Teaching Scientific Reasoning through Attribution Theory
- 1 April 1996
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Teaching of Psychology
- Vol. 23 (2) , 87-91
- https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top2302_3
Abstract
A teaching activity improves students' scientific reasoning by focusing attention on the causal, explanatory nature of psychological theories, The instructor's initial lecture emphasizes the argument form called Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE). Students construct IBE arguments by sorting a series of premises and conclusions based on correspondent inference theory (Jones & Davis, 1965), Discussion of argument strength follows, using the concepts presented in the lecture. Fifty-two introductory social psychology students evaluated the activity favorably, and results of a nonequivalent control group experiment showed that participation improved their reasoning ability. Suggestions for modifying the activity for other psychology courses are provided.Keywords
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