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Critical Thinking: A Simple Guide and Why It’s Important

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Critical Thinking: A Simple Guide and Why It’s Important was originally published on Ivy Exec .

Strong critical thinking skills are crucial for career success, regardless of educational background. It embodies the ability to engage in astute and effective decision-making, lending invaluable dimensions to professional growth.

At its essence, critical thinking is the ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information in a logical and reasoned manner. It’s not merely about accumulating knowledge but harnessing it effectively to make informed decisions and solve complex problems. In the dynamic landscape of modern careers, honing this skill is paramount.

The Impact of Critical Thinking on Your Career

☑ problem-solving mastery.

Visualize critical thinking as the Sherlock Holmes of your career journey. It facilitates swift problem resolution akin to a detective unraveling a mystery. By methodically analyzing situations and deconstructing complexities, critical thinkers emerge as adept problem solvers, rendering them invaluable assets in the workplace.

☑ Refined Decision-Making

Navigating dilemmas in your career path resembles traversing uncertain terrain. Critical thinking acts as a dependable GPS, steering you toward informed decisions. It involves weighing options, evaluating potential outcomes, and confidently choosing the most favorable path forward.

☑ Enhanced Teamwork Dynamics

Within collaborative settings, critical thinkers stand out as proactive contributors. They engage in scrutinizing ideas, proposing enhancements, and fostering meaningful contributions. Consequently, the team evolves into a dynamic hub of ideas, with the critical thinker recognized as the architect behind its success.

☑ Communication Prowess

Effective communication is the cornerstone of professional interactions. Critical thinking enriches communication skills, enabling the clear and logical articulation of ideas. Whether in emails, presentations, or casual conversations, individuals adept in critical thinking exude clarity, earning appreciation for their ability to convey thoughts seamlessly.

☑ Adaptability and Resilience

Perceptive individuals adept in critical thinking display resilience in the face of unforeseen challenges. Instead of succumbing to panic, they assess situations, recalibrate their approaches, and persist in moving forward despite adversity.

☑ Fostering Innovation

Innovation is the lifeblood of progressive organizations, and critical thinking serves as its catalyst. Proficient critical thinkers possess the ability to identify overlooked opportunities, propose inventive solutions, and streamline processes, thereby positioning their organizations at the forefront of innovation.

☑ Confidence Amplification

Critical thinkers exude confidence derived from honing their analytical skills. This self-assurance radiates during job interviews, presentations, and daily interactions, catching the attention of superiors and propelling career advancement.

So, how can one cultivate and harness this invaluable skill?

✅ developing curiosity and inquisitiveness:.

Embrace a curious mindset by questioning the status quo and exploring topics beyond your immediate scope. Cultivate an inquisitive approach to everyday situations. Encourage a habit of asking “why” and “how” to deepen understanding. Curiosity fuels the desire to seek information and alternative perspectives.

✅ Practice Reflection and Self-Awareness:

Engage in reflective thinking by assessing your thoughts, actions, and decisions. Regularly introspect to understand your biases, assumptions, and cognitive processes. Cultivate self-awareness to recognize personal prejudices or cognitive biases that might influence your thinking. This allows for a more objective analysis of situations.

✅ Strengthening Analytical Skills:

Practice breaking down complex problems into manageable components. Analyze each part systematically to understand the whole picture. Develop skills in data analysis, statistics, and logical reasoning. This includes understanding correlation versus causation, interpreting graphs, and evaluating statistical significance.

✅ Engaging in Active Listening and Observation:

Actively listen to diverse viewpoints without immediately forming judgments. Allow others to express their ideas fully before responding. Observe situations attentively, noticing details that others might overlook. This habit enhances your ability to analyze problems more comprehensively.

✅ Encouraging Intellectual Humility and Open-Mindedness:

Foster intellectual humility by acknowledging that you don’t know everything. Be open to learning from others, regardless of their position or expertise. Cultivate open-mindedness by actively seeking out perspectives different from your own. Engage in discussions with people holding diverse opinions to broaden your understanding.

✅ Practicing Problem-Solving and Decision-Making:

Engage in regular problem-solving exercises that challenge you to think creatively and analytically. This can include puzzles, riddles, or real-world scenarios. When making decisions, consciously evaluate available information, consider various alternatives, and anticipate potential outcomes before reaching a conclusion.

✅ Continuous Learning and Exposure to Varied Content:

Read extensively across diverse subjects and formats, exposing yourself to different viewpoints, cultures, and ways of thinking. Engage in courses, workshops, or seminars that stimulate critical thinking skills. Seek out opportunities for learning that challenge your existing beliefs.

✅ Engage in Constructive Disagreement and Debate:

Encourage healthy debates and discussions where differing opinions are respectfully debated.

This practice fosters the ability to defend your viewpoints logically while also being open to changing your perspective based on valid arguments. Embrace disagreement as an opportunity to learn rather than a conflict to win. Engaging in constructive debate sharpens your ability to evaluate and counter-arguments effectively.

✅ Utilize Problem-Based Learning and Real-World Applications:

Engage in problem-based learning activities that simulate real-world challenges. Work on projects or scenarios that require critical thinking skills to develop practical problem-solving approaches. Apply critical thinking in real-life situations whenever possible.

This could involve analyzing news articles, evaluating product reviews, or dissecting marketing strategies to understand their underlying rationale.

In conclusion, critical thinking is the linchpin of a successful career journey. It empowers individuals to navigate complexities, make informed decisions, and innovate in their respective domains. Embracing and honing this skill isn’t just an advantage; it’s a necessity in a world where adaptability and sound judgment reign supreme.

So, as you traverse your career path, remember that the ability to think critically is not just an asset but the differentiator that propels you toward excellence.

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Teaching Critical Thinking, Clinical Reasoning, and Teamwork Using Online Discussion Boards in Canvas

• February 22, 2022
• vol 68 issue 24
• Talk About Teaching & Learning

Carlo Siracusa

Just a few years ago, I was skeptical about online teaching. I was not convinced that students could learn effectively online. In particular, I thought that they could not learn how to effectively diagnose and communicate with clients (pets’ owners), and practice the critical thinking skills that are essential for clinical work. I also feared that I would lose the pleasure of working with students. However, both by developing courses that are purposely online and by leading courses that had to go online because of the pandemic, I’ve found that using online discussion boards prepares students effectively for the type of critical thinking they need and allows me to know them as well as or better than in in-person classes.

My attitude toward teaching online changed when, defeating my initial skepticism, I developed an online certificate program with a group of inspired colleagues. Within this program, I teach the online course Fundamentals of Animal Behavior (FoAB) that reviews principles of animal behavior and their application to animal welfare in a non-clinical setting. In this course, I first got the chance to experiment the use of online discussion boards to talk about controversial topics with the students. 

The FoAB course is published in the learning management system Canvas, and is composed of weekly modules populated with videos on core theoretical concepts and recommended literature to review. Among the assignments, the students have to attend a synchronous review session via Zoom and participate in a weekly asynchronous discussion board on a controversial topic (e.g. the validity of behavioral testing in laboratory animals). The students have to follow the discussion throughout the week, post an original contribution using a maximum of 250 words, and comment at least once on the post of a classmate. The students’ statements must be meaningful, critical, and supported with references to published literature. The main teaching goal for the discussion boards of the FoAB course is practicing critical thinking and teamwork. 

It is interesting to note that the students of the FoAB course complete all the activities remotely and never meet in person with each other or with the instructors. Therefore, I was surprised at first to see how much the students and the instructor behaved as a bonded community during both the synchronous sessions and the asynchronous discussions. The asynchronous discussion boards specifically are developed during the entire weekly module and do not suffer from the time constraints of an hourly synchronous session. They permit all members of the group to observe and review multiple exchanges and intervene when desired. At the end of the 7th week of my first online course, I knew the skills of the FoAB students better than those of my pre-clinical students in the “traditional” Veterinary Medicine doctoral degree, to whom I teach clinical animal behavior in person for a longer time. 

Even after having accumulated this anecdotal evidence on the effectiveness of online learning, I did not want to give up the pleasure of interacting in-person with my pre-clinical veterinary students. However, the pleasure of in-person teaching did not last long because the coronavirus pandemic made its appearance. My experience with online learning could have come in handy at that point, but I still saw some obstacles in adapting what I had learned working online with a class of 20 FoAB students to a large class of 130 veterinary students. First, I needed to adapt the content of a live lecture of 50 minutes into video lectures of 10-15 minutes and readings for self-study. Second, I needed to determine if synchronous and asynchronous interactions were suitable for and beneficial to the large class. Third, I needed to decide how to assess the students’ learning and skills. For this purpose, I had traditionally used a final examination with multiple-choice questions on real-life clinical cases presented to the students via text and videos.

After a thorough analysis, I decided to apply what I learned teaching the online FoAB course to my nine-hour Clinical Animal Behavior course. I rearranged the content of the lectures and the examination across seven weekly modules. To replace the original lectures, I created two to three weekly short video lectures and selected reading materials. I replaced the final examination with seven asynchronous discussion boards of clinical cases, one for each module. Based on my previous favorable experience with the discussion boards and considering the large size of the class, I decided to not include synchronous sessions in this course. 

The discussion boards were built to be the main learning tool in the course and to test knowledge, critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and teamwork. Clinical reasoning is the ability of the students to extrapolate and organize relevant information from the patient’s history and examination, and then use it to reach a diagnosis and to create a treatment plan. With these goals in mind, I presented the students with a clinical case for which I provided the history and a description of the clinical examination. I divided the class into four groups and asked all the students to contribute to the discussion of the case. Within their group, each student needed to write a post of up to 250 words and could add a second post on a voluntary basis, after all of their colleagues had posted at least once. Each participant had to follow up on the comments of the other students to build communally the analysis and treatment of the assigned case. 

I have now used this format for two consecutive years of teaching the Clinical Animal Behavior course online. Hearing the students’ comments from the first year, I divided the class into smaller discussion groups of 10 students in the second year. Moreover, I had the chance to observe the students from the first year transitioning to clinical rotations with patient-side activities, during which they have to apply the skills learned in the behavior course. Based on preliminary observations, I saw that the students who participated in the clinical discussion boards performed better in their patient-side activities than students taught in a traditional way. This experience further grew my belief that online discussion boards are effective for refining critical thinking and teamwork skills. I also witnessed how the discussion of clinical cases through structured online discussion boards is ideal to practice clinical reasoning and prepare the students for patient-side clinical activities. 

I believe that the same structured discussion boards could be implemented outside of an online environment with comparable benefits. For this reason, I plan to use structured discussion boards from now on, in whatever mode I teach. Online learning comes, in fact, with its own challenges. The main challenge that I experienced is the amount of time needed to develop and teach an online course. Among the most time-consuming activities are recording the video lectures, moderating the discussion boards, and reviewing all the assignments. All this may be particularly difficult for faculty members who, like me, have clinical duties assigned. Nevertheless, my skepticism about online learning has dissipated and I have become an advocate of structured discussion boards when teaching my students!

Carlo Siracusa is an associate professor of clinical behavior medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. 

This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching. 

See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.

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Syo: critical thinking, event details.

Event Date: Monday, August 29, 2022

Event Time: 11:00 AM - to 12:00 PM

Event Description

This preceptorial teaches students the discipline of “critical thinking” – – advocated by Socrates, Francis Bacon, George Bernard Shaw (and many others) and enshrined at the entrance to the Royal Society in London. The focus will be on healthcare.

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You are here, fostering critical thinking in the classroom.

At Penn GSE, Biros learned to teach using the inquiry method. A student-centered approach, it encourages students to play a leading role in learning. “The teacher is a facilitator, a coach, a curator of curriculum who helps students ask the right questions and find the right resources to answer them,” says Biros, who attended GSE with a Leonore Annenberg Teaching Fellowship, considered the equivalent of a national Rhodes Scholarship in teaching. An inquiry methods teacher also strives to make the classroom relevant to the lives and backgrounds of the students.

Biros has championed this technique in two Philadelphia public schools and is now making it the focus of his work launching charter schools in California. At University City, Biros mobilized his high school seniors to better understand problematic issues in their community. He asked them to generate questions and analyze data about low educational attainment, poverty, and crime, and arranged for then-Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, W’79, to visit his class and respond to students’ questions about how citizens and government can effect change.

“We can begin to instill students with the notion that, ‘Yes, I can solve this.’ When people are empowered with that, what we can accomplish as a society will be endless.”

After graduating from Penn GSE, Biros worked for three years as a full-time teacher at the Kensington High School for Creative and Performing Arts, another public school in Philadelphia. There, he led efforts to redesign the school’s curriculum according to the inquiry method, working with colleagues including two former GSE classmates, Monty Ogden, GED’12, and Charlie McGeehan, GED’12. Their approach also emphasized technology, assigning every student a Chromebook laptop. “Students need the right tools so that they can be engaged learners and exhibit new understandings,” Biros says.

Since last summer, Biros has been developing charter schools in California with the support of the Silicon Schools Fund, a venture philanthropy foundation. To help launch a school in the established Alpha Public Schools network, which serves low-income communities, he has taken on responsibilities in management and operations in addition to teaching and curriculum development. In 2018, with support from Silicon, Biros plans to open his own school, the Collaborative Design Academy, slated to serve a diverse student population beginning with grades four and five and expanding through grade eight. Having worked in public and charter schools, Biros says he sees both as viable vehicles of educational progress. “What I care about is fostering unique and innovative school models,” he says. “I just want great schools, whether charter or public.”

Biros credits GSE with shaping his work through both the inquiry method and close-knit relationships with his classmates. “It was probably the most vibrant year of my academic life,” he says. “To be able to teach in a school and then attend class with my cohort at GSE and reflect on our work was really special. When teachers go into their classrooms and close the door, it is incredibly isolating. But when they are able to reflect and collaborate together, it is incredibly powerful. That’s where real growth comes from.”

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of The Penn GSE Magazine .

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Critical Writing seminars

Choosing the right seminar.

Every critical writing seminar follows the same rigorous curriculum and assessment process and standards. However, each of the three types described below is tailored to the specific needs of writers with differing backgrounds. Just as students who attended math- and science-intensive high schools may be better prepared for such courses at Penn, so too students who excelled at writing-intensive schools may be more advanced writers upon arrival. In turn, some students have had a bad experience with writing and, shying away from it, are not as practiced as their colleagues. Still others may have received substantial instruction in writing but have had limited exposure to specifically American English practices and conventions of writing demanded of Penn students.

During the first week of class, students take a writing diagnostic that helps the instructor determine whether they have enrolled in the course best suited to their needs. However, we find that students are often better able to make this determination themselves, given sufficient information. Proper self-placement saves students the inconvenience of switching classes and schedules during what is already a hectic time of year.

We encourage students to explore the descriptions below and choose the type of seminar that sounds most attuned to their level of preparation. Students who are properly placed typically do well in their seminars, while those who enroll in one not tailored to their needs may quickly fall behind and have to take a second writing seminar to fulfill the requirement.

Students who answer yes to two or more attributes of a given seminar type are encouraged to enroll in that category of seminar.

WRIT 0000 to 0999

These seminars are similar to the second-semester writing seminars taught at other universities. With the exception of "Global English" (WRIT 0110, more information below), the assumption in these seminars is that students are fluent speakers and writers of American English and are knowledgeable about its basic conventions (organizational structure, plagiarism, spelling, etc). These seminars are best suited to students who:

• are confident writers, who may make an occasional error but are generally in control of the fundamentals (grammar, usage, thesis, paragraph construction)
• are confident readers, capable of analyzing and writing about English texts independently
• have had considerable writing practice and guidance in high school (an average of 4 or more pages per week)
• anticipate needing some individual guidance from tutors or instructors, but not frequent meetings with either

For students who would benefit from a more individualized and targeted approach to college writing, we offer two other seminars.

WRIT 0020: Craft of Prose

This seminar fulfills the writing requirement, follows the same curriculum and has the same workload, assessment process and standards as all other writing seminars at Penn. However, seminar enrollment is capped at 12 and instruction includes a significant amount of individualized attention and guidance. While each session has a topic, the emphasis is on the study and practice of writing. Students in the Craft of Prose sections get considerable feedback and mentoring from tutors as well as their instructor. This, along with practice, can significantly accelerate students' writing skills. Only Freshmen and Sophomores are eligible to enroll in Craft of Prose.

The Craft of Prose seminars are best suited to students who might answer "yes" to two or more of the following:

• are intellectually gifted but struggle with one or more of the following: organization and timely submission of assignments; reading comprehension; information processing; writing- or reading-related anxiety; perfectionism or other issues that interfere with reading or writing
• did not get extensive practice and guidance on their writing in high school; for example, wrote fewer than four pages per week on average
• lack confidence in themselves as writers or feel that they need additional help with fundamentals
• do not like to read, are slow readers, or are anxious about reading and analyzing advanced texts
• anticipate needing a fair amount of individual guidance and feedback
• scored below 670 on the SAT Writing or Critical Reading tests
• tend to do considerably better with creative rather than academic writing assignments

WRIT 0110: Global English

This seminar fulfills the writing requirement, follows the same curriculum, and has the same workload, assessment process and standards as all other writing seminars at Penn. The Global English seminars focus on a scholarly topic within the field of global English -- for example, studies of films or literature written in English by non-native speakers; global human rights; digital culture; and other topics that are published in English but written by and for non-native as well as native speakers of the language. Along with this global focus, what distinguishes the Global English seminars is that they are intended for international students and sensitive to their needs, including instruction in the conventions and demands of American English college writing. International students especially enjoy these small seminars in their first year at Penn because they provide an international community that is also adjusting to life and college in the States.

