Critical Thinking Skills in Psychology

The Psychology department here at California State University, Monterey Bay has five MLO (Major Learning Outcomes) that students complete through taking various psychology courses before they graduate.  The fifth major learning outcome is that of critical thinking skills.  The psychology department defines this major learning outcome by being able to respect and use critical and creative thinking, skeptical inquiry and the scientific approach.  If a student is able to complete this major learning outcome they will then be able to engage in critical thinking, as well as use reasoning in arguments and persuasion and be able to approach problems sophisticatedly.  Each and every major learning outcome are important and as the third step on the ladder of the major learning outcomes after being able to complete this major learning outcome you are more than half way to completing all five major learning outcomes.  This major learning outcome is important not only because it is another step to completing the major learning outcome ladder but it also leads you to be able to have critical thinking skills in terms of psychology which will later help you in your career as well as graduate school.  Although as students we do have prior critical thinking skills it is important to gain critical thinking skills is your major which; will help you grow educationally as well as personally.  It helps you grow both educationally and personally as you use critical thinking skills not only in school but in your personal life like at work, around friends and family, socially, etc.

I would say that all of the courses that we take fulfill this learning outcome although both psychology 100 and psychology 200 seem to be more focused on covering critical thinking skills.  In psychology 100 you learn the basics of the psychology and learn more about how psychology is connected to critical thinking and how we can use critical thinking in psychology.  When I was at De Anza community college I took psychology 100 before I transferred here to CSUMB.  During the course of that class one of the books that we were required to read was titled “critical thinking in psychology” which is connected completely to this major learning outcome.