Chapter 1, Problem 1MM

Summary Introduction

To explain: The way that critical thinking helps an individual to evaluate claims in the media even if an individual is not a scientific expert on the issue.

Introduction: Psychology is the branch of science that incorporates the behavior, thought, emotion, personality, and motivation. Psychological studies mainly employed to improve mental disorder, self-help, and performance. It involves mainly for examining the mind of an individual and identifying the actions that influence an individual.

Explanation of Solution

If an individual is thinking in a smart way, then this is known as critical thinking. Evaluating the ideas with evidences is the major part of critical thinking. Critical thinking is exploring the idea, analyzing the idea, evaluating the evidences without assuming and concluding the ideas with false assumption. When evaluating media claims, follow the instructions given below:

• Identify the observed or experimental evidences.
• Check the analysis that whether the claims are based on scientific verdicts or not.
• Detect the cited experts and analyze their citations.
• Prepare the agenda and check for the previous publications.

Thus, by identifying and evaluating the ideas, there occur the positive approach towards the claims. Hence, critical thinking is mainly based on evidence instead of trusting to a person’s perception, which is often wrong.