Students who find the Global English seminars best suited to their needs include those who:

• may have attended American or English schools, but have not studied American English writing in the contiguous United States
• are not native speakers of American English
• are fluent in English but struggle with certain aspects of American English, such as articles or verb tenses
• would benefit from specific instruction in such issues as plagiarism, citation, and the organization and voice expected of American English college work

If after reading about these different options you are still uncertain about which seminar is right for you, please do not hesitate to consult with your adviser or with a member of the writing program administration.

If you would like additional feedback, you are welcome to take the diagnostic essay in advance of arriving at Penn, or during orientation week, to get some additional guidance. To arrange to take an advance diagnostic essay, write [email protected] .

Advance diagnostics are best taken at least three weeks prior to the first day of class to allow sufficient time for them to be read and scored. However, we are happy to look at them at a later date, as time permits!

Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally

Program overview.

Emphasizing the importance of long-term strategic decision making, Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally is designed to improve managers’ judgment and critical thinking skills using proven approaches, cutting-edge research, and behavioral economics.

Participants will understand the decision-making process from start to finish, with the ability to recognize cognitive biases that inhibit good decisions. This strategic decision-making program enhances participants' capacity to make well-thought-out individual, group, and organizational decisions.

Date, Location, & Fees

If you are unable to access the application form, please email Client Relations at [email protected] .

November 11 – 15, 2024 Philadelphia, PA $12,500

May 19 – 23, 2025 Philadelphia, PA $12,500

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Program Experience

Who should attend, testimonials, highlights and key outcomes.

In Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally , you will learn how to:

• Make decisions in a dynamic of uncertainty
• Build adaptability into your decisions
• Provide the leadership to mitigate the effects of cognitive biases
• Understand the role of emotions and ethics in decision making
• Develop tools to improve individual and organizational decision making

Experience & Impact

In an uncertain business environment, a major challenge is being a decisive, strategic leader. Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally is designed to improve your judgment and guide you to think rigorously and critically.

Wharton faculty, led by Professor Maurice Schweitzer, apply their field-based research and the latest strategic insights to help you broaden your perspective on how to influence, persuade, and make informed, strategic decisions without bias. You will be exposed to new tools and actionable knowledge that will make an immediate impact on how you lead your organization.

Session topics include:

• Rule-Based Decision Making
• Combining Opinions
• Thinking Ethically
• Judgment and Decision Making: The Logic of Chance
• Trust and Cooperation
• Power of Negative Thinking
• Decision Hygiene
• The Role of Data in Decision Making
• Group Decision Making

Through highly interactive lectures, exercises, and case studies, both in the classroom and in smaller work groups, this deep dive into the art and science of decision making will enhance your effectiveness as a leader.

Convince Your Supervisor

Here’s a justification letter you can edit and send to your supervisor to help you make the case for attending this Wharton program.

Due to our application review period, applications submitted after 12:00 p.m. ET on Friday for programs beginning the following Monday may not be processed in time to grant admission. Applicants will be contacted by a member of our Client Relations Team to discuss options for future programs and dates.

Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally is designed for executives who are moving from tactical to strategic roles and for those involved in cross-functional decisions. It is of particular benefit to organizations and industries whose decision-making approaches are shifting as a result of high levels of uncertainty, including telecommunications, financial services, and health care.

Participants leave the program with an expanded peer network, plus specific tools and frameworks they can use to enhance how they approach decisions across their organization.

Fluency in English, written and spoken, is required for participation in Wharton Executive Education programs unless otherwise indicated.

Participant Profile

Participants by Industry

Participants by Job Function

Participants by Region

Plan Your Stay

This program is held at the Steinberg Conference Center located on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. Meals and accommodations are included in the program fees. Learn more about planning your stay at Wharton’s Philadelphia campus .

Group Enrollment

To further leverage the value and impact of this program, we encourage companies to send cross-functional teams of executives to Wharton. We offer group-enrollment benefits to companies sending four or more participants.

Maurice Schweitzer, PhD See Faculty Bio

Academic Director

Cecilia Yen Koo Professor; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions; Professor of Management, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Decision making, deception and trust, negotiations

Thomas Donaldson, PhD See Faculty Bio

Mark O. Winkelman Professor; Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Business ethics, corporate compliance, corporate governance

Cade Massey, PhD See Faculty Bio

Practice Professor, Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School

Research Interests: People analytics, judgment under uncertainty, organizational behavior

Joseph Simmons, PhD See Faculty Bio

Dorothy Silberberg Professor of Applied Statistics; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Judgment and decision making, experimental methods, consumer behavior

Abraham Wyner, PhD See Faculty Bio

Professor of Statistics; Director of Undergraduate Program in Statistics; Faculty Lead of the Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Baseball, boosting, data compression, entropy, information theory, probabilistic modeling, temperature reconstructions

Annie Duke, PhD See Faculty Bio

Speaker, Decision Strategist, and Former Professional Poker Player

Ernest D. Haynes III  VP & General Manager, Sonoco

The timing for taking Wharton’s Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally was ideal because I am moving from a sales leadership role with Payer & Health System customers to an enterprise role where more strategic thinking will be needed. In my new position my remit will be to support and build the commercial capabilities of the entire enterprise. I have been customer facing for most of my career and now I will be working with more of an in-building team where pulling out the best ideas and thinking from my teammates will be critical. Wharton’s coursework and faculty’s way of thinking about decision making and how to be a better strategic thinker will absolutely help me in my new role. Two insights really struck me — one was strategies for how to get the best ideas, feedback, and insights from everyone on the team and how to fine-tune the ideas that surface, and the other was the thinking around randomness and how you have to be sure you are rewarding the process — not just the outcome — because oftentimes great or bad results can be driven by multiple factors, including bias. The pharma industry faces many challenges, especially in the areas of transparency and addressing the issue of the cost of drug products to the patient. How do you find the right balance between having a profit so you can innovate but being able to bridge for patients who need to be able to afford your innovation? Whoever cracks that nut and builds that bridge between innovation, affordability, and patient access will get the keys to the kingdom. Another issue we grapple with is around accessing physicians — as an industry we essentially have the same selling model as 50 years ago. In this digital age, we have to think about how we find the right balance of face-to-face engagement as well as building other ways to inform and educate physicians in real time. Wharton teaches you how to think about how best to approach problems like these — by using the tools that I learned in this course, I believe that in my new role, my team will net better results as we seek to solve complex issues like these facing our company and our industry. Also, now I have a broader network through Wharton that will be able to support me as I grow as a leader in my organization.”

Caroline DeMarco  Vice President, Commercial Capabilities, Strategic Planning & Operations, GSK

What drew me to Wharton was its reputation and the deep selection of courses. A key takeaway for me in Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally was understanding the bias in qualitative information. I come from more of a quantitative background dealing with data, but as you advance through your career, the qualitative aspect of decision making becomes more important — the soft skills and our ability to use qualitative information to make effective decisions. When it comes to strategic decision making, there are no absolutes — you frequently have to make decisions without 100 percent of the information. This class really gives you pause to consider the implications of decisions, knowing that you don’t have 100 percent of the information. This has direct relevance to my role in risk management because we don’t deal with anything that is black and white. Wharton’s insights on qualitative decision-making bias also influenced what I wrote in an article on reputation risk that will appear in the RMA Journal .”

Joseph Iraci  CRO of Regulated Entities & Managing Director of Financial Risk Management, TD Ameritrade

I am the director of the John Templeton Foundation’s character development portfolio. I oversee 60 grants that include research and programmatic grants focusing on advancing the science and practice of character. My greatest challenge is identifying the proposals that will yield important information about the cultivation of good character. In Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally we heard the latest research from experts in business, psychology, and law. These scholars are also very talented at translating that research and making it relevant to organizations independent of industry. They sparked a lot of my own thinking and ideas of ways in which we could use this research to improve the outcomes at our foundation. We like to think our decision-making processes are objective and free of bias, but bias is a part of human nature and as the workshop highlights, you will make far better, more strategic decisions if you understand what the biases are and how they influence your thinking. I came home with dozens of pages of notes for how my organization might use this latest research on strategic decision making to improve our own practices. Personally, I consider bias on a more regular basis and more intentionally, trying to build systems into my own process to mitigate the effects of these biases. Another lecture topic was on the logic of chance, which is very relevant to philanthropy. We spend a lot of time and resources trying to identify the best proposal to yield insights into character, but there is a lot of chance involved. We can’t guarantee results, but understanding the role chance plays in achieving an outcome is powerful. Wharton’s program was immediately applicable to my work. We are currently going through a strategic planning process and our foundation’s president asked the senior grant-making staff to brainstorm a number of ideas to pursue in the next round of our planning; during one of our off-site retreats, she used Wharton’s process for brainstorming. It was also great to have different perspectives in the program. We had participants from Nigeria, South Korea, and Brazil, and when the law professor shared a case study about Walmart and their practices abroad in the context of ethical decision making — specifically around the issue of bribery — it was fascinating to hear from individuals who do a lot of work abroad who could provide greater context. To conclude, this was an outstanding program, which would be valuable for any executive in any field. It’s about better thinking — becoming more cognizant of how to make better decisions.”

Sarah Clement  Director of Character Virtue Development, John Templeton Foundation

I decided to attend the Effective Decision Making: Thinking Critically and Rationally program at Wharton to help me make even more effective decisions. As a result of my attending, I was able to broaden my strategic-thinking perspective based on insights from their highly impressive team of professors and colleagues who attended from a diverse range of functions, industries, and countries. There were several key takeaways that I have been able to leverage in my day-to-day work responsibilities, including the following: You cannot judge the quality of individual decisions based on their outcomes; instead, the quality should be judged on the process that was used to make them People tend to be overly precise while they should consider a much larger range of possibilities Even dramatically different outcomes can be purely the product of chance My overall experience exceeded my expectations. I plan on keeping in touch with a few of the colleagues whom I met and I certainly expect to find my way back to Wharton!”

Jonathan Hirschmann  Animal Health Executive

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Psychology (PSYC)

PSYC 0001 Introduction to Experimental Psychology

This course provides an introduction to the basic topics of psychology including our three major areas of distribution: the biological basis of behavior, the cognitive basis of behavior, and individual and group bases of behavior. Topics include, but are not limited to, neuropsychology, learning, cognition, development, disorder, personality, and social psychology.

Fall or Spring

1 Course Unit

PSYC 0400 The Pursuit of Happiness

What is happiness? Can it be successfully pursued? If so, what are the best ways of doing so? This interactive course will consider various ways of answering these questions by exploring theoretical, scientific, and practical perspectives on flourishing, thriving, and wellness. We will discuss approaches to happiness from the humanities and the sciences and then try them out to see how they might help us increase our own well-being and that of the communities in which we live.

PSYC 0405 Grit Lab: Fostering Passion and Perseverance in Ourselves and Others (SNF Paideia Program Course)

At the heart of this course are cutting-edge scientific discoveries about passion and perseverance for long-term goals. As in any other undergraduate course, you will learn things you didn't know before. But unlike most courses, Grit Lab requires you to apply what you've learned in your daily life, to reflect, and then to teach what you've learned to younger students. The ultimate aim of Grit Lab is to empower you to achieve your personal, long-term goals--so that you can help other people achieve the goals that are meaningful to them. LEARN -> EXPERIMENT -> REFLECT -> TEACH. The first half of this course is about passion. During this eight-week period, you'll identify a project that piques your interest and resonates with your values. This can be a new project or, just as likely, a sport, hobby, musical instrument, or academic field you're already pursuing. The second half of this course is about perseverance. During this eight-week period, your aim is to develop resilience, a challenge-seeking orientation, and the habits of practice that improve skill in any domain. By the end of Grit Lab, you will understand and apply, both for your benefit and the benefit of younger students, key findings in the emerging science on grit.

Also Offered As: OIDD 0050, OIDD 2000

PSYC 0986 Study abroad College elective

Non-major elective in the College study abroad

PSYC 0996 Transfer College elective

Non-major elective in the College transfer

PSYC 1210 Introduction to Brain and Behavior

Introduction to the structure and function of the vertebrate nervous system. We begin with the cellular basis of neuronal activities, then discuss the physiological bases of motor control, sensory systems, motivated behaviors, and higher mental processes. This course is intended for students interested in the neurobiology of behavior, ranging from animal behaviors to clinical disorders.

Also Offered As: BIOL 1110 , NRSC 1110

PSYC 1212 Physiology of Motivated Behavior

This course focuses on evaluating the experiments that have sought to establish links between brain structure (the activity of specific brain circuits) and behavioral function (the control of particular motivated and emotional behaviors). Students are exposed to concepts from regulatory physiology, systems neuroscience, pharmacology, and endocrinology and read textbook as well as original source materials. The course focuses on the following behaviors: feeding, sex, fear, anxiety, the appetite for salt, and food aversion. The course also considers the neurochemical control of responses with an eye towards evaluating the development of drug treatments for: obesity, anorexia/cachexia, vomiting, sexual dysfunction, anxiety disorders, and depression.

Also Offered As: NRSC 2227

Prerequisite: PSYC 0001

PSYC 1230 Cognitive Neuroscience

The study of the neural systems that underlie human perception, memory and language; and of the pathological syndromes that result from damage to these systems.

Also Offered As: NRSC 2249

Prerequisite: PSYC 0001 OR COGS 1001

PSYC 1310 Language and Thought

This course describes current theorizing on how the human mind achieves high-level cognitive processes such as using language, thinking, and reasoning. The course discusses issues such as whether the language ability is unique to humans, whether there is a critical period to the acquisition of a language, the nature of conceptual knowledge, how people perform deductive reasoning and induction, and how linguistic and conceptual knowledge interact.

Also Offered As: LING 0750

PSYC 1333 Introduction to Cognitive Science

How do minds work? This course surveys a wide range of answers to this question from disciplines ranging from philosophy to neuroscience. The course devotes special attention to the use of simple computational and mathematical models. Topics include perception, learning, memory, decision making, emotion and consciousness. The course shows how the different views from the parent disciplines interact and identifies some common themes among the theories that have been proposed. The course pays particular attention to the distinctive role of computation in such theories and provides an introduction to some of the main directions of current research in the field. It is a requirement for the BA in Cognitive Science, the BAS in Computer and Cognitive Science, and the minor in Cognitive Science, and it is recommended for students taking the dual degree in Computer and Cognitive Science.

Also Offered As: CIS 1400 , COGS 1001 , LING 1005 , PHIL 1840

PSYC 1340 Perception

How the individual acquires and is guided by knowledge about objects and events in their environment.

Also Offered As: VLST 2110

PSYC 1440 Social Psychology

An overview of theories and research across the range of social behavior from intra-individual to the group level including the effects of culture, social environment, and groups on social interaction.

PSYC 1450 Personality and Individual Differences

This course provides an introduction to the psychology of personality and individual differences. Many psychology courses focus on the mind or brain; in contrast to those approaches of studying people in general, the focus in this course is on the question "How are people different from each other?" It will highlight research that take a multidimensional approach to individual differences and attempts to integrate across the biological, cognitive-experimental, and social-cultural influences on personality.

PSYC 1462 Abnormal Psychology

The concepts of normality, abnormality, and psychopathology; symptom syndromes;theory and research in psychopathology and psychotherapy.

PSYC 1530 Memory

This course presents an integrative treatment of the cognitive and neural processes involved in learning and memory, primarily in humans. We will survey the major findings and theories on how the brain gives rise to different kinds of memory, considering evidence from behavioral experiments, neuroscientific experiments, and computational models.

Also Offered As: NRSC 1159

PSYC 1777 Introduction to Developmental Psychology

The goal of this course is to introduce both Psychology majors and non-majors majors to the field of Developmental Psychology. Developmental Psychology is a diverse field that studies the changes that occur with age and experience and how we can explain these changes. The field encompasses changes in physicalgrowth, perceptual systems, cognitive systems, social interactions and and much more. We will study the development of perception, cognition, language,academic achievement, emotion regulation, personality, moral reasoning,and attachment. We will review theories of development and ask how these theories explain experimental findings. While the focus is on human development, when relevant, research with animals will be used as a basis for comparison.

PSYC 2220 Evolution of Behavior: Animal Behavior

The evolution of behavior in animals will be explored using basic genetic and evolutionary principles. Lectures will highlight behavioral principles using a wide range of animal species, both vertebrate and invertebrate. Examples of behavior include the complex economic decisions related to foraging, migratory birds using geomagnetic fields to find breeding grounds, and the decision individuals make to live in groups. Group living has led to the evolution of social behavior and much of the course will focus on group formation, cooperation among kin, mating systems, territoriality and communication.

