PSY 314 Week 2 Assignment Help

PSY 314 Week 2 Assignment Help | Wilmington University 

Week 2 Critical Thinking Activity Paper

People frequently consult sources they find on the World Wide Web to gather information. As you know, a web search often brings up multiple sites that have potential information from which to gather. This assignment explores how you decide which sites to use. The sites you choose depend on the purpose you have in gathering the information. In this assignment, you will decide which sites are appropriate sources for writing about whether or not actively open-minded thinking is a beneficial skill to cultivate. You have been given 6 websites that were the output of a Google search completed on “actively open-minded thinking”. You will read through each one in order to decide which sites you think would be most useful for this task, and will help you to understand whether actively open-minded thinking is an important skill to develop.

Making a decision about which sites to use depends on evaluating how reliable or trustworthy they are. There are several things to consider in evaluating the reliability of a site. Who is the author? How reliable is the information? How well does the site explain the information? Below are some ideas to help you answer these questions.

 Who is the author?

·         Can you figure out who the author is?

·         Is the person who is providing the information someone who is knowledgeable about the topic?

o    You can figure this out from several cues. One is the information provided about the author, what training the person has had, what their current occupation is. Sometimes you can tell this from the institution with which the page or author is affiliated. Affiliation is sometimes shown in a logo or copyright statement on the page. Finally, the URL (web address) for a site lets you know whether the site is a profit making operation (.com), and educational institution (.edu), a government sponsored site (.gov) or an organization, usually non-profit (.org) or (.net).

What is their motivation?

Knowing something about the author is important because authors often have specific agendas they want to push. Frequently, web sites want to sell readers goods and services or obtain donations from them. To do so, they provide only the part of the information that supports their sales goals. Or they use the site to provide very graphic images that evoke emotional responses. Some sites may have political agendas. As you read the information on the web sites, use information about the author and site to figure out the motivations, possible biases, and purposes that the site author and host might have. You can also determine the motivation of the author by thinking about who the intended audience is.

How reliable is the information?

·         Is the information based on scientific evidence?

o    Information that has been gathered through a scientific process can be considered more accurate than personal opinion, beliefs, or anecdotes. Is evidence provided or reported for claims? Are scientific peer reviewed journals cited? Is this information likely to be evaluated well by informed scientists?

·         Is there similar information given across reliable sources?

o    If multiple sites or authors give the same information, it is more likely to be accurate than if the sites or authors disagree. This is especially true when the sites with converging information have affiliations that seem trustworthy. If information in a site contradicts other sites that you think are trustworthy, then it suggests the new information might not be reliable. Also consider if the account given is complete, or whether it omits information that other reliable sources mention.

How well does the site explain the information?

·         Do you understand how the process works based on the information provided?

o    For a lot of scientific information, another important criteria for a useful site is how well the information on the site explains things.

·         Does the explanation fit together with your prior scientific knowledge or with information from other reliable sites?

o    Especially using sites which have affiliations that seem trustworthy, you should examine whether each interpretation of the evidence fits together to generate a coherent explanation of a scientific process or phenomena.