Critical thinking does not mean doubting everything forever. It means remaining open to evidence that challenges an existing conclusion.

My takeaway: The better question is not always the one with the quickest answer. Sometimes the most important step is to stop and ask whether we are asking the right question in the first place.

The questions we ask shape what we find.

Ask "What's wrong with this person?" and I'll find flaws. Ask "What happened to them?" and I'll find their story. Ask "How do they make sense of their world?" and I'll find a different perspective entirely.

Each question reveals as much about me as it does about them.

I used to think I understood people quickly—a behaviour explained, an opinion categorised, a reaction decoded. But critical thinking isn't about doubting everything. It's about having the courage to pause and say: "I might be wrong. Let me look again."

That's harder than it sounds.

It means sitting with uncertainty. Letting multiple explanations coexist. Sometimes admitting the evidence doesn't support what I wanted to believe.

The more I study psychology, the clearer it becomes: people can't be reduced to single explanations. Biology, experiences, relationships, culture, and circumstances all intertwine. And sometimes, I simply won't know.

Not knowing isn't the opposite of understanding. It's where understanding begins.

Reference

• Elder, L., & Paul, R. (2012). Work on critical thinking and intellectual standards.
• Meltzoff, J., & Cooper, H. (2018). Research questions and research design.
• OpenLearn, The Open University. Critically Exploring Psychology (D810).

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