Critical thinking, Ways to think critically

Understanding and applying psychology in one’s everyday life can have numerous benefits. In this assignment, you will write an essay requiring you to employ critical thinking as you apply what you have learned about the science of psychology.

You must start your essay with an introduction.

Then, in your own words, define the research methods that are used to describe behavior. Identify the basic ideas behind early approaches in psychology that correlate to these methods.

Now, pretend you are the researcher. Think of a question that you would like to explore, and describe which method you would embrace to conduct your research. You will then include the following elements:

• identify the research question,

• describe your research experiment, and

• indicate the ethical guidelines that must be followed while conducting your research.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking can be defined as the tendency as well as use of skills when engaging in an activity with a reflective cynicism to focus on deciding what to do or believe. Thinking critically is a complex judgments system which are useful in information analysis to help create an assessment of what is happening, come up with valid conclusions as well as interpret it (Meltzoff & Cooper, 2018). Thus, it is a high-level thinking that enhances the possibility of questioning the incoming information. This psychological discipline is based on the formal logic rules, scientific epistemology, rhetoric, practice of argumentation and theories that deal with instruments and cognitive limitations (Meltzoff & Cooper, 2018).

There are two ways of critical thinking for every human being including thinking about information (a simile to sifting through the sand) and absorbing information (a simile to a sponge absorbing water) (Galton, 2015). The first category will actively interact with obtained knowledge while the latter will just try remembering the provided information in detail. However, the two are neither worse. This is because, it hard to develop critical thinking just like it is easier to take the position of your public, family or friends opinion (Galton, 2015). For example, you may have a friend with a feeling that vaccines badly affect the health of their children and as such, you also think the same only because your friend is thinking so. However, after doing your own research, with the available information regarding this claim, you will be able to reiterate this conviction or change your mind. As such, an individual who has developed skills of critical thinking is immune to public opinion or stereotypes and resistant to manipulations.

Research Question

What will you need to know about how a nurse thinks on the job?

In order to address this research question, one needs to be in a nursing school. As such, this study will use a questionnaire survey technique (Moser & Kalton, 2017). The technique will provided quantitative data that will be useful for making critical judgment. The data will be expected to provide the required about how nurses save lives, dress wounds and perform an IV. Although, being a nurse is not just having good clinical skills however it is meeting the required standard protocols in nursing work. At this point, the skills of critical thinking can either cost or save a life. However, the only thing that is dissimilar about the critical thinking of a nurse to that of a dentist or an engineer is mainly how nurses view patients and the kinds of issues nurses have to deal with in their job. Therefore, what is needed to think like a nurse is thinking of the entire world as well as the nursing content including concepts, theories and ideas in nursing. This is essential in better developing skills and intellects for being highly proficient critical thinkers in nursing.

Ethical consideration

While conducting research about how a nurse thinks on the job should provide with critical and systematic peer review and verification with truth, systematic, openness and honesty in order to achieve this objective. This study will be followed by receiving voluntary and informed consent from the nurses to provide true information linked to their job. The consent will be documentable, voluntary, explicit and informed (Grace et al., 2017).

References

Galton, F. (2015). INTELLIGENCE AND THINKING: I. GALTON «S CONTRIBUTION. Thinking About Thinking: Studies in the Background of some Psychological Approaches, 166.

Grace, S., Innes, E., Patton, N., & Stockhausen, L. (2017). Ethical experiential learning in medical, nursing and allied health education: a narrative review. Nurse education today, 51, 23-33.

Meltzoff, J., & Cooper, H. (2018). Critical thinking about research: Psychology and related fields. American psychological association.

Moser, C. A., & Kalton, G. (2017). Survey methods in social investigation. Routledge.