Also Offered As: BIOL 2140 , NRSC 2140

Prerequisite: BIOL 1102 OR BIOL 1121 OR PSYC 0001

PSYC 2240 Visual Neuroscience

An introduction to the scientific study of vision, with an emphasis on the biological substrate and its relation to behavior. Topics will typically include physiological optics, transduction of light, visual thresholds, color vision, anatomy and physiology of the visual pathways, and the cognitive neuroscience of vision.

Also Offered As: NRSC 2217 , VLST 2170

Prerequisite: NRSC 1110

PSYC 2250 Drugs, Brain and Mind

The course will begin with a review of basic concepts in pharmacology including: routes of drug administration, drug metabolism, the dose response curve, tolerance and sensitization. Following a brief overview of cellular foundations of neuropharmacology (neuronal biology, synaptic and receptor function), the course will focus on several neurotransmitter systems and the molecular and behavioral mechanisms mediating the mind-altering, additive and neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia and anxiety with an emphasis on their underlying neurobiological causes, as well as the pharmacological approaches for treatment.

Also Offered As: NRSC 2270

PSYC 2260 Neuroendocrinology

This course is designed to examine the various roles played by the nervous and endocrine systems in controlling both physiological processes and behavior. First, the course will build a foundation in the concepts of neural and endocrine system function. Then, we will discuss how these mechanisms form the biological underpinnings of various behaviors and their relevant physiological correlates. We will focus on sexual and parental behaviors, stress, metabolism, neuroendocrine-immune interactions, and mental health.

Also Offered As: NRSC 2260

PSYC 2288 Neuroscience and Society

Cognitive, social,and affective neuroscience have made tremendous progress in in the last two decades. As this progress continues, neuroscience is becoming increasingly relevant to all of the real-world endeavors that require understanding, predicting and changing human behavior. In this course we will examine the ways in which neuroscience is being applied in law, criminal justice, national defense, education, economics, business,and other sectors of society. For each application area we will briefly review those aspects of neuroscience that are most relevant, and then study the application in more detail.

Prerequisite: NRSC 1110 OR PSYC 1230

PSYC 2310 Psychology of Language

This course describes the nature of human language, how it is used to speak and comprehend, and how it is learned. The course raises and discusses issues such as whether language ability is innate and unique to humans, whether there is a critical period for the acquisition of a language, and how linguistic and conceptual knowledge interact.

Also Offered As: LING 1750

Prerequisite: PSYC 1310 OR LING 0001

PSYC 2314 Data Science for Studying Language and the Mind

Data Science for studying Language and the Mind is an entry-level course designed to teach basic principles of data science to students with little or no background in statistics or computer science. Students will learn to identify patterns in data using visualizations and descriptive statistics; make predictions from data using machine learning and optimization; and quantify the certainty of their predictions using statistical models. This course aims to help students build a foundation of critical thinking and computational skills that will allow them to work with data in all fields related to the study of the mind (e.g. linguistics, psychology, philosophy, cognitive science).

Also Offered As: LING 0700

PSYC 2355 Introduction to Political Psychology

This course will explore psychological approaches to understanding political beliefs, attitudes, and actions at the levels of both individual citizens and national leaders. It will also explore the possibility that psychological science itself is not immune to the political debates swirling around it. Specific topics will include: the workings of belief systems (and their power to shape what we "see"), cognitive biases (and their power to cause miscalculations), sacred values and their role in stabilizing belief systems and social interaction, personality and ideology (the linkages between the personal and the political), and clashing conceptions of morality and distributive and corrective justice (striking variations among people in what they consider to be fair). We shall also explore some topics that have sparked controversy in the psychological research literature and that tend to polarize opinion along political lines, including work on intelligence and unconscious bias.

Also Offered As: PPE 2355

PSYC 2377 Cognitive Development

What infants and young children come to know about the world, and how they learn it. Topics will include changes in children's thinking, perceptual development, language acquisition, and current theories of cognitive development.

Not Offered Every Year

PSYC 2400 Introduction to Positive Psychology (SNF Paideia Program Course)

An introduction to the study of positive emotions, positive character traits, and positive institutions. The positive emotions consist of emotions about the past (e.g., serenity, satisfaction, pride), about the future (e.g., hope, optimism, faith), and emotions about the present (pleasure and gratification). The distinction among the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life is drawn. The positive traits include wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and spirituality, and the classification of these virtues is explored. The positive institutions are exemplified by extended families, free press, humane leadership, and representative government.

PSYC 2477 Social and Emotional Development

This course will cover theory and research related to the development of attachment, emotional regulation, peer and intimate relationships, personality, moral reasoning, and emotional and behavioral disorders. The course will emphasize the degree to which family, peer, and community contexts influence development from infancy into adulthood. Efforts will be made to integrate biological and environmental accounts of development across the lifespan.

PSYC 2555 Neuroeconomics

This course will introduce students to neuroeconomics, a field of research that combines economic, psychological, and neuroscientific approaches to study decision-making. The course will focus on our current understanding of how our brains give rise to decisions, and how this knowledge might be used to constrain or advance economic and psychological theories of decision-making. Topics covered will include how individuals make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, how groups of individuals decide to cooperate or compete, and how decisions are shaped by social context, memories, and past experience.

Also Offered As: NRSC 2273

PSYC 2737 Judgment and Decisions

Thinking, judgment, and personal and societal decision making, with emphasis on fallacies and biases.

PSYC 2740 Choice

The choices that people make determine their lived experiences, their social, economic, and political realities, and their overall well-being. For this reason, the study of choice is of special interest across both the sciences and the humanities, and is a central focus of academic disciplines like psychology, economics, cognitive science, neuroscience, computer science, and philosophy. This course will introduce you to the interdisciplinary study of human choice behavior, and will examine in detail what we know about how people make choices, how observed choice patterns and mechanisms relate to those in animals and artificially intelligent machines, and how we can accurately predict and influence people’s choices and choice outcomes. The primary objective of this course is to build students' understanding and appreciation of the diverse perspectives on human choice behavior. Moreover, by exploring the mechanisms and nuances of decision-making, students will gain insight into their personal choice patterns and acquire strategies to improve their own choice outcomes.

Also Offered As: PPE 3004

PSYC 2750 Behavioral Economics and Psychology

Our understanding of markets, governments, and societies rests on our understanding of choice behavior, and the psychological forces that govern it. This course will introduce you to the study of choice, and will examine in detail what we know about how people make choices, and how we can influence these choices. It will utilize insights from psychology and economics, and will apply these insights to domains including risky decision making, intertemporal decision making, and social decision making.

Also Offered As: PPE 3003

PSYC 2760 How We Change: Social-Psychological and Communication Dynamics (SNF Paideia Program Course)

Have you wondered why people undergo religious conversion, change their political affiliation, suddenly endorse conspiracy theories, alter their taste in music, or seek hypnosis to quit smoking? What is common to these processes of change, and how does resistance to change play out across these seemingly different contexts? In "Why We Change," we will ask unique questions such as how religious change might highlight methods of transforming public health communications or how the study of attitude change might yield new theories about the impact of life experiences on personality. Broadly speaking, the class will provide an opportunity for students to learn theories of belief formation, attitudes and persuasion, normative influence, and behavioral change. For example, we will work to understand how specific beliefs, such as group stereotypes, or specific attitudes, such as trust and values, change in response to variations in the environment and communication with other people. We will cover culturally based and professional approaches to change, from fear appeals to motivational interviewing, to hypnosis. Students will read empirical studies and conduct observational projects about potential sources of social, cultural, or psychological change and resistance to change in Philadelphia.

Also Offered As: COMM 2760 , NURS 2760

PSYC 2900 Evolutionary Psychology

This course introduces the field of evolutionary psychology, which is an approach to the study of human behavior. We will consider the threoretical underpinnings of the field, including evolutionary threory, development, kinship, and adaptations for social life, and will sample some of the recent empirical contributions to this growing area.

PSYC 3100 Being Human: The Biology of Human Behavior, Cognition, and Culture

This course will examine the biological basis of human behavior and culture as an emergent product of the brain and its interactions with the physical and social environment. As we explore this topic, we will emphasize human brain function at the level of neural systems and the neural networks they supply, how these systems may have evolved, how they change depending on experience, and what dysfunction of these circuits as occurs in neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopment disorders reveals about human thought and behavior. We will focus on key features of human nature, including language, mathematics, creativity and innovation, empathy, strategic thinking, cooperation, deception, economic behavior, and technology, amongst others.

PSYC 3220 Neural Systems and Behavior

This course will investigate neural processing at the systems level. Principles of how brains encode information will be explored in both sensory (e.g. visual, auditory, social, etc.) and motor systems. Neural encoding strategies will be discussed in relation to the specific behavioral needs of the animal. Examples will be drawn from a variety of different model systems.

Also Offered As: BIOL 4110 , NRSC 4110

Mutually Exclusive: BIOL 5110

Prerequisite: BIOL 2110

PSYC 3230 Neuroscience for Policymakers: Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar

Topics vary each semester.

Prerequisite: PSYC 1230

PSYC 3231 Consciousness Seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience

Consciousness is our subjective experience of the world, including both perceptions and felt internal states. In this seminar, we will explore the the burgeoning scientific literature on the neural basis of consciousness. We will focus in particular on three topics: What are the neural systems underlying visual awareness? What are the mechanisms that control the progression of conscious contents to create our stream of thought? What is the relationship between consciousness and behavior?

PSYC 3232 The Social Brain Seminar

This seminar examines the cognitive and neural mechanisms that enable humans to predict and understand people's behavior. We will be propelled throughout the course by fundamental questions about the human social brain. For example, why are humans so social? Does the human brain have specialized processes for social thought? Consideration of these questions will involve advanced treatment of a range of topics.

PSYC 3233 Seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience: Brain Development

This discussion-based seminar will focus on the neural bases of cognitive development. Each week the class will discuss a selection of papers that consider the roles of genes and environment on topics including the development of perceptual abilities, language, and cognition. The course will cover several aspects of pre- and postnatal brain and behavioral development with particular emphasis on animal models. This course is intended for students interested in neurobiology, cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology and development.

Also Offered As: NRSC 4233

PSYC 3260 Neuroendocrinology Seminar

This course is an upper-level seminar, designed to examine the various roles played by the nervous and endocrine systems in controlling both physiological processes and behavior. We will focus on sexual and parental behaviors, stress, metabolism, neuroendocrine-immune interactions, and mental health. The format will be a mixture of lectures and journal club discussions based on recent primary literature in the field of neuroendocrinology. Students will also write several short papers based on the clinical neuroendocrinology.

Also Offered As: NRSC 4460

PSYC 3271 Seminar: Thought without Language

In this seminar we will tackle key topics in cognitive science through the lens of comparative and developmental psychology. Human infants in the first year of life and nonhuman animals share an important attribute: they both lack language. What type of thought is possible without language? What can we learn about the human mind by studying animal and infant cognition? We will explore topics such as concepts and categories, metacognition, numerical cognition, helping and sharing, and understanding other minds using empirical papers. The course will be heavily discussion-based and students will be required to give multiple short presentations and write one paper.

PSYC 3280 Neurological Insights into Cognition and Behavior Seminar

Our modern understanding of the brain began with very humble foundations. Long before transgenic mice, MRI scans, and neuronal recordings, most knowledge about brain function was based on clinical observations of human patients with neurological lesions. This advanced seminar will focus on the cognitive neuroscience of perception, emotion, language, and behavior -- through the unique perspective of real-life patients -- to illustrate fundamental concepts of brain function. Tuesday classes will explore different cognitive neuroscience topics through student presentations and discussion. Thursday classes will involve observing medical history taking and examination of a patient with cognitive deficits pertinent to the Tuesday topic, with opportunity for students to interact with the patient. Pre-requisites: Instructor permission required and PSYC 109 OR PSYC 149 OR PSYC 159

PSYC 3300 Seminar in Sleep and Memory

Why do we sleep? This question has puzzled scientists for centuries, but one reason emerging from research in the area is that sleep is critical for forming, retaining, and transforming our memories. This seminar explores human and animal research in psychology and neuroscience that has shed light on how sleep carries out these functions. Topics will include the different stages of sleep and their roles in memory consolidation, its neural systems involved in representing memory at different timescales, and the role of dreams in processing memories.

Also Offered As: NRSC 4429

Prerequisite: CIS 1210

PSYC 3301 Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

This course focuses on the current state of our knowledge about the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. A combination of lectures and student seminars will explore the molecular and cellular basis of learning in invertebrates and vertebrates from a behavioral and neural perspective.

Also Offered As: BIOL 4142 , NRSC 4442

PSYC 3310 Psycholinguistics Seminar

This course examines how people use language. We will focus on Herb H. Clark’s book “Using Language” (1996). In this book, Clark proposes that language use is a form of joint action, and extensively develop what this claim entails and how it accounts for people’s linguistic behavior. The course will consist of a detailed examination of Clark’s thesis.

Also Offered As: LING 3750

Prerequisite: PSYC 1310 OR PSYC 2310 OR LING 0001

PSYC 3400 Positive Psychology Seminar: Positive Education

This intensive, discussion-based seminar will equip you with useful insight and critical analysis about Positive Psychology by emphasizing scientific literacy. The workload for this seminar requires intensive reading. To excel in this seminar, students must be willing to enthusiastically read, dissect, and critique ideas within Positive Psychology. This requires students to articulate various ideas in verbal and written form.

PSYC 3440 Friendship and Attraction Seminar (SNF Paideia Program Course)

This seminar primarily focuses on heterosexual friendship between men and women, and the methodological issues of investigating such relationships. The scope for sexuality and romance in heterosexual opposite-sex friendship will be explored, as well as the possibility that men and women perceive opposite-sex friendship differently from each other. The ramifications of sex, romance, and incongruent perspectives in these relationships will be discussed, as will intimacy, competition, homosexual friendship, and same-sex friendship.

Prerequisite: PSYC 1440

PSYC 3441 Psychology and Religion Seminar

The purpose of the seminar is to introduce the relationship between psychology and religion in a balanced fashion. I do not assume that either of these two powerful forces in the world has the last word on the other. Not do I assume that they can hide behind their typical assumptions without offering good reasons for them. So the seminar offers the opportunities for a disciplined personal engagement with the material. Almost everyone brings personal background and emotion as well as intellectual curiosity to religion and its relationship to human nature; this is the relationship that we will take seriously, pondering the emotional and immediately experiential as well as the cognitive and distanced aspects of the topics we study.

PSYC 3442 Moral Psychology Seminar

This seminar will cover a range of topics within contemporary moral psychology, including: the nature of morality, the extent to which moral beliefs are based on reasoning as opposed to more intuitive or affective processes, the extent to which moral values can be traded off, the role of justice and blame in moral thinking, moral selfidentity, the causes of immoral behavior, and the cultural, political, and personal significance of people’s moral beliefs. Students will be expected to read and actively discuss selected papers, and will be asked to present readings at various points. There will be mid-term and final paper assignments.

PSYC 3443 Psychology and Law Seminar

During the past several years, this seminar has emphasized criminal law, procedure, and social justice issues. The emphasis in each year’s course varies somewhat with what is going on “in the real world” outside of the classroom.

PSYC 3444 Evolutionary Perspectives in Social Psychology

This discussion-based seminar uses evolutionary (Darwinian) perspectives to examine selected topics central to social psychology. Topics will include: Fundamental theories of evolutionary psychology; the self; prosocial behavior and altruism; aggression and violence; love, attraction, and mating; human sex differences in social behavior; religion and morality; and group behavior.

PSYC 3446 The Science of Well-Being (SNF Paideia Program Course)

The course consists of weekly 90-minute lectures on Positive Psychology: The topics include Well-Being as a Life Goal, Good Character, Learned Helplessness, Optimism, Coaching, Therapy and Prevention, Positive Education, the Positive Corporation, Agency, and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, there will be weekly recitation sessions and exercises for students to measure and to increase their personal well-being.

PSYC 3461 Survey of Mood Disorders Seminar

Mood disorders are common, sometimes debilitating, mental health conditions with considerable societal costs. These disorders include depression, bipolar disorder, and several variants of these disorders. In industrialized nations, depression alone ranks among the leading causes of disability. Bipolar disorder, while less common, is associated with even more marked impairments. In this course, we will examine mood disorders in depth, covering historical, cross-cultural, diagnostic, developmental, neuroscientific, etiological, and therapeutic issues. Throughout the course, I hope to encourage students to appreciate what we know about problems of mood, how we have acquired this knowledge, and how much we still do not understand.

Prerequisite: PSYC 1462

PSYC 3462 Gender and Psychopathology Seminar

This course will explore contemporary theory and research on the role of gender in vulnerability to and expression of psychopathology. In the beginning of the course, we will explore and critique definitions of sex and gender and methodological approaches to the study of gender differences. This will include considering strong challenges to our conceptions of identity categories such as sex and gender. For instance, we will examine the evolution and controversies surrounding the diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria. Next, we will explore literature on gender differences in emotional expression, coping, and several forms of psychopathology, including mood disorders, eating disorders, disorders related to anxiety and trauma exposure, substance-related disorders and aggressive disorders. Finally, we will consider the role of gender in help-seeking behavior.

