PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY – CRITICAL ASSESSMENTS
As part of your summative assessment for this module, you will write short (500 words) critical assessment of a journal article.
Your submission will critically evaluate and assess the main argument presented by the journal article that you select (this can be from core, recommended, or additional readings).
In writing your critical assessment, you will aim to address the following questions:
1. What is the main claim of the article?
What is the author arguing for? What claim or position does the author want to defend? In order to effectively critically assess or evaluate an academic article, you will to correctly identify the main claim or proposal being presented.
2. What is the author’s argument for this claim (in cases where there is more than one please select only one)?
The article’s main claim will be controversial. That is, there will be other academic that actively disagree with the claim or level objections to it. Because it is controversial, the author will need to give an argument or arguments in support of her main claim. The arguments given can take a variety of different forms, so look out for different styles of arguing. In giving the author’s argument, you should be providing a detailed description of the line of reasoning, or thinking, that the author thinks best supports her claim.
3. What evidence, or reasons, does the author give to support his or her argument?
In addition to sketching the main line of reasoning that the author gives to support her position, you should also identify any evidence that the author gives to support that line of reasoning. Sometimes this will be empirical evidence. Other times it will be reasons or general considerations that the author takes to be supportive of her overall argumentative strategy.
4. What problems, questions, or objections do you have to the evidence, reasons, or argument that the author presents?
This is the critical aspect of your assignment and should take up the majority of your 500 words. You should point out problems with or objections to the author’s developed line of argument or reasoning. Is the reasoning faulty in some manner? For instance, does the author wrongly infer a conclusion from premises that do not actually support it? Is there a problem with the evidence the author cites? Can it be interpreted in other ways that are inconsistent with what the author wants to show? Are there better counter-arguments – that is, lines of reasoning or thinking that support the opposite conclusion from the one the author wants to defend? Is there something wrong with the conclusion the author wants to defend? For instance, does it have highly counterintuitive consequences?
*In answering this last question in particular, it is worth taking note of any assumptions that an author may be making, or potentially problematic interpretations of evidence, or points of view and arguments presented in other articles you have read. These are very often fruitful areas for critical assessment. Many of the assumptions made by authors are not mandatory.
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