Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

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Critical Thinking: Needed Now More Than Ever

Morrow-Bradley, 1994). As a result, the scientist-practitioner model has been giving way

to the scientist–practitioner gap.

Of course, it is true that therapy is in many ways an art. Science will not necessarily tell

you the most effective way to deal with people’s complex spiritual, moral, and existential

dilemmas. Science will not make you into a discerning and empathic therapist who knows

how to forge an alliance with the client, a bond of mutual respect and trust. The detach-

ment and impartiality of the scientist are not always good qualities in a therapist trying to

alleviate human suffering.

But a lack of knowledge about basic scientific methods and findings, and about human

vulnerability to the confirmation bias, can lead to the practice of incompetent and even

fraudulent or harmful therapy. Uncritical thinking about behavior in recent years has led

to all sorts of unverified, and in fact, false, claims by therapists. For example:

● that venting negative emotions such as anger can reduce them, when in fact the

opposite is true (Bushman, Bonacci, Pedersen, Vasquez, & Miller, 2005; Tavris,

1989);

● that children never lie about or misremember having been sexually abused, when in

fact they often do, especially when interrogated by adults who believe the children

were molested (Bruck, 2003; Ceci & Bruck, 1995; Garven, Wood, Malpass, &

Shaw, 1998);

●

that a child’s interest in an anatomically realistic doll is a reliable guide to whether the

child has been abused, when in fact doll play is unreliable for this purpose (Bruck,

Ceci, Francoeur, & Renick, 1995; Hunsley, Lee, & Wood, 2003; Koocher, Goodman,

White, & Friedrich, 1995; Wood, Nezworski, Lilienfeld, & Garb, 2003);

● that most abused children grow up to be abusive parents, in a “cycle of abuse,” when

in fact most do not (Kaufman & Zigler, 1987);

●

that people who have experienced a trauma in childhood or adulthood often repress

the memory of it, when in fact the usual problem is an inability to forget the trauma

(Loftus & Ketcham, 1994; McNally, 2003);

●

that projective tests are useful in child-custody assessments, when in fact they are

not (Emery, Otto, & O’Donohue, 2005);

● that hypnosis is a reliable method for retrieving memories, even those going back to

infancy, when in reality it encourages confabulation and false memories (Dinges

et al., 1992; Kihlstrom, 1994; Nash, 1987);

● that self-esteem is the root of all social and personal problems, from poor academic

performance to drug abuse to juvenile crime, when hundreds of studies show that

this notion has no convincing support (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs,

2003);

●

that Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) can prevent survivors of tragedies

and catastrophes from developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other

emotional problems, when in fact it is either useless or actually increases the risk

of developing PTSD and depression (Gist, Lubin, & Redburn, 1998; Mayou,

Ehlers, & Hobbs, 2000; van Emmerik, Kamphuis, Hulsbosch, & Emmelkamp,

2002; van Ommeren, Saxena, & Saraceno, 2005);