PSYC 3463 Seminar in Abnormal Psychology: Developmental Psychopathology

Developmental psychopathology has been defined as “the study of the origins and course of individual patterns of behavioral maladaptation, whatever the age of onset, whatever the causes, whatever the transformations in behavioral manifestation, and however complex the course of the developmental pattern may be.” (Sroufe & Rutter, 1984, p. 18). We will read and discuss seminal papers in the field of developmental psychopathology, case studies, memoirs, and sociological writings with the goal that students will acquire a deep understanding of the historical and theoretical origins of the field, key concepts, popular methodological approaches, and well-replicated findings.

Fall, even numbered years only

PSYC 3464 Seminar in Clinical Psychology: Theories of Psychotherapy

This seminar provides an introduction to several major theoretical approaches to psychotherapy, such as psychodynamic/psychoanalytic, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, and interpersonal/group therapy models. Students will learn how these theoretical frameworks differentially influence assessment, case conceptualization, treatment planning, style of the therapeutic relationship, intervention techniques, and methods of evaluating therapy process and outcomes. Using case vignettes, film demonstrations, classroom role playing, and other experiential exercises, students will learn how these models are applied in real world settings and begin to develop an awareness of their own therapeutic philosophy. Critical analysis of the models will be advanced through ethical considerations and the application of multicultural and feminist perspectives.

PSYC 3730 Three Perspectives on Judgment and Decision Making: Seminar

This course is designed to help you become a better decision maker. By the end of the semester, you should have the skills to approach decision making from a broader perspective with new tools and a new awareness of many common errors and biases. You will learn about normative decisions (how people should make choices if they want to use principles of rationality, logic and probability), descriptive decisions (how people really do make decisions) and prescriptive decisions (how people can make better decisions given normative principles and what we know about human behavior). We’ll discuss the theoretical foundations of the field, some of the key empirical insights. We’ll discuss what it means to have good judgment and how experts and novices differ. We look at decision making in such as public policy, medicine, the law, business, and intelligence analysis. Decision making is something we do every day, many times a day. It is so natural that some people don’t even realize they are doing it. Many of the insights from this field have real-world implications.

Prerequisite: PSYC 2737 OR PPE 3003

PSYC 3766 Inside the Criminal Mind

This seminar explores the development of antisocial behavior including psychopathy, aggression, and violence. At its core, this course examines what increases the risk that children will develop behavior problems and go onto more chronic and extreme forms of violence and psychopathic personality that results in harm to others. We will examine psychiatric diagnoses associated with these antisocial behaviors in both childhood and adulthood and how they link to other relevant forms of psychopathology (e.g., substance use, ADHD). We will explore research elucidating the neural correlates of these behaviors, potential genetic mechanisms underlying these behaviors, and the environments that increase risk for these behaviors. Thus, there will be a focus on neurobiology and genetics approaches to psychiatric outcomes, as well as a social science approach to understanding these harmful behaviors, all while considering development across time. We will also consider ethical and moral implications of this research.

Prerequisite: PSYC 1462 AND PSYC 1777

PSYC 3770 Educational Neuroscience Seminar

The field of educational neuroscience is an emerging field with the goal of joining knowledge gained from the disciplines of neuroscience, cognitive science, developmental psychology,and education. This interdisciplinary course will focus on how scientific exploration of the mind and brain can inform educational practices. PSYC 480-302 (Connolly): This advanced discussion-based seminar will focus on approaches to success in domains of modern life such as social living and academia. The first portion of this seminar will be a psychology book club where we read various books written by psychology researchers. This will contribute to an ongoing discussion about scientific communication, and the presentation of psychological research to various audiences. From there, students will focus on a specific area of interest, and write a literature review based on contemporary empirical research critiquing their given topic. Students must understand the workload for this seminar requires intensive reading culminating in a large written assignment.

PSYC 3771 Psychology of Modern Life: Success and Achievement

This intensive, discussion-based seminar focuses on the utility of Psychology in modern life. We will take a top-down approach to a range of contemporary ideas that could be described as practical: useful and applicable. Broadly, we will investigate the concepts of success and achievement to this end. This includes topics such as intelligence, grit, self-control, growth mindset, expertise, flow, and creativity. This will equip you with useful insight and critical analysis about various iterations of success, and how the field of Psychology conceptualizes how to achieve success. This seminar emphasizes scientific literacy.

PSYC 3780 Advanced Seminar in Psychology: Obedience

Though almost half a century old, Milgram’s 1961-1962 studies of “destructive obedience” continue to puzzle, fascinate, and alarm. The main reason for their continued grip on the field’s attention (other than the boldness of the idea and elegance of execution) may be simply that they leave us with a portrait of human character that is radically different from the one that we personally wish to endorse or that the wider culture teaches us to accept. In this seminar, we will take an in-depth look at these famous studies (along with the more recent replications) and explore their various psychological, political and philosophical ramifications.

Also Offered As: PPE 4802 , PSYC 4780

PSYC 3790 Neuroeconomics Seminar

This seminar will review recent research that combines psychological, economic, and neuroscientific approaches to study human and animal decision-making. The course will focus on our current state of knowledge regarding the neuroscience of decision-making, and how evidence concerning the neural processes associated with choices might be used to constrain or advance economic and psychological theories of decision-making. Topics covered will include decisions involving risk and uncertainty, decisions that involve learning from experience, decisions in strategic interactions and games, and social preferences. Prerequisite: Psychology 149, 153, or 165, or permission of the instructor.

Also Offered As: NRSC 4473

Prerequisite: PSYC 1230 OR PSYC 2737 OR PPE 3003

PSYC 3795 Calling Bull: Discerning Fact from Fiction in Psychology and the Real World

Inspired by the course of the same name designed by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West at the University of Washington, the aim of this seminar is to get students "to think critically about the data and models that constitute evidence in the social and natural sciences". We will reinforce critical thinking principles regarding probability and statistics, causality, data visualizations, and more, practicing how to apply these principles to both scientific papers and evidentiary claims made "in the wild" (in the news, on social media, etc). We will pay particular attention to topics and examples relevant to psychology.

PSYC 3803 Advanced Seminar in Psychology: Modeling Choice Behavior

How do people decide and how can we study decision processes using formal mathematical and computational models? This course will address this question. It will examine popular quantitative modeling techniques in psychology, economics, cognitive science, and neuroscience, and will apply these techniques to study choice behavior. Students will learn how to test the predictions of choice models, fit the models on behavioral data, and quantitatively examine the goodness-of-fit. They will also get practice formulating their own models for describing human behavior. This class will have a major programming component, however no prior programming experience is required.

Also Offered As: PPE 4803 , PSYC 4803

PSYC 3900 Behavioral Biology of Women Seminar

A course that explores female behavior focusing on evolutionary, physiological,and biosocial aspects of women's lives from puberty, through reproductive processes such as pregnancy, birth, lactation to menopause and old age. Examples are drawn from traditional and modern societies and data from nonhuman primates are also considered.

Prerequisite: PSYC 2900 OR BIOL 1102 OR ANTH 1040 OR ANTH 1430

PSYC 3990 Sleep and Sleep Disorders

This class will provide an introduction to sleep and sleep disorders, focusing on current research in the field. Students will learn about the neurobiology of sleep/wake regulation, the relationship between sleep and memory and how sleep is related to physical and mental health. Sleep disorders, including sleep apnea, insomnia, and narcolepsy will be covered in terms of pathophysiology, assessment and treatment.

Summer Term

PSYC 3991 TEST TEST TESTING

TESTING FOR ATTRIBUTES

PSYC 4281 Computational Neuroscience Lab

This course will focus on computational neuroscience from the combined perspective of data collection, data analysis, and computational modeling. These issues will be explored through lectures as well as Matlab-based tutorials and exercises. The course requires no prior knowledge of computer programming and a limited math background, but familiarity with some basic statistical concepts will be assumed. The course is an ideal preparation for students interested in participating in a more independent research experience in one of the labs on campus.

Also Offered As: NRSC 3334 , PSYC 3281

PSYC 4290 Big Data, Memory and the Human Brain

This course fulfills the research experience requirement in the psychology major. Advances in brain recording methods over the last decade have generated vastly more brain data than had been collected by neuroscientists during the previous century. To understand the human brain, scientists must now use computational methods that exploit the power of these huge data sets. This course will introduce you to the use of big data analytics in the study of human memory. Through hands-on Python-based programming projects, we will analyze very large data sets both to replicate existing phenomena and to make new discoveries. Programming experience in python is required for this course.

Also Offered As: COGS 4290

PSYC 4310 Research Experience in Cognitive Psychology

Students will work in small groups to develop, empirically test, and report on a research question in the field of cognitive psychology. Through this process,students will learn how to to conduct and report a psychological study, including the appropriate statistical tests. Class discussions will help students craft their projects, and in-class presentations will provide the opportunity to develop and refine presentation skills. Psychology majors only. Class size is limited to 16 students.

PSYC 4340 Research Experience in Perception

In this research course, students will begin by first replicating earlier experiments to measure human visual memory capacity. After several class discussions to discuss ideas, each student will design and conduct their own experiment to further investigate visual and/or familiarity memory.

Also Offered As: VLST 2120

PSYC 4440 Sexuality and Attraction Research Experience Course

The overarching goal of this course is to offer a practicum (hands-on experience) in designing, conducting, and reporting a piece of psychological research. This objective will be met principally through participation in a group research project, class discussions related to the project and various exercises focusing on individual components of the research process. There are additional goals as well. One is to enable you to think critically (though not disparagingly) about other people’s research, all with the hope of eventually applying the the self-same critical acumen to some future work of your own. This objective will be met primarily through class lectures and discussions of the assigned readings. I also hope that our interactions throughout the course will be conducive to developing (and exchanging) creative ideas of your own. Lastly, the course aims to offer an informal introduction to research design and research ethics. This objective will be met primarily through class discussions, group project, exercises, and some additional readings.

PSYC 4460 Everyday Psychology

PSYC 4460 is an activity-based course with three major goals. First, the course is an opportunity for psychology and cognitive science undergrad majors to develop their professional and science communication skills and share their enthusiasm for these topics with high school students at a nearby public high school in West Philadelphia. In this regard, Penn students will prepare demonstrations and hands-on activities to engage local high school students, increase their knowledge in functions of the mind and brain, providing insights that may promote well being for the high school students and their community. This will be accomplished as students design and execute hands-on/minds-on activities on a range of psychology topics. There will be 10 sessions across the semester for these lessons, allowing the college and high school students to develop a consistent teacher-learner relationship. Second, students will explore the literature that discusses the need for better bridges between scientific research and the broader community. Discussions will incorporate the students' experiences, including challenges and rewards, as they bring psychology lessons to local youth. This academic portion of the course will include guest lectures from the Penn community who actively engaged in community partnerships. Third, students will be challenged to consider solutions for any problems that they encounter using a Theory of Change framework. This aspect of the course will result in a final project in which students much create logical, realistic, evidence-based links between interventions, indicators of change, and ultimate impacts to mitigate the problems.

PSYC 4462 Research Experience in Abnormal Psychology

This is a two-semester course starting in the Fall. Class size limited to 8-10 students.

PSYC 4463 Research Experience Course in Clinical Psychological Data Analysis

This is a semester-long research experience class on the analysis of data from clinical trials and epidemiological studies to better understand topics relevant to clinical psychology and mental health. The class will primarily focus on practical application of data analytic skills to understand psychological phenomenon, including analysis of existing clinical datasets using statistical analysis tools such as R

PSYC 4900 The Science of Behavior Change

The objective of this 14-week discussion-based seminar for advanced undergraduates is to expose students to cutting-edge research from psychology and economics on the most effective strategies for changing behavior sustainably and for the better (e.g., promoting healthier eating and exercise, encouraging better study habits, and increasing savings rates). The weekly readings cover classic and current research in this area. The target audience for this course is advanced undergraduate students interested in behavioral science research and particularly those hoping to learn about using social science to change behavior for good. Although there are no pre-requisites for this class, it is well-suited to students who have taken (and enjoyed) courses like OIDD 2900 : Decision Processes, PPE 2030/PSYC 2650: Behavioral Economics and Psychology, and MKTG 2660 : Marketing for Social Impact and are interested in taking a deeper dive into the academic research related to promoting behavior change for good. Instructor permission is required to enroll in this course. Please complete the application if interested in registering for this seminar: http://bit.ly/bcfg-class-2020. The application deadline is July 31, 2020. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor required.

Also Offered As: OIDD 4900

PSYC 4901 Research Practicum in Cognitive Science

Research Practicum is a six-week half-credit course that facilitates students’ entry into research in cognitive science. Students complete a small project of their own devising, from hypothesis generation to report writing, and attend weekly guest lectures from graduate students and post-docs in cognitive science labs that are looking for undergraduate research assistants. Practicum has a ‘flipped’ classroom. Before class each week, students watch video lectures; in-person class is for asking questions about the week’s lecture, and to work on the week’s assignment for the student’s project, with help from the instructor and TA as needed. Each week, we will also have a guest lecturer from the lab of a MindCORE faculty affiliate. (The lecture and the project time could be joined into a single class session (~2.5-3 hours long) but it may be preferable to split these into two separate class sessions in the week.) The main product – pieces of which the student submits every week – is a 4-5 page paper reporting the study they conducted. Each week, students will also write a 150 word summary/reflection on the guest lecture that week.

Also Offered As: COGS 1770 , LING 1770

.5 Course Units

PSYC 4997 Senior Honors Seminar in Psychology

Open to senior honors candidates in psychology. A two-semester sequence supporting the preparation of an honors thesis in psychology. Students will present their work in progress and develop skills in written and oral communication of scientific ideas. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Honors Program in Psychology.

0.5 Course Units

PSYC 4998 Mentored Research

Mentored research involving data collection. Students do independent empirical work under the supervision of a faculty member, leading to a written paper. Normally taken in the junior or senior year.

1-2 Course Units

PSYC 4999 Honors Thesis Empirical Research

The Honors Program has been developed to recognize excellence in psychology among Penn undergraduates and to enhance skills related to psychological research. The 4998 credit signifies an Honors Independent Study, completed as part of the Honors Program. The honors program involves: (a) completing a year-long empirical research project in your senior year under the supervision of a faculty member (for a letter grade). This earns 2 cu's. (b) completing a second term of statistics (for a letter grade) before graduation. (c) participating in the year-long Senior Honors seminar (for a letter grade). This seminar is designed especially for Psychology Honors majors; this receives a total of 1 cu. (d) participating in the Undergraduate Psychology Research Fair in the Spring semester, at which honors students present a poster and give a 15-minute talk about their research. (e) a total of 15 cu's in psychology is required. Students will be selected to be part of the Honors Program in the Spring of their junior year (see application process online)

PSYC 5110 Probabilistic Models of Perception

How does vision work? What computations should be performed on images to support visual tasks? What computations do biological and engineered vision systems actually use? This course will provide an in-depth treatment of several topics in vision with implications for both biological and human-engineered systems. We will develop an understanding of select visual abilities in humans and in other creatures from around the animal kingdom (praying mantises, cuttlefish, etc.) and we will show how computational solutions that emerge from the study of biological systems can improve performance in engineered systems like smartphone cameras. The course will provide an introduction to useful tools like signal detection theory, dimensionality reduction, and optimal estimation theory and show how these tools are applied to the covered topics. Some programming experience is desirable.

PSYC 5210 Judgment & Decisions

PSYC 5250 Controversies in Psychology and Neuroscience

In this seminar, we will discuss several recent controversies in psychology and neuroscience, for example: "p-hacking," replicability, methodological terrorists, neural activity in dead salmon and failures to control the false positive rate in neuroimaging, "voodoo correlations" and double dipping, whether Tic-Tacs can improve self-control and whether reading "old" makes you walk slower. Our goal is not just to engender ennui and/or schadenfreude, but also to ask what we can learn from these discussions about how to do science in the most rigorous, reproducible manner possible.

PSYC 5390 Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience

This course will develop theoretical and computational approaches to structural and functional organization in the brain. The course will cover: (i) the basic biophysics of neural responses, (ii) neural coding and decoding with an emphasis on sensory systems, (iii) approaches to the study of networks of neurons, (iv) models of adaptation, learning and memory, (v) models of decision making, and (vi) ideas that address why the brain is organized the way that it is. The course will be appropriate for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. A knowledge of multi-variable calculus, linear algebra and differential equations is required (except by permission of the instructor). Prior exposure to neuroscience and/or Matlab programming will be helpful.

