Assignment #6

Although it is not a concept exclusive to psychology, I believe one of the most significant concepts explored in this course that will have implications for the rest of my life is critical thinking. Critical thinking refers to the evaluation of claims or ideas with an open-minded, cautious (perhaps even skeptical) approach. Critical thinking in psychology may also be considered scientific thinking and it includes a set of scientific principles. There are 6 of these principles: Ruling out rivaling hypothesis, correlation vs. causation, falsifiability, replicability, extraordinary claims, and occam's razor.
Critical thinking will continue to play a role in my life on an everyday basis. With any new information I receive, whether I encounter it on the news, in a gossip magazine, or in one of my college courses, I encourage myself to apply my critical thinking skills and assess things cautiously to prevent from falling victim to bias or irrational tendencies of myself and others. Due to the versatile and universal relevance of critical thinking, it can be applied to many (if not all) aspects of life, and this is why I'm confident that this will be something that will stick with me beyond this course.

This video presents is an example of the scientific principle, Occam's Razor, which encourages us to follow the rule of thumb: Simple is best. In other words, most of the time (not always) when presented with more than one explanation the more parsimonious one is generally best.

Although there have been many elaborate and imaginative theories behind the construction of Stonehenge, this video explores a more simple explanation.