How to Think Straight About Psychology (6th Edition)

This widely used brief paperback supplement focuses on applying critical thinking techniques to standard concepts in psychology and teaches students to recognize and critically appraise pseudoscience. In particular, this text provides tips on evaluating claims that arise in discussions of psychology in the media and self-help literature. By boldly examining common misconceptions in psychology, this text helps students become more critical and discriminating consumers of psychological information. *Examples used to illustrate psychological concepts have been updated to enhance student interest. *A total of 132 new references integrate contemporary studies to provide a current view of the field. *Section on the concept of memes (made famous by Richard Dawkins) and itsrelation to falsifiability has been added to Chapter 12. *Presents psychological topics such as falsifiability, operationalism, experimentalcontrol, converging evidence, correlational vs. experimental studies, andstatistics as "tools" for critical evaluation, providing students with a set of practical consumer skills to independently evaluate psychological claims. * Provides instructors with the opportunity to teach critical thinking skills within the rich context of modern psychology. *An intriguing table of contents piques the reader's interest.