Also Offered As: BE 5300 , NGG 5940 , NRSC 5585 , PHYS 5585

PSYC 5410 Sleep and Memory

Why do we sleep? This question has puzzled scientists for centuries, but one reason emerging from research in the area is that sleep is critical for forming, retaining, and transforming our memories over time. This seminar explores human and animal research in psychology and neuroscience that has shed light on how sleep carries out these functions. Topics will include the different stages of sleep and their roles in memory consolidation, the neural systems involved in representing memory at different timescales, and the role of dreams in processing memories.

PSYC 5470 Foundations of Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience

This course is designed to introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of social, cognitive and affective neuroscience. We begin with the basics of neurons, synapses and neurotransmission and the functional anatomy of the human brain. We then move on to neuroscience methods including cellular recordings, EEG/ERP, lesion methods, structural and functional neuroimaging and brain stimulation. The remainder of the course covers the neural systems involved in emotion, social cognition, executive function, learning and memory, perception and development. We focus on how our understanding of these systems has emerged from the use of the methods studied earlier.

PSYC 5490 A Neuroscience Perspective of Artificial Intelligence

This seminar course asks what would be required to achieve Strong Artificial Intelligence, also referred to as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), in light of what we know about the emergence of life and mind in the universe. Specifically, we will consider the question whether it is possible for machines to become self-aware by asking what Natural Intelligence is, and considering what it implies about whether and how AGI can be achieved. To grapple with this question, in Part I of the course we will examine what is known about the emergence of Natural Intelligence in the universe. This study includes the phenomena of: (1a) Abiogenesis, (1b) The Universal Role of Entropy and Information in Evolution, (1c) Signal Transduction, intracellular signaling, and Mechanism of Stimulus-Response Coupling in Unicellular Organisms; (2a) The Evolution of the Metazoa during the Cambrian Explosion, (2b) The Consequences of Motility and Preditor - Prey Dynamics in the Metazoa for the Evolution of Complex Nervous Systems and Behaviors; (3a) The Implications of Invertebrate Navigation by Dead Reckoning for Understanding Insect Behavior, (3b) Insect Behavior in Relation to Robotics; (4a) Origin of the Vertebrates and the Evolution of the Vertebrate Nervous System, (4b) The Mammalian Neocortex; (5) Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Plasticity; (6) The Evolution of the Hominins and the Hominin Brain; (7) Higher-Order Thinking and Epistemology; (8a) Meta-awareness as the Foundation of Human Consciousness, (8b) The Fluidity of Mind Embodiment, (8c) Theories and Philosophy of Human Consciousness. (9a) Other Minds: The Atypical Nervous System of the Ctenophore and The Nervous System and Mind of the Octopus, (9b) Animal intelligence. (10a) The History and Trajectory of AI, (10b) Superintelligence, Human Cognitive Fluidity and the Existence of a Global Network of Human Superintelligence.

PSYC 5510 Eye Movements in Perception, Language and Cognition

In this course, we examine how the recording of eye movements can provide a moment-by-moment record of perceptual, cognitive and linguistic processes. Four areas of research will be discussed: (1) task-based scene perception; (2) language processing (in both reading and spoken language); (3) category learning, and (4) decision making. In all of these domains, eyetracking research has led to a greater understanding of how attention and information selection supports real-time cognitive processes. Students will have access to eyetracking systems, giving them hands-on experience in designing, running, and analyzing eyetracking experiments. By the end of the semester, students will have collected pilot eyetracking data. Projects will be done individually or within small research teams. Requirements: Weekly readings; class presentations and discussion; and a paper.

PSYC 5570 Neuroscience, Ethics & Law

How does the neuroscience of human decision-making and emotion impact our understanding of ethics and law? What can neuroscience tell us about why people find actions moral or immoral, worthy of praise or punishment? What, if anything, can it tell us normatively about morality, agency and responsibility? And what other insights might neuroscience offer regarding other morally and legally relevant phenomena such as stereotyping and bias, the causes of antisocial behavior and the detection of deception?

PSYC 5620 Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD: Theory, Diagnosis, and Evide

Schizophrenia is the same as “split personality”... or is it? People with mental illness are frequently violent… or are they? “Shock” therapy is barbaric...or is it? The “answers” to these questions as portrayed by the media often reinforce common myths and stereotypes about psychopathology, its treatments, and its treatment providers. These myths can have a tremendous impact on individuals and society. This course was designed to help students develop awareness of popular myths and stereotypes depicted in the media about psychopathology, treatment and providers; the ability to identify and understand the sources and impact of media representations of psychopathology; and knowledge about current empirical research on media depictions of psychopathology and their relationship to stigma. By the end of the course, students should be able to identify the many forms of media in which psychopathology is depicted; recognize common myths; critique the common and specific ways in which particular mental disorders are inaccurately or stereotypically portrayed in the media; evaluate the potential impact of psychopathology depictions on individuals and society; and describe current efforts to assess and reduce the stigmatization of mental health through the media.

PSYC 5730 Seminar in Neuroeconomics

This seminar will review recent research that combines economic, psychological, and neuroscientific approaches to study decision-making. The course will focus on our current state of knowledge regarding the neuroscience of decision-making, and how evidence concerning the neural processes associated with choices might be used to constrain or advance economic and psychological theories of decision-making. Topics covered will include decisions involving risk and uncertainty, decisions that involve learning from experience, decisions in strategic interactions and games, and social preferences.

PSYC 5790 Experimental Methods of Perception

The course will be lab based, and designed to introduce students to the major experimental

PSYC 6000 Proseminar in General Psychology

Choice of half or full course units each sem. covering a range of subjects and approaches in academic psychology.

0.5-1 Course Unit

PSYC 6090 Systems Neuroscience

This course provides an introduction to what is known about how neuronal circuits solve problems for the organism and to current resarch approaches to this question. Topics include: vision, audition, olfaction, motor systems, plasticity, and oscillations. In addition, the course aims to provide an overview of the structure of the central nervous system. A number of fundamental concepts are also discussed across topics, such as: lateral inhibition, integration, filterting, frames of reference, error signals, adaptation. The course format consists of lectures, discussions, readings of primary literature, supplemented by textbook chapters and review articles.

Also Offered As: NGG 5730

PSYC 6110 Applied Regression and Analysis of Variance

An applied graduate level course in multiple regression and analysis of variance for students who have completed an undergraduate course in basic statistical methods. Emphasis is on practical methods of data analysis and their interpretation. Covers model building, general linear hypothesis, residual analysis, leverage and influence, one-way anova, two-way anova, factorial anova. Primarily for doctoral students in the managerial, behavioral, social and health sciences. Permission of instructor required to enroll.

Also Offered As: BSTA 5500 , STAT 5000

PSYC 6120 Introduction to Nonparametric Methods and Log-linear Models

An applied graduate level course for students who have completed an undergraduate course in basic statistical methods. Covers two unrelated topics: loglinear and logit models for discrete data and nonparametric methods for nonnormal data. Emphasis is on practical methods of data analysis and their interpretation. Primarily for doctoral students in the managerial, behavioral, social and health sciences. Permission of instructor required to enroll.

Also Offered As: STAT 5010

PSYC 6980 Laboratory Rotation

Lab rotation for psychology grad students.

0.5-3 Course Units

PSYC 6999 Individual Research for First-Year Graduate Students

Individual Research for First-Year Graduate Students

Two Term Class, Student must enter first term; credit given after both terms are complete

0.5-4 Course Units

PSYC 7030 Special Topics in Psychology

Special Topics in Psychology.

PSYC 7040 Research Methods and Statistical Procedures for Social and Clinical Sciences

This course has three primary objectives: 1) developing criteria and strategies for strong inference of causal relationships in social and clinical psychology research; 2) examining the array of research designs employed in the social/clinical sciences together with the threats to internal and external validity associated with each; 3) learning and applying statistical analytical methods appropriate for questions in the social/clinical sciences. The course will employ a seminar format and a project-oriented approach to learning. Students will be encouraged to utilize examples from their own research programs in applying the design and analysis concepts covered in the course.

PSYC 7050 Neuroethics

Neuroscience is increasingly affecting all aspects of human life, from the relatively familiar medical applications in neurology and psychiatry, to new applications in education, business, law,and the military. Today's neuroscience graduate students will be among the scientists, citizens,and policymakers who will lead society through the maze of decisions regarding the appropriate uses of neuroscience.This course provides a survey of the key ethical, legal,and social issues at the intersection of neuroscience and society.It will include a combination of traditional classroom lectures, discussion and debates, as well as an online component coordinated with a course at Wisconsin's Neuroscience and Public Policy graduate program.

PSYC 7090 Special Topics in Clinical Psychology

A developmental approach to the study of psychopathology focuses on how psychological processes from normal to abnormal developmental trajectories. In this seminar we will cover theory, methods, and key constructs in the study of developmental psychopathology. Readings will include seminal empirical papers and chapters.

PSYC 7110 Regression & ANOVA

A graduate-level course on the theory and application of multiple regression and analysis of variance.

PSYC 7120 Regression & ANOVA II

An advanced graduate-level course on the theory and application of multiple regression and analysis of variance.

PSYC 7440 Brain Development & Society

In this seminar, we will explore a series of topics in developmental neuroscience, focusing on recent scientific progress and its social relevance.   Two major topics will be covered: Autism and other forms of “neurodiversity”, including gender-nonconformity, and socioeconomic status. For both of these topics we will examine the state of the fast-developing science, the implications of the science for policy, and the relations between the developmental neuroscience and society more broadly (issues such as identity, stigma and politics).

PSYC 7450 Special Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience

Special Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience

PSYC 7470 Contemporary Research Issues in Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

This course is intended to take you from a textbook-level acquaintance with psychology and neuroscience to critical engagement with the primary literature, through lectures, discussion and short written assignments. You will learn to extract, from the dense and detail-laden pages of a journal article, its contribution to the “big picture” of human neuroscience. You will also learn to recognize problematic research practices when they arise, and to analyze and communicate about the strengths and weaknesses of research articles.

Also Offered As: BIOE 7470

PSYC 8100 Psychodiagnostic Testing

This course provides a basic introduction to the theories and tools of psychological assessment. Students learn how to administer and interpret a number of standard cognitive, neuropsychological and personality tests including the WAIS-III, WMS-III, WIAT-II, Wisconsin Card Sort, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Millon Index of Personality Styles. Attention is given to serving as a consultant, differential diagnosis, case conceptualization, and integrating test results into formal but accessible reports.

PSYC 8110 Psychodiagnostic Interviewing

This course, usually taken simultaneously with Psychology 810, provides a basic introduction to psychodiagnostic interviewing and differential diagnosis. Students learn to take clinical histories and to administer a number of standardized diagnostic interviews, including the mental status exam, the SCID I and II for DSM-IV, the ADIS, and various clinician rating scales such as the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Attention is also given to self-report symptom inventories such as the Beck Depression Inventory and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised as well as to computerized diagnostic tools.

PSYC 8150 Introductory Practicum

Students typically complete 8-10 full assessment batteries on complex patients referred from a number of different sources in the community. This practicum offers intensive supervision, with live (in the room) supervision of every trainee’s first case, and live peer-supervision of their second case. Throughout their time in the practicum they receive close supervision of every case, including checking the scoring of tests and measures, and close reading and editing of every report. Students do a final feedback session with every patient which the supervisor co-leads at the beginning of the year, and observes in the room throughout the rest of the year, thus ensuring direct observation of every trainee throughout the year.

PSYC 8200 Advanced Practicum

Intensive studies of single individuals including interviews, tests, and experiments; also clinical experience at appropriate community agencies.

PSYC 9999 Individual Study and Research

Individual Study and Research

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Knowledge at Wharton Podcast

The power of thought: how critical thinking can help your business, february 14, 2019 • 22 min listen.

A new book explains how conscious and unconscious dynamics drive most of our thinking -- and how to gain better control of those processes.

Harvard Business School professor emeritus Gerald Zaltman discusses his new book on tapping the conscious and unconscious mind.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Knowledge at Wharton: You emphasize thinking more clearly, but we’re all so busy now that doing so can be a challenge. Would you agree?

Gerald Zaltman: Well, it is a challenge. It’s a challenge for a number of reasons, but let me just describe the concern that those reasons have created. The concern I have is that we are becoming a nation of strangers. It’s a situation where discussions of important topics are put off limits. We can’t carry on conversations with people who are family members, good friends, good colleagues because of very fundamental disagreements. Our thinking is foreign to one another, and that’s concerning me — that there’s not an openness to discussing conflicting information.

Knowledge at Wharton: How do we work around that? If you go back to pre-internet days, that was how discussions occurred on a daily basis.

Zaltman: That’s right, and I think there are ways of getting back to that more open, more civil and more informative kind of exchange. But it’s not going to happen overnight. We’re facing a unique situation that didn’t prevail two, three, four decades ago. Information is more abundant. Much of it is of questionable quality. It’s fractured. I sometimes think of it as being a puzzle that used to have 100 pieces, and now it has 1,000, and possibly 400 of those aren’t really relevant or accurate or appropriate. It’s what the RAND Corporation has labeled “truth decay.” That is, there’s less and less truth, and more and more information. The result is we’re becoming a nation of strangers to one another.

Knowledge at Wharton: There are 39 think keys in your book. What are think keys?

“The concern I have is that we are becoming a nation of strangers. It’s a situation where discussions of important topics are put off limits.”

Zaltman: They are exercises — devices, if you will — that I developed over the course of my teaching both MBA students and executive education students to help them understand the thinking dynamics that underlie the discussion of a particular case or issue. They evolved gradually. Some I take rather directly from other sources. But in all cases, they are an attempt to get each person to think of their own mind as a case study, as opposed to someone else’s mind. And that’s a fun and challenging process.

Knowledge at Wharton: How do emotions affect this process of thinking through things?

Zaltman: Emotions are very powerful. They’re perhaps central to the process. Think of what an emotion is — an unconscious physiological response to some stimulus. Those unconscious physiological dynamics will give rise to certain feelings, which we label as anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, whatever. Those feelings are what drive most of our thinking, most of our conscious thought. When feelings, or opinions which arise from feelings, conflict with facts, those feelings, those opinions will tend to prevail. Ultimately, those are rooted in one or another emotion or combination of emotions. So, it’s pretty hard to get away from emotions as a platform for thinking.

Knowledge at Wharton: In business, we’re seeing this unbelievable level of transformation with many companies. But other companies stay on the same path even though transformation is necessary. Why aren’t they using think keys?

Zaltman: It is a challenging process. Unfortunately, there’s too much deference given to the desktop computer and not the “neck-top” computer. What we have to understand is that it’s ultimately the neck-top computer — the manager’s mind, the quality of that mind and its biases and proclivities — that ultimately determines success. Too often, that mind is very much afraid of being wrong, rather than being right.

One of my favorite questions in having discussions with managers is to pose this issue, which is also in the book: Which statement best describes you? I love being right. Or, I hate being wrong. There’s a lot of equivocation because they’re both true. Everyone loves being right and hates being wrong. But when you push someone to have to choose, the great majority of people choose “I hate being wrong” because of all of the penalties that are attached to being wrong. They are very severe, and they outweigh the benefits of being right. That produces a lot of “let’s do today what we did yesterday, and let’s do tomorrow what we’re doing today,” which creates a pattern that’s very hard to get out of.

“Unfortunately, there’s too much deference given to the desktop computer and not the ‘neck-top’ computer.”

Knowledge at Wharton: You have these think keys broken down into segments, and I wanted to go through a couple of these segments. Let’s start with context. Sometimes context can put you in a very good spot, but it can also put you in a very tough spot.

Zaltman: That’s true with regard to both the context of the decision-making group — a brand team or a group of executives — but also the context of the industry and the proclivity to follow best practices in an industry without thinking if they apply or how they need to be adapted to your own setting, your own particular organization. But context is extremely important. It’s sometimes said, and I think correctly, that the mind is not the possession of the individual. Rather, it’s greatly shaped both in terms of its proclivities and its operations by the setting in which it operates.

Knowledge at Wharton: You also talk about assumptions. Why is that important?

Zaltman: Assumptions generally lie outside of our active decision-making field. They’re very powerful and provide context for decision-making. But they’re kind of like gum on the sole of your shoe. We may not always know they’re there, but they’re there. It affects things. And changing our assumptions or even identifying them requires a lot of scraping. It’s hard work.

One major assumption that maybe illustrates this is that we’re aware of our thinking processes. If you ask someone, “Do you know how you’re thinking?” They’ll say yes. What they don’t understand, what they’re assuming is that the unconscious mind is relatively unimportant, when it’s very important. It’s where assumptions live. But we don’t go there very much. It’s kind of like a lit flashlight. If you ask it to shine wherever it’s dark, it looks in a lot of places, and every time it looks, it sees light, not darkness. So, it misses the fact that it’s surrounded by darkness, which are the assumptions we make.

Knowledge at Wharton: You also talk about cues. In business, it feels like we are looking for cues from co-workers to get a feeling for how they are approaching an idea, a project, or how they feel about being in that particular company.

