Skeptical Reading

Skeptical Reading

1. To make a strong argument, ensure...

   • your argument follows logically from the premises
   • that those premises are true
     • back up your claims with evidence
       • cite someone's work

2. 5.1: Deductive Arguments

   • P1: includes/ implies and absolute term
     • all/ every/ always
   • P2: apply that general rule to a specific case
   • C1: conclusion
   • If (A)... and if (B)... then (C)
     • A: state your premises
     • B: defend your premises
     • C: explain how your premises lead to the conclusion that your hypothesis is correct

3. 5.2: Inductive Arguments

   • 1. Accurately represent what happened in the sample of cases.
   • 2. Use a sample that should accurately represent what happened in the larger group.
   • When judging the quality of a conclusion...
     • 1. are the individual scores accurate & unbiased?
     • 2. Are the sample of observations as representative & unbiased as possible?
       • did the researchers clearly define their population/ take a large random sample from there?
     • 3. Are the conclusions drawn from the sample accurate & unbiased?
     • 4. Can the author's explanation for the evidence be replaced by a better explanation?

4. 5.3: Argument by analogy

   • Note: Being LIKE something is not the same as being IDENTICAL to something.

5. 5.4: Overview of problems in making arguments

   • 1. failing to base an argument on evidence
   • 2. failing to be fair
   • 3. failing to consider alt. explanations for the evidence

6. 5.5: Appeals to Faith, Emotion & Authority

   • suspends objectivity

7. 5.6: Unfair arguments

   • 1: Ad Hominem Arguments
   • 2. Ignoring Contradictory Evidence
   • 3. Straw Man Arguments

8. 5.7: General errors in reasoning from evidence

   • 1. inferring causation from correlation
     • the only studies that allow causation to be inferred correctly are experiments
   • NOTE!!! any study that uses self-selection is a correlational study and should not be used as the basis of a cause-effect conclusion

9. NULL RESULTS ARE INCONCLUSIVE!!!

10. STATISTICALLY SIG. RESULTS ARE NOT ALWAYS LARGE OR IMPORTANT!

11. ASSESSING CONSTRUCT VALIDITY

    • 1. did they use commonly accepted measures?
    • 2. did the use "blind" procedures to dec. bias?

12. BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT GENERALIZING!!!