Critical thinking in social and psychological inquiry. |
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Authors: | Richardson, Frank C. Slife, Brent D. |
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Abstract: | Yanchar, Slife, and their colleagues have described how mainstream psychology's notion of critical thinking has largely been conceived of as “scientific analytic reasoning” or “method-centered critical thinking.” We extend here their analysis and critique, arguing that some version of the one-sided instrumentalism and confusion about tacit values that characterize scientistic approaches to inquiry also color phenomenological, critical theoretical, and social constructionist viewpoints. We suggest that hermeneutic/dialogical conceptions of inquiry, including the idea of social theory as itself a form of ethically motivated human practice, give a fuller account of critical thinking in the social disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) |
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Keywords: | critical thinking hermeneutics instrumentalism interpretive social science |
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