Zaltman: We’ve often done work on the topic of what it’s like to be innovative or to lead an innovative program in your firm. People are asked to bring in images about the environment in which they work that relate to that issue. It’s extraordinary what the array of cues are that they use in their environment. It could be everything from the perceived facial reactions of someone to an idea, to the way in which a memorandum is formatted. It’s quite extraordinary. We’re very attentive, in ways that we’re often not aware of, to a variety of signals of questionable validity about the merits of an idea we’re putting forth or what ideas we should put forth.

Knowledge at Wharton: Next is metaphors. Many people use metaphors in speech, but you discuss body metaphors. Can you explain what those are?

Zaltman: Metaphors are not something we use from time to time. We actually use about six metaphors per minute of speech. Many of these metaphors are so obvious, we don’t even think of them in that way. Many of those are embodied metaphors, where we use elements of our physiological experience as a yardstick. We say that someone is “moving up the corporate ladder.” It’s a question of orientation. Or someone is a “big shot” or “the head of the pack,” which is a physical orientation relative to followers or to those who are not quite as big and their social prominence. These have a powerful impact on our thinking. Again, that’s something that happens unconsciously.

Knowledge at Wharton: You spend time talking about attention. What is significant about it?

Zaltman: First, we have a limited attention budget, so if we’re paying attention to certain things, we’re not paying attention to other things. One of the most popular, well-known examples is the so-called invisible gorilla. You’ve probably seen this, where a group of people, some wearing white shirts, some wearing dark shirts, are passing a basketball to one another.

The observer is asked to count the number of times the people in the white shirts pass the basketball to one another, while the people in the black shirts are passing another basketball. People count and generally come up with a correct answer or very close to a correct answer. What half the people engaged in this exercise miss is that about halfway through the video clip, someone dressed in a gorilla outfit walks into the middle of the group, pounds its chest and continues walking out. People are so focused on the directive that they literally do not attend to or see the gorilla, which is a major disruption in the scene — much as we often miss disruptive innovations in our industry.

“The foe of curiosity is the avoidance of disconfirming evidence, or what I think of as knowledge disavowal. We’re afraid to find out things that contradict us.”

That’s an interesting phenomenon all on its own, but a deeper analysis of it also shows the importance of the question or assignment that people have as a way of focusing attention. Had you asked a different question, people might well have noticed. Most people might well notice the gorilla walking through the group. That raises a rather important issue of whether we’re asking the right question and how the question drives our thinking.

Knowledge at Wharton: You also talk about curiosity, which is ingrained in us. It’s part of who we are.

Zaltman: It’s the home base, home plate for imagination, which is where I think competitive advantage lies. One of the things that disturbs me greatly is that, in society as a whole but especially in businesses as well as in our schools, we do an awful lot to discourage curiosity. It’s maybe part of the issue of fear of being wrong and not being willing to take risks. The foe of curiosity is the avoidance of disconfirming evidence, or what I think of as knowledge disavowal. We’re afraid to find out things that contradict us. I believe that is a major reason why certain market research doesn’t get used or doesn’t get used more robustly.

One of the challenges I always like to give to my students is to ask, “What if you’re wrong in that position that you’re advocating with regard to whether you should enter a new market or not? What evidence have you looked at that you would use to explain a failed action or a decision? It’s extraordinary how little attention people give to pre-mortems, to figuring out what information would contraindicate a particular action. There’s something called a “knowledge creep,” where the more you wrestle with a decision, the more information that conflicts with the emerging action tends to get ignored. And that, I think, displays a lack of curiosity.

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How determination, critical thinking helped this wharton undergrad cycle the world’s highest volcano.

“One of the reasons I love Wharton is because the School truly places value on experiences, and where education lies in those experiences.” – Ryan Torres, W’25

Back in December 2022, Wharton Stories covered the upcoming expedition of Wharton sophomore and endurance athlete Ryan Torres, W’25, who planned to cycle the world’s tallest volcano to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief , an international nonprofit dedicated to improving access to cycling around the world. When Wharton Stories caught up with Ryan a month after the initial interview, he Zoomed in from a rented flat in Buenos Aires, where he spent a week in recovery from his journey; and again later, for an in-person touch base with the bike itself on the University of Pennsylvania’s historic campus in Philadelphia. From there, Ryan spoke about the unexpected challenges, life lessons, and the critical decisions that shaped his journey to the heart of South America.

Undertaken upon a prototype provided by Why Cycles and Revel Bikes , Ryan utilized the bike’s titanium frame and enormous tires to power through to the top of the 22,000-foot-tall volcano, the peak of which is perched at the crown of Patagonia. The bike is a veritable tank, engineered to withstand the harshest conditions; it carried Ryan hundreds of miles, through both the stinging sands of the Atacama Desert and up to the towering peaks of Ojos del Salado.

And yet when Ryan brought the prototype back on campus after he returned from Argentina, just days before the start of Wharton’s Spring Semester, it fits right into the bustle of Penn’s iconic Locust Walk.

Ryan’s trip, while epic, also constituted a historic milestone: in successfully completing the grueling ride up Ojos del Salado, he also broke the world record for the highest point ever reached by someone solely via bicycle. Sponsored by GoPro, the camera strapped to Ryan’s helmet secured proof of the world record, and documented all that he saw and experienced; from the seemingly endless miles he rode across the Chilean desert, to his nail-biting finale at the top of the Andes.

While Ryan embarked on his trip with his cycling partner and fellow endurance athlete, Leo Teneblat, Leo dropped out due to a medical emergency as they rode across Chile’s Atacama Desert, which meant that twenty-year-old Ryan finished the ascent up Ojos del Salados by himself.

Why did you and your expedition partner, Leo, decide to cycle Ojos del Salados?

Leo and I are a match made in heaven; he stands as the first person to bike across the Himalayas in their entirety, and is an experienced and mature biker. After we got connected, we decided to do something out of the ordinary, and hatched a plan: to use bicycles to cross both the Atacama Desert and summit Ojos del Salados.

The conditions of the desert are very extreme; like, 110–115-degree Fahrenheit days without a breeze of air. It’s the driest desert in the world, the visceral truth of which emerges when you cough and realize that sand is in your lungs. Our minds were haunted by thoughts of dehydration, constantly; and for good reason, too. On the fourth day of our expedition, Leo had a medical emergency and needed a doctor’s attention immediately. He was rescued, evacuated to the nearest hospital after a four-hour car ride out of the desert.

But, despite the fact I was now alone, I felt fine; so I pushed. I finished biking the desert and got to base camp at Ojos del Salados. It was just the start of the summer season, so there was nobody in the mountains. I climbed the whole volcano alone. The previous record holder had a bike, a crew, and a pickup truck. Here, I was carrying all of my gear on the bike by myself, which increased the workload exponentially. But I decided to keep pushing on.

Physically removed from the adventure but never out-of-touch, Leo tracked my location via satellite phone, which insured that someone knew my physical location at all times.

How did the ascent unfold?

Going from base camp to my second stop, further up Ojos del Salados, represents the worst day of my life. At that altitude, all you think about is your blood oxygen levels, and ensuring that your brain and your muscles are in good shape. I was getting into the “sixes;” AKA when your brain is receiving a little more than half the oxygen it should. Mentally, you’re not really there; you’re on autopilot, and everything takes more effort, I didn’t have the energy to think.

At about 15,000 feet, I realized I needed to lie down. Even attempts to break up some chocolate bars for energy resulted in struggle. I tried to sleep; but, five minutes later, I noticed that the beating of my heart was far too quick for comfort. In that moment, I honestly thought I was going to die. My thoughts raced: if I’m lying down, and my heart is beating at full speed while laying down, what’s coming next?

Those were the conditions with which I dealt. Very little blood oxygen; which makes everything harder, especially in ankle-deep sand and wind. Sub-zero temperatures on the mountain. But for me, the theme of this expedition was Never Give Up. If you really want something, you must go out there and give it your best.

The extreme conditions challenged me beyond words, and Leo’s untimely departure impacted the logistics because his evacuation meant I carried everything solo. But I didn’t want to give up; even when I thought I was going to die, I couldn’t give up. It didn’t feel like there were any other options and I wanted to persevere. I’m grateful I did it. It was all about doing something hard and it was harder than I even expected.

If I’d broken the record and it had been a walk in the park, I wouldn’t have found it gratifying or fulfilling. I suffered. It was harder than anything I’ve ever done in my life; but it’s what I signed up for, and I’m grateful for that.

Frankly, this experience sounds terrifying. How did you know you were going to be okay?

It is unusual for anyone to embark on an expedition like this alone. However, one aspect about Ojos del Salados is that the volcano is essentially a mountain, but with desert characteristics. While other 20,000+ foot peaks throughout the world are covered with snow and rocks, Ojos del Salados remains sandy, even at the very top. It attracts those who seek to break records; like both the records for the highest altitude climbed by a car and a motorcycle broke on Ojos del Salados, respectively.

But both these expeditions also had three different sets of support staff with two cars, a buggy, a tent with a generator, and world-class food. In contrast, I ate instant ramen and powdered soup, hunkered down in a cheap tent and cheaper sleeping bag, all by myself. If I remember correctly, they were about 40-years-old; I had just turned 20.

Out there, it’s super high stakes. It’s four hours by car from the nearest town or hospital. That’s practically Philadelphia to at least northern Connecticut; not an inconceivable distance, but it’s a lot.  You can get frostbite and easily lose a finger; maybe a foot. But in these high-stakes situations, you have to hold back from the panic button and see the goal from a higher vantage point. Use logic: even when my heart rate jumped the way it did, up at Camp 2, I made decisions about my health based on the information I had rather than the emotions which I felt.

How will your expedition influence your relationship with Wharton and vice versa?

Education is a continuous process that goes beyond the four years at Wharton, a way of seeing the world beyond the books you read and classes you take. One of the reasons I love Wharton is because the School truly places value on experiences, and where education lies in those experiences. Learning how to make decisions under extreme duress is just as valuable of an education as classroom learning. They complement each other. An employer doesn’t just need someone who can crank out balance sheets, but they also want someone who can make critical decisions in complicated situations. They want someone who can persevere in the face of adversity.

In terms of future plans, the extreme physical and mental deprivations I faced on the mountain have given me a clearer perspective on what I want to do with my life. I have decided to embark on more ambitious expeditions to keep challenging myself and to explore the world and the natural beauty it has to offer. In this stage of my life, I am focused on learning as much as I can, in as many different fields as I can, from as many people as I can.

— Devon Chodzin and Grace Meredith

Posted: January 23, 2023

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Undergraduate Program

Ryan Torres, W’25

Hometown:  Barcelona, Spain

Concentrations:  Finance; Business Economics and Public Policy

At Wharton:  Phi Delta Theta; TA for Wharton 1010; President, Wharton Spain; Vice President of the French Society

How an endurance athlete trains while studying for finals at Wharton:

Ryan utilized the  Pottruck Health and Fitness Center to study while he trained. His favorite spot is on the third floor of the athletic center, where he balanced an iPad with all of his notes for finals as he biked on the stationary machines. He describes a “hilarious dichotomy” of reading both accounting notes and medical emergency advice at the same time.

A note on the shoes:

Ryan is no stranger to shoe-string budgets, and purchased this pair on his first major cycling expedition, when he rode across America from coast-to-coast over the summer of 2022. As Wharton Stories reported in December’s article on Ryan, he purchased his road bike on Craigslist, but he also did the same for his shoes and pedals.

He recalls: “Clip-in shoes and pedals were too expensive for me, so I found a used set on Craigslist and drove an hour-and-a-half to New Jersey to pick them up in-person. Because I didn’t know how to clip in and out of the bike during the first few days of my cross country trip, I fell many times.

I also used these shoes again after I completed my butterfly swim to and from Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. Afterwards, I still had gas in my tank, so decided to bike up Mount Diablo over the Bay. When I purchased the Craigslist road bike, it came with the front brakes broken, and I couldn’t afford to repair them throughout the entirety of my ride across the country. They never got fixed, so when I biked back down Mount Diablo (the highest point in San Francisco), I had to try and stop by using my feet to create friction on the asphalt. This is why, even today, the toes of these shoes look totally sandblasted. They proved just as trusty and reliable throughout my expedition in Chile as they did that crazy day in California.”

What Ryan loves most about Wharton:

“To me, the defining characteristic of a Wharton education is that it not only teaches business acumen, but how to be a businessperson. These expeditions have strengthened the intangible skills that my Wharton professors often highlight during their lectures; like high-stakes decision making, logistics, confidence, persuasion, negotiation, and how to achieve one’s desired outcome despite clear limitations. These skills complement my education at Wharton by enhancing personal character development, which will have a direct carryover once I start a business.”

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Andrew Cooper

Senior lecturer of mathematics, critical and creative thinking in undergraduate mathematics.

As part of NCSU’s TH!NK Quality Enhancement Program , I have spent a lot of time learning and thinking about how to encourage critical and creative thinking in mathematics courses. The course I targeted as TH!NK Faculty is MA 225 (an introduction or transition course for mathematics majors).

mathematical thinking is weird, but not that weird

It’s true that mathematicians view the world in somewhat a different way. We have our jargon (which we use outside its technical scope — I can’t tell you how many times I use the word “modulo” in everyday conversation!), and depending on our specialization we have our pet obsessions.

I believe very strongly that, though the reasoning one does in mathematics may be rarefied, it is a rarefied form of ordinary reasoning,  by which I mean the kind of reasoning it takes to successfully navigate the physical, social, and emotional world we live in. To train students in mathematics means to help them learn to harness their physical-collision-avoiding, social-bond-forming, managing-tears-and-laughter apparatus and bring it to bear in certain ways on certain kinds of problems.

Learning to think involves taking control over one’s own thinking process. One of the best ways to do this is to engage students in reflection:

• students should reflect on the content of what they are learning (“How are the topics we’ve discussed this week related to the topics discussed earlier in the semester?”)
• students should reflect on their process of working in mathematics (“When you first approached this problem, what were some questions you had?” “What was the hardest part about this problem?”)
• students should reflect on their work (“What went wrong?” “What went right?”)
• students should reflect on their thinking (“What has changed in how you think about [topic] after doing this assignment?”)

the language of critical and creative thinking

One way to make the connection between mathematics and the rest of life is applications (such as the application of ODE to population biology). But I am interested in connecting the practice of mathematics to the practice of (for example) biology. One of the innovations of the TH!NK initiative is the use of a common set of terms and descriptions for aspects of critical and creative thinking. By using the same language to discuss and reflect on thinking processes in the mathematics classroom as in the biology classroom, we emphasize that it’s the same process , just being applied to different tasks.

the standards, and some ways they apply to undergraduate mathematics

The 13 TH!NK standards are:

• for critical thinking, clarity , accuracy , precision , relevance , depth , breadth , logic , significance , fairness ;
• for creative thinking, originality, adaptability, appropriateness, contribution to the domain.

As an assignment in my MA 225 class, I ask students to think of some ways that each of the standards might apply to the process of writing proofs. Students also indicated which standards might apply to the  formatting ,  style ,  content , and  process of a proof. Below are my condensation of their ideas (along with some of my own).

Title: Critical and Creative Thinking in Undergraduate Mathematics Date Posted: January 1, 2018 Posted By: ancoop Category: teaching

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Critical thinking

March 31, 2014 @ 2:41 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and politics , Translation

« Cursive | WaPo nixes midget »

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David Cragin, who teaches risk assessment at Peking University, mentioned to me that there is sharp controversy among his colleagues over how to translate the term "critical thinking" into Chinese.  Dr. Zheng, the professor who runs the program David teaches for, was never happy with the traditional translation of "critical thinking", that is, pīpàn shì sīwéi 批判式思维. Google Translate — Chinese to English:   批判式思维 = “critical thinking.”   English to Chinese:  “critical thinking” = 批判性思维.  Bing and Baidu have exactly the same answers.  The only difference between the English to Chinese and the Chinese to English is shì 式 ("style; form; pattern") vs. xìng 性 ("nature; character; quality"), which does not materially affect the meaning of the expression.  Incidentally, it would be interesting to pursue a separate line of inquiry concerning the use of the attributive suffixes -shì 式 and -xìng 性, both highly productive, in Mandarin.  I suspect that they may well have entered Chinese from Japanese -shiki 式 and -sei 性.

Zheng's discomfort was shared by other Chinese colleagues, who got into a heated debate regarding pīpàn shì sīwéi 批判式思维 when they saw it on some of David's teaching materials.

Recently, Zheng came across an article which suggests míngbiàn shì sīwéi 明辨式思维 as a preferred translation for “critical thinking.”  Although Zheng was delighted with the new translation, I think that his enthusiasm is misplaced, because míngbiàn shì sīwéi 明辨式思维 means "discerning thought", not "critical thought".

Now, in my estimation there are several reasons for the skittish sensitivity of contemporary Chinese intellectuals to pīpàn shì sīwéi 批判式思维 ("critical thought").  Before embarking on a discussion of its liabilities, however, I wish to point out that pīpàn 批判 is not a Marxist or other heavily ideologically imbued neologism, but is a term that has been around since at least the Song Dynasty a millennium ago (though, of course, it may have been redefined for the modern age).  One of the main problems with pīpàn 批判 is that it hearkens back to the dreaded Cultural Revolution when people were required to criticize (pīpíng 批评 / pīpàn 批判) all and sundry, e.g., pī Lín pī Kǒng 批林批孔 ("Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius" [what an odd combination!!]).

After living through the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, people became allergic to the syllable pī 批 ("comment on; criticize; refute; slap") and avoided it as much as possible.

The same thing happened to the syllable gé 革 (as a verb means "change; transform; dismiss; remove from office / position; expel").  At the height of the Cultural Revolution and during the Age of Mao generally, gé 革 was one of the most exalted morphemes in Chinese, e.g., gémìng 革命 ("revolution"), gǎigé 改革 ("reform").  By the mid-80s, however, it had taken on a very bad odor, with conspicuous consequences.

I still remember poignantly walking around Wèimíng hú 未名湖 ("Unnamed Lake") on the Peking University campus with my friend, Yin Binyong in about 1985 and using the words gémìng 革命 ("revolution"), gǎigé 改革 ("reform"), and yāpò 压迫 ("oppression"), another key term in Maoist rhetoric.  Even though there was no one within earshot, Yin trembled and shuddered when I pronounced such words, and nervously asked me not to repeat them.  Yin, and all of my other Chinese colleagues at that time, had seen too many people "struggled" against with words like this, even to the death, so they simply didn't want to hear them uttered.

This anti-gé 革 atmosphere had a direct impact on language policy, such that the Wénzì gǎigé wěiyuánhuì 文字改革委员会 ("Script Reform Committee"), with which I was closely associated from 1981, had to change its name.  Quoting from this comment to " Words in Mandarin: twin kle twin kle lit tle star ":

…the Wénzì gǎigé wěiyuánhuì 文字改革委员会 (Script Reform Committee) as an independent and powerful bureau under the Guówùyuàn 国务院 (State Council) [was changed] to the Yǔyán wénzì gōngzuò wěiyuánhuì 国家语言文字工作委员会 (State Language Commission) under the Ministry of Education.

The change of name is indicative: anything with the morpheme gé 革 in it became suspect, because it smacked of gémìng 革命 ("revolution"). By the mid-80s, when this happened, the Chinese Communist Party, which had once been an exponent of revolution, had begun to fear revolution (both "revolution" and "jasmine" have recently been censored on the Chinese internet), and even gǎigé 改革 ("reform") was studiously avoided.

The same was true of the songs from the Eight Model Plays which were virtually the only songs permitted during the Cultural Revolution, and blared from loudspeakers in public places at the behest of Jiang Qing, Mao's wife, who was one of the chief architects of the Cultural Revolution.  (Never mind that she privately enjoyed watching Western cinema.)

When people heard any of these songs in the 80s, they would put their hands over their ears and run away, so repulsive were the memories they evoked.

To return to the matter of "critical thought", the correct Chinese translation is indeed pīpàn shì sīwéi 批判式思维, not míngbiàn shì sīwéi 明辨式思维 or some other strained attempt to avoid the dreaded syllable pī 批.

As a Chinese colleague who left China about forty years ago astutely put it,

The standard translation is unassailable, because Immanuel Kant's classical work is translated into Chinese as Chúncuì lǐxìng pīpàn 纯粹理性批判 (Critique of Pure Reason). The opposition you have cited likely comes from the negative connotation of the word 批判 from Mao's era. If this is the case, then it is ironical that these professors lack the critical thinking to realize that 批判 became a completely bad word only under communist rule.

A number of other Chinese translations of "critical thought" and the related expression "analytical thinking" are given in this Wikipedia article .  See also the corresponding English article .

Finally, before closing, I would like to mention that, apart from the ambivalence over pīpàn 批判 in Chinese, "critical" itself in English is also a double-edged sword.  When we solicit criticism from someone, we often qualify it by saying "constructive criticism", as though "criticism" by itself were negative.

[Thanks to Sanping Chen, Guobin Yang, Yuhua Wang, John Rohsenow, Da'an Pan, and Stephan Stiller]

25 Comments

Stephan stiller said,.

March 31, 2014 @ 3:51 pm

Isn't it interesting that a lot of people (native as well as non-native speakers of English) don't understand me when I talk to them about critical thinking? They're like, "You mean, being very cynical and criticizing things a lot?"

Critical thinking might indeed lead one to that, but to me "critical thinking ability" has always meant the ability to distinguish bad from good data points and assign them appropriate plausibility scores (and this includes assigning trustworthiness scores to sources and authorities) to arrive at the right conclusions (each annotated with confidence/reliability scores as well). Critical thinking is distinct from open-mindedness and knowledge (both also tremendously important); and sometimes when someone is (for whatever reason) not perceiving the right data points in the first place, a prerequisite for critical thinking is missing. In brief, I think that what is called "critical thinking" in common parlance is the ability to generalize correctly, which requires one to correctly judge/rate one's data points – but that's my attempt to analyze what it is at its core and is probably not what it is in popular understanding. Association-wise I think of someone with a skeptical mind, who doesn't believe in pseudoscience, who sees the truth in political discussions and conflicts, who is not naive in his beliefs, etc. Sort of an anti-crank.

By the way, I am doubtful to what extent it can be taught and learned (which seems to be the premise of a number of educational programs). I'm almost certain it's orthogonal to mathematical-logical thinking (though I suppose each can assist the other at a high level of abstraction), but it might be equally innate … raising in turn the question which environments promote or suppress it —

In popular understanding, I think that "critical thinking" is more like the "vague semantic field of buzz" spanned by the content in the English Wikipedia article. It seems like noone really knows what it is, though a lot of people have theories. (How was that, with those literally hundreds of "management models" in the MBA world?) I actually find "discerning judgment" quite close in meaning to "critical thinking" (so perhaps 明辨式思维 isn't far off the mark as far as translations are concerned). Let's remember that at least from a present-day point of view, "critical thinking" is not a compositional term in English (re-construing it as such may be possible, but for me it's a stretch; yes, "critical" can mean different things, but let's not get into that topic): it doesn't mean "a way of thinking that criticizes a lot". Just like the expression "critical theory" isn't semantically compositional. So translating the expression "critical thinking" as a whole is a good strategy, but that requires that one knows what critical thinking is. Finally, an appropriate translation for PKU will take into account the context and requirements of their degree program.

Rubrick said,

March 31, 2014 @ 4:17 pm

"Discerning thought" actually strikes me as very close to the intended meaning of "critical thought", implying the ability to discern sound ideas from unsound ones. But very likely the Chinese term doesn't carry quite the right meaning of "discerning". (I speak no Chinese.)

maidhc said,

March 31, 2014 @ 4:20 pm

"Critical thinking" is a phrase that denotes a particular type of technique of analyzing a question or problem. As Stephan says it's hard to pin down exactly. But generally it has to do with rational analysis and the recognition and avoidance of the various types of logical fallacies ("ad hominem", "appeal to authority", circular definition and the like). It's something that we often think should be taught to students, at least at the secondary level and up.

I think you could name the concept a lot of different ways. The question is more of getting a consensus on which to use. I'd be OK with "discerning judgment" or something like that.

It's understandable that the Chinese would not want to be reminded unnecessarily of the Cultural Revolution, so coming up with new terminology is natural. In the same way, we would avoid using terms associated with the Third Reich, even though before that time they might have had unobjectional uses. I know people who are offended by the term "Homeland Security". At least they didn't say "Fatherland".

Victor Mair said,

March 31, 2014 @ 4:32 pm

From Arif Dirlik:

How could they do away with pipan with such titles as Critique of Political Economy, or Critique of the Gotha Program? Did you hear that qingnian (youth) has become suspect?

Jim Breen said,

March 31, 2014 @ 5:14 pm

The equivalent Japanese term for "critical thinking" is 批判的思考, but according the Google n-grams the loanword クリティカル・シンキング (kuritikaru shinkingu) is about twice as common. I don't think there is any controversy about 批判的思考 in Japan, but perhaps the preference for the loanword is indicative of it being regarded as an external concept (you can't push that line too far or you'll end up externalizing much of Japanese society.)

明辯, more commonly written 明弁, is used in Japan for discernment, etc., but it is quite uncommon, and the major Japanese-English dictionaries don't even include it.

Peter said,

March 31, 2014 @ 5:47 pm

I agree with Stephan and Rubrick in that "Discerning Thought" is how I would interpret "Critical Thought".

Of the two translations, 明辨 is my preference. 明 means bright, and brings to mind enlightenment. One of the meanings of 辨 is "to debate". Enlightened debate, sounds like the basis of good decisions.

Apart from possible skittish reactions due to its historic use, 批判 to me translates closer to "to decide", "to criticize", or more obliquely as "to rank", as in scoring for ice skating competitions. If something in this vein is desired, 判決式思维 may be a candidate.

By the way, I prefer 思想 instead of 思维, which sounds less academic, and is better used in the context like philosophy or religion. Keep in mind, though, that this is from someone who had immigrated to an English speaking country over 30 years ago. My Chinese may be "old school".

March 31, 2014 @ 6:19 pm

When I wrote 明辯 I meant 明辨 (of course). These days 明弁 is used for both.

March 31, 2014 @ 8:56 pm

Interesting… it seems I don't think of the critical of critical thinking as concerned with criticism (that is, fault-finding) per se but rather with discrimination (the etymology also concerns making judgments rather than passing judgment, though this is less relevant.) As a result, mingbianshi siwei 明辨式思维 struck me as the much more appropriate choice. (Incidentally, sixiang 思想 feels to me like another of those ideologically loaded words best avoided in neutral contexts…)

Wentao said,

March 31, 2014 @ 9:27 pm

辩 means "debate"; 辨 is "discern".

判决式 sounds like "judgmental", which I interpret to be something very different than "critical". Also, 思想 is "thought/idea" and 思维 is closer to "thinking" as a process.

March 31, 2014 @ 9:31 pm

In fact, as Prof. Mair points out in this post, 批判 only acquires its vehement, fault-finding meaning recently from the Communist rhetoric. It was used as a neutral term in, say, 纯粹理性批判. I believe both 批 and 判 relate to making comments and notes (not necessarily negative) in books (as in 眉批, 批注 and 判词), so the English "critique" would be an adapt equivalent.

March 31, 2014 @ 9:32 pm

*apt equivalent

April 1, 2014 @ 6:29 am

Just heard an advertisement for an association of independent schools in the Philadelphia area that claim to teach critical thinking. That led me to do a search for: independent schools critical thinking

I was surprised at some of the things I found:

1. Critical Thinking in Schools

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/critical-thinking-in-schools (links to two articles)

2. Critical Thinking Is Best Taught Outside the Classroom: Critical thinking is a teachable skill best taught outside the K–12 classroom

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/critical-thinking-best-taught-outside-classroom/

3. More schools aim to teach students to think critically

http://www.reporternewspapers.net/2012/01/30/more-schools-aim-to-teach-students-to-think-critically/

4. Why critical thinking is overlooked by schools and shunned by students: Ben Morse argues that for as long as universities fail to recognise achievements in critical thinking with UCAS points, the subject will continue to be ignored at secondary level

Critical thinking and teaching through the Socratic method have been around for donkey's years. Why then are they not used and recognised?

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/sep/12/critical-thinking-overlooked-in-secondary-education

And many, many more….

April 1, 2014 @ 7:08 am

I would say that it is definitely possible to teach students to become less sensitive to (ie: more comfortable with) disagreement; it's probably a simple process of desensitization. It's also possible to teach people to be better at knowing the limits of their own knowledge and reasoning ability (or ability to generalize), but this requires a bit of confrontation with opposing viewpoints. That said, a lot of people with outlandish beliefs are confronted with disagreement on a daily basis, but they will persist in their own ways nonetheless.

Even if critical thinking can be taught to some extent (and I can't prove that it can or that it can't), there are definitely people who are just not good at it. Think of your prototypical crank: he is prone to conspiratorial thinking, moving from one crazy theory to another. He might just lack the ability to assess which theories match reality and which ones don't.

Some things that are not critical thinking (in no particular order): confirmation bias , illusory correlation , apophenia , pareidolia , schizotypy . (I know, these are all "only" Wikipedia articles, but not being an expert, this is as good as I can do for now.)

With all that stated: Whether critical thinking ability can be taught or not, it would be nice if society recognized its value, tried to measure it, tried to promote it, and tried to give jobs requiring critical thinking to people good at it.

julie lee said,

April 1, 2014 @ 12:34 pm

Prof. Mair's recollection of his walk with Mr. Yin, and how the latter shuddered and trembled at the words geming (revolution), gaige (reform) and yapo (oppression) is very moving.

Here we are getting into the difference between the connotations and associations of a word and its denotation. I've often thought of the language of math and science as one-dimensional and the language of the humanities (literature, philosophy, history, poli sci, etc) as multi-dimensional, because in the former one word has one meaning, where in the latter one word can have many meanings–its denotation as well as its connotations and associations. I recently asked a very bright teenager in our family who shone in all his school subjects (even baseball, especially as a pitcher) what subject in school he found most difficult. He paused a moment and said: "English." He is Chinese-American, and English is his only language, likewise his parents. I was surprised, as people usually think math or physics are the tough subjects, not English. But on reflection, his reply is understandable. A word in a language (the language of the humanities) can also involve such things as allusion, humor, malice, kindness, sarcasm, irony, weaseling, obfuscation, etc., which one doesn't usually find in the language of math and science. This boy is fourteen and a freshman in high school. I asked him to read Gore Vidal's introduction to a volume of short stories by Tennessee Williams. It seemed to me straightforward English. He knew all the words, at least their denotations, but couldn't understand it. Fortunately, the high schools I know in this area offer very good teaching in English and English literature.

Chris said,

April 1, 2014 @ 7:22 pm

The usual translation of "critical thinking" in university courses and textbooks in Hong Kong and, I believe, Taiwan, is "批判思考." The "式" or "性" is considered redundant.

Michael Paton said,

April 1, 2014 @ 9:39 pm

Thanks to Prof Mair to his insightful reflections on the etymology and sociology of knowledge In China. Socrates certainly taught critical thinking but so did Mozi. It is part of all cultures. They do not survive where it does not hold sway. Thus, discernment would not seem to be a viable substitute.

Critical thought occurs at the nexus between rationality and emotion. It is similar to scientific thinking, but with an understanding of the philosophy and sociology of science thrown in. So the language of the humanities is as important as that of science, but not more so. But as Prof Mair points out, language is important, but ever changing.

Dave Cragin said,

April 1, 2014 @ 9:52 pm

The discomfort with the previous translation was that it could be read to suggest criticism of thought, which is not reflective of critical thinking. It may be an old translation, but it sparks debate including those much too young to worry about 1980s.

With good critical thinking, one should be able to discern more, so the new translation is apt.

There is likely a cultural element to this too: American kids are taught critical thinking from an early age, whereas traditional Chinese schooling focuses more on rote memorization. Hence, even though Americans might struggle to define critical thinking, they know it is fundamentally different than rote memorization (my son's 9th grade English class is all about critical thinking). In contrast, when rote memorization is the teaching focus, a word that suggests discernment may provide more of the Western view of critical thinking and this type of teaching.

While some people are more naturally critical thinkers than others, it can be taught. Most people who complete a PhD end up seeing the world in a much more critical light. My class links critical thinking, causality, and risk assessment. This works well both in the US and China (I teach both places at the graduate level). Causality addresses many of the points Stephan mentioned such as confirmation bias, illusory correlation and others.

Also to Stephan's point about cranks: Eric Krieg, a former President of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (www.PhACT.org) noted that “We all have aspects of our lives about which we’re not skeptical enough.” I agree with this too. People who are good critical thinkers in one area can be very weak in others (including PhDs).

This said, virtually any faculty I talk with in the US and China want their students to have better critical thinking skills.

April 2, 2014 @ 6:34 am

@ Dave Cragin

@ ¶1 There is ambiguity already in the German title of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (translated into Chinese with 批判 pīpàn: 纯粹理性批判). According to Norbert Fischer (in "Kants Metaphysik der reinen praktischen Vernunft", on pp 111-130 of: "Kants Metaphysik und Religionsphilosophie", Norbert Fischer (ed), Hamburg: Meiner, 2004; 3-7873-1662-0), the title should be understood first as a genitīvus obiectīvus , where pure reason itself is under scrutiny, and only secondarily as a genitīvus subiectīvus , where pure reason is the agent of investigation. (Supposedly it is the other way round for Kant's Critique of Practical Reason.) With that in mind, there is no reason to believe that the "critical" in "critical thinking" has the same meaning as the "Critique" ("Kritik") in "Critique of Pure Reason" ("Kritik der reinen Vernunft"). Then, on the other hand, translating instances of "critique" and cognates in Western languages uniformly (as 批判 pīpàn or whatever) isn't necessarily bad.

@ ¶2 I'm wondering what your colleagues think about the translations 严谨的思考(/思维) and 审辩式思维 from the first line of the Wikipedia article.

@ ¶3 1. It is tempting to believe that critical thinking is taught in German secondary schooling, but I would say that it is far more accurate to say that vigorous debate and open contradiction with the teacher are encouraged. Some classes would grade students ⅔ on oral participation and ⅓ on tests (and I'd say this goes too far), but I was never, ever taught critical thinking methodology or "technique" (as commenter "maidhc" calls it). 2. Yes, there is a cultural element in East Asia, but it's also just the fact that in the Chinese educational system (as a relative tendency) those students succeed that are good at memorization as opposed to critical thinking. 3. I remember kids from school whose performance in the schooling system is best described as "unremarkable-to-poor" but who seem to be good critical thinkers; they were good back then and are still better than others who succeeded in the schooling system. This is why I am so skeptical of education "in critical thinking". One can teach people knowledge ("these are the odds at lottery"), and one can teach them to be more cautious in general, but can one teach them to be better at raw critical thinking? What, in fact, are critical thinking programs teaching? Is it really raw critical thinking ability or something else (such as facts, cautiousness, statistics)?

@ ¶4 I think you can teach students to defer more to science and suspend their own prejudices. Still, when faced with evidence clearly favoring one position, some students will make the correct generalization, while others will stick to their original belief. In the middle are those that say "I don't know", but there are two kinds: One kind constitute those that don't know because they're not (as) good at generalizing and then conclude "okay, let's defer to statistical analysis". As they know their own limitations in reasoning, they are doing what's right for them. The other kind are those that categorically refuse to make a judgment "because things aren't black and white and you can argue either way". Here undoubtedly a cultural element factors in, and I'm not happy with it: the world is indeed not black-and-white, but very often we can determine which shade of grey we're dealing with, within some understood margin of error. I'm wondering where in Chinese culture or philosophical thought this (relative) preference for non-committal comes from.

@ ¶5 I think that this comes from one not easily knowing the limitations of one's knowledge in a field that is not one's home area. There are cases of high-profile scientists who are described as descending into pseudoscience when they make statements about other fields of science. The key here is to understand that they are "good in" or "weak in" some area because of their knowledge difference. If the quality of their output were solely a function of "critical thinking" as a unitary ability, they surely wouldn't be good at critical thinking per se in one field and bad at critical thinking per se in another.

@ ¶6 On a positive note, I think that a lot of it is about the willingness to engage in critical thinking: Does one have a critical attitude? Is one curious? Finally, emotion also plays a role. But teaching people to be less emotional and more rational is hard.

Mr Punch said,

April 2, 2014 @ 7:17 am

"Critical" has more than one sense in English, which is of course the problem. Critics of literature and literary critics are two fairly discrete groups. "Critical thinking" is widely inculcated in schools, and in fact college freshmen/women are much better at it than their predecessors 50 years ago. It's all tied up with General Semantics in some way, I believe, though many people don't like to think that.

April 2, 2014 @ 9:36 pm

One of the main ways I teach critical thinking is to help students see they readily make errors in judgment – even in the simplest things.

A classic example, based on an article in the Wall St J, that works with US and Chinese audiences follows (Stephan could try it with Germans):

You invest 1000 RMB. (or $1000) You get 100% return the 1st year You get -50% return the 2nd year

What is the average return on the investment?

Everyone is too smart to give the right answer, so they answer Zero.

Then I ask “What 2 numbers did you average to get zero?”

Everyone looks confused because they begin to realize they didn’t average 2 numbers. (part of critical thinking is using questions to drive thinking)

What is the correct answer? 25% is the average return (100+ -50 /2 = 25). 0% is the real return.

In 13 yrs teaching in the US and 6 in China, 2 students have given the right answer. Everyone can average 2 numbers, but they are too smart to do so.

This example also shows students that averages are not always good representations of the world – an idea most have never considered. Often critical thinking is needed to decide whether averages are appropriate.

This one example makes you view advertisements with the "average returns on investment" in a fundamentally different way – likely for the rest of your life (and this is why it was in the WSJ and now my class).

This is just one example. After students see multiple examples from different fields, they are much more open to the idea of using critical thinking to help them make better judgments.

April 2, 2014 @ 9:50 pm

To answer one of the initial posts: One definition of Critical thinking is: judgment based on relevant credible information and valid technical reasoning. It goes beyond fact alone and opinion alone (modified from the Foundation for Critical Thinking). It's reasoned judgment.

Stephan – Thanks for you posts. They give me much to think about. It's not possible to reach every student, but most show improvements in their ability to assess the credibility of information and make judgments about it. Many of their papers result in conclusions the opposite of what they expected or much more nuanced than they had realized.

April 3, 2014 @ 10:36 am

@ Dave Cragin Thanks for your example. I'd normally want to comment on it, but that'll be an interesting discussion for another time. I agree that it is possible to teach students useful techniques and to make them less gullible and more cautious. I am also glad to find out that there are institutions researching this topic, such as the Foundation for Critical Thinking .

April 3, 2014 @ 9:46 pm

To bring the discussion a full loop back to the meaning of critical thinking:

I was looking thru some information I used to develop my course.

A 1997 document on critical thinking in teaching noted that "critical" in critical thinking is linked etymologically via Latin to the Greek kritikos – “able to discern” < krinein "to separate" and Gk. kriterion < krites “judge” < krinein (also see American Heritage Dictionary)

This is remarkably close to Stephan, Rubrick’s & maidhc’s “discerning judgment”.

April 4, 2014 @ 3:40 pm

Another thought came to mind, and it is this: There are so many things one can question in principle, but one can't question everything – one's mental resources are limited, as is time. I think that teaching critical thinking methodology is easier than fostering an instinct for critical thinking. This includes knowing which things are worth critical inquiry (a lot of things are, but some ought to be given higher priority) as well as having an interest in such inquiry.

Ray Dillinger said,

April 7, 2014 @ 2:04 am

I find critical thinking is mainly a two-part skill.

First, one must be aware of one's own logical process and make sure that it is sound – that one isn't accepting things as reasons which do not in fact imply the things they are reasons for. 'I don't like him' or 'I don't like his conclusions' for example cannot be counted as support for 'Therefore he must be wrong,' because his correctness does not depend on your liking him.

Second, one must realistically consider the likelihood that each piece of information you're drawing conclusions from is in fact correct, starting with whether it is likely to have been correctly perceived by the witness and whether the interlocutor has a reason to lie about it.

The first is to consider the possibility that one's own logic is faulty – to be able to criticize oneself. The second is to consider the possibility that one's sources of information are faulty – to be able to criticize the perceptive abilities or honesty of others. And it is these forms of criticism that constitute the basis of the phrase 'Critical Thinking' in English.

But I would consider these skills fundamental to 'Discerning thought' as well, to name the purpose rather than the method. And the way the phrase is actually used, no one makes a practical distinction between objective and method – moreover if they did I doubt there would be much agreement about what the distinction meant.

So I certainly wouldn't challenge either translation – I'd consider them both perfectly valid, and the specific phrases 'Critical Thinking' or 'Critical Thought' to be simply a preferred English idiom.

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Problem-solving using evidence and critical thinking.

Have you ever known a very intelligent person who made a very bad decision? If so, you know that having a high IQ does not guarantee that you automatically make critically thoughtful decisions. Critically thoughtful problem-solving is a discipline and a skill—one that allows you to make decisions that are the product of careful thought, and the results of those decisions help your team and organization thrive.

In this course you will practice a disciplined, systematic approach to problem solving that helps ensure that your analysis of a problem is comprehensive, is based on quality, credible evidence, and takes full and fair account of the most probable counterarguments and risks. The result of this technique is a thoroughly defensible assessment of what the problem is, what is causing it, and the most effective plan of action to address it. Finally, you will identify and frame a problem by assessing its context and develop a well-reasoned and implementable solution that addresses the underlying causes.

Making a Convincing Case for Your Solution

When trying to persuade someone, the tendency is to begin in advocacy mode—for example: “Here's something I want you to agree to.” Most people do not react positively to the feeling of being sold something. The usual reaction is to literally or figuratively start backing up. To make a convincing case, it is more effective to engage with the decision maker as a partner in problem-solving. This makes your counterpart feel less like someone is trying to get them to buy something and more like you are working together to bring about an outcome that is desirable to both parties. Begin by asking yourself: “What is the problem you and the decision maker are solving together?”

By the end of this course, you will have learned how to deeply analyze a problem, possible solutions, and the associated risks as well as the most persuasive and efficient ways of presenting your proposal.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Solve Problems Using Evidence and Critical Thinking

Strategic Decision Making

The ability to make effective and timely decisions is an essential skill for successful executives. Mastery of this skill influences all aspects of day-to-day operations as well as strategic planning. In this course, developed by Professor Robert Bloomfield, Ph.D. of Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, you will hone your decision-making skills by following a methodology based on tested actions and sound organizational approaches. You will leave this course better equipped to confidently tackle any decision large or small, and you'll do so in a way that creates the optimal conditions for success.

Navigating Power Relationships

Leaders at every level need to be able to execute on their ideas. In virtually every case, this means that leaders need to be able to persuade others to join in this execution. In order to do so, understanding how to create and utilize power in an organization is critical.

In this course, developed by Professor Glen Dowell, Ph.D., of Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, students will focus on their personal relationship with power as well as how power works in their organization and social network.

Project Management Institute (PMI ® ) Continuing Certification : Participants who successfully complete this course will receive 6 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from PMI ® . Please contact PMI ® for details about professional project management certification or recertification.

Interpreting the Behavior of Others

Applying strategic influence.

Being able to influence others is the most fundamental characteristic of an effective leader, but many people in positions of power don't know specifically how they are influencing others' behavior in positive directions. They let it happen by chance or use their formal authority—getting people to do things because “the boss said so.” But as leaders gets promoted within their organization, using formal authority becomes less effective as they not only need to influence subordinates, but also peers, external stakeholders, and superiors.  In this course, Professor Filipowicz explores the three complementary levels of influence. First, you will explore heuristics, or rules of thumb, that people use in order to make decisions. Next, you will learn how to influence through reciprocity by uncovering what the person you want to influence wants and needs. Lastly, you will learn how to alter the social and physical environment in order to get the change in behavior you want. By the end of this course, you'll have the skills to consistently draw out the desired behaviors from your team and from those around you. 

Leadership Symposium   LIVE

Symposium sessions feature three days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics. The Leadership Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.

Join us for the next Symposium in which we’ll discuss the ways that leaders across industries have continued engaging their teams over the past two years while pivoting in strategic ways. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to relevant topics for leaders. Throughout this Symposium, you will examine different areas of leadership, including innovation, strategy, and engagement. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from various industries.

Upcoming Symposium: October 15-17, 2024 from 11am – 1pm ET

• Navigating Change and Conflict
• Wednesday, October 16, 2024  11am – 1pm ET
• Anticipating Opposition and Uncertainty
• Thursday, October 17, 2024  11am – 1pm ET
• Exploring the Value of Feedback

All sessions are held on Zoom.

Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request.

How It Works

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Faculty Authors

• Certificates Authored

Risa Mish is professor of practice of management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. She designed and teaches the MBA Core course in Critical and Strategic Thinking, in addition to teaching courses in leadership and serving as faculty co-director of the Johnson Leadership Fellows program.

She has been the recipient of the MBA Core Faculty Teaching Award, selected by the residential program MBA class to honor the teacher who “best fosters learning through lecture, discussion and course work in the required core curriculum”; the Apple Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the MBA graduating classes to honor a faculty member who “exemplifies outstanding leadership and enduring educational influence”; the “Best Teacher Award”, selected by the graduating class of the Cornell-Tsinghua dual degree MBA/FMBA program offered by Johnson at Cornell and the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University; the Stephen Russell Distinguished Teaching Award, selected by the five-year MBA reunion class to honor a faculty member whose “teaching and example have continued to influence graduates five years into their post-MBA careers”; and the Globe Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the Executive MBA graduating class to honor a faculty member who “demonstrates a command of subject matter and also possesses the creativity, dedication, and enthusiasm essential to meet the unique challenges of an EMBA education.”

Mish serves as a keynote speaker and workshop leader at global, national, and regional conferences for corporations and trade associations in the consumer products, financial services, health care, high tech, media, and manufacturing industries, on a variety of topics, including critical thinking and problem solving, persuasion and influence, and motivating optimal employee performance. Before returning to Cornell, Mish was a partner in the New York City law firm of Collazo Carling & Mish LLP (now Collazo Florentino & Keil LLP), where she represented management clients on a wide range of labor and employment law matters, including defense of employment discrimination claims in federal and state courts and administrative agencies, and in labor arbitrations and negotiations under collective bargaining agreements. Prior to CC&M, Mish was a labor and employment law associate with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, where she represented Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, consumer products, and manufacturing industries. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and state and federal courts in New York and Massachusetts.

Mish is a member of the board of directors of SmithBucklin Corporation, the world’s largest trade association management company, headquartered in Chicago and TheraCare Corporation, headquartered in New York City. She formerly served as a Trustee of the Tompkins County Public Library, Vice Chair of the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, and member of the board of directors of the United Way of Tompkins County.

• Omnichannel Leadership Program
• Corporate Communication
• Intrapreneurship
• Management 360

Critical Thinking

• Performance Leadership
• Executive Leadership
• Change Management

Glen Dowell is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. He researches in the area of corporate sustainability, with a focus on firm environmental performance. Recent projects have investigated the effect of local demographic factors on changes in pollution levels, the role of corporate merger and acquisition in facilitating changes in facility environmental performance, and the relative influence of financial return and disruption on the commercial adoption of energy savings initiatives.

Professor Dowell’s research has been published in Management Science, Organization Studies, Advances in Strategic Management, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Management, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Business Ethics, and Administrative Science Quarterly. He is senior editor at Organization Science and co-editor of Strategic Organization, is on the editorial boards of Strategic Management Journal and Administrative Science Quarterly, and represents Cornell on the board of the Alliance for Research in Corporate Sustainability (ARCS). He is also the Division Chair for the Organizations and Natural Environment Division of the Academy of Management.

Professor Dowell teaches Sustainable Global Enterprise and Critical and Strategic Thinking. He is a faculty affiliate for the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise and a faculty fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.

• Sustainable Business
• Hotel Management and Owner Relations
• Executive Healthcare Leadership

Since coming to the Johnson Graduate School of Management in 1991, Robert J. Bloomfield has used laboratory experiments to study financial markets and investor behavior. He has also published in all major business disciplines, including finance, accounting, marketing, organizational behavior, and operations research. Professor Bloomfield served as director of the Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative (FASRI), an activity of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and is an editor of a special issue of Journal of Accounting Research dedicated to Registered Reports of empirical research. Professor Bloomfield has recently taken on editorship of Journal of Financial Reporting, which is pioneering an innovative editorial process intended to broaden the range of research methods used in accounting, improve the quality of research execution, and encourage the honest reporting of findings.

• Management Accounting for Leaders
• Strategic Healthcare Leadership
• Management Accounting

Allan Filipowicz is clinical professor of management and organizations at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. Professor Filipowicz’s research focuses on how emotions drive or impede leadership effectiveness, at both the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels. Within this domain, he studies the relationship between emotions and risky decision making; the influence of humor on both leadership and negotiation effectiveness; the impact of emotional transitions in negotiations; and the relationship between genes, chronotype (morningness–eveningness) and performance. His work has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Forecasting, Creativity Research Journal, Journal of Circadian Rhythms, and Scientific Reports.

Professor Filipowicz teaches Managing and Leading Organizations (recently winning a Best Core Faculty Award), Negotiations, Executive Leadership and Development, Leading Teams, and Critical and Strategic Thinking. He has taught executives across the globe, from Singapore to Europe to the US, with recent clients including Medtronic, Bayer, Google, Pernod Ricard, and Harley-Davidson. Professor Filipowicz received his PhD from Harvard University. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School, an MA in International Affairs from the University of Pennsylvania, and degrees in electrical engineering (MEng, BS) and economics (BA) from Cornell University. His professional experience includes banking (Bankers Trust, New York) and consulting, including running his own boutique consulting firm and four years with The Boston Consulting Group in Paris.

• Adaptive Healthcare Strategy
• Negotiation Mastery
• Psychology of Leadership

Key Course Takeaways

• Respond decisively and consistently when faced with situations that require a decision
• Assess the context of the problem
• Summarize your analysis of the problem
• Analyze potential solutions from multiple perspectives
• Build a compelling business case for your solution
• Improve your ability to exercise influence in your organization and activate your network to achieve goals
• Establish responsibilities and accountabilities to ensure effective follow-through on decisions made

JOIN A LEADERSHIP SYMPOSIUM!

Download a brochure.

What You'll Earn

• Critical Thinking Certificate from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management
• 60 Professional Development Hours (6 CEUs)
• 38 Professional Development Units (PDUs) toward PMI recertification
• 30 Professional Development Credits (PDCs) toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification
• 30 Credit hours towards HRCI recertification

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Who should enroll.

• C-level executives, VPs, managers
• Industry leaders with 2-10+ years experience
• Mid-level professionals looking to move into leadership roles
• Engineers and designers leading projects
• Consultants or analysts
• Anyone whose work involves devising, proposing, and defending evidence-based solutions

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