Research in African Studies

Thinking is one of the most essential of all human characteristics. It is intrinsic to almost everything we do. But do we ever think about thinking? How often do we subject our thinking process to critical analysis? The answer is, in fact, not often; rather, we display a belief perseverance effect— become personally invested in—and then tightly cling to— our beliefs and interpretations—which leads to illogical decisions by minimizing, distorting or ignoring facts that run contrary to our reality. To show this tendency & its frequency, let me quote some;

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)— GERMAN NAZI LEADER

It’s good to be open-minded, but not so open that your brains fall out.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

The personalities aforementioned, tried to demonstrate that we do not think seriously or more specifically, critically. So, what does Critical thinking? That is, do we think about our thinking?

Critical thinking, in more simple terms can be defined as thinking about thinking. It is a reflective and analytical style of thinking. It involves delving deeper, being conscientious about the how and why we think the way we do; and questioning;

• How we process information?
• Why is that so?
• Why we draw the conclusions we do?
• Where is the evidence?
• How good is that evidence? Is this a good argument? Is it biased? Is it verifiable? What are the alternative explanations?
• Why we are quick to accept some information as truth without further analysis and treat other information as skeptical?
• What are the specific tools to think critically?

With its basis in rationality, logic, and synthesis, critical thinking enable us think about our thinking, or in other words, Metha-thinking in cross-cultural psychology; moves us beyond mere description, leading into the realms of scientific inquiry and reasoning. As such, it promotes free thinking, which then fosters innovations and discoveries.

Metha-thinking, is a series of skills, which, like any skill set, can be and needs to be taught and cultivated..

While the theory of critical thinking can be taught, critical thinking itself needs to be experienced first-hand.

So what does this mean for educators trying to incorporate critical thinking within their curricula? We can teach students the theoretical elements of critical thinking.

To this end, there is a series of cognitive skill, known as critical thinking tools, which can be taught and learned to develop analytical thinking. Metha-thoughts or thought principles are Cognitive tools that provide us with specific strategies to inquire, understand and solve problems in cross-cultural psychology. They are cognitive antidotes which help us counter our natural way of thinking (prone to be biased, rigid, simplistic, lazy, etc

Our thinking guides our every-day activities and thus, forms the most important part of human actions. Yet the attention given to it—thinking about how to think—and tools provided to guide critical thinking, are insignificant. It is thus, with the aim of providing a framework for “critical thinking” that critical thinking in cross cultural psychology reminds us to look closely at:

The evaluative bias of language: to describe is to prescribe

To describe what it is: various phenomenon, events, situations, and people:

To evaluate (how bad or good it is) same phenomena: “Is it good or bad?”

Ideal= descriptions to be objective, whereas evaluations to be subjective.

However, is the distinction b/n objective description and subjective evaluation is less clear! Because words both describe and evaluate.

Whenever we attempt to describe something or someone, the words we use are almost invariably value laden, in that they reflect our own personal likes and dislikes.

And same word may mean different when applied to different things.

For example the word hot. For material substances, it refers literally to temperature: “ “That liquid is very hot.” But for a person, it takes on a distinctly evaluative connotation: “That person is very hot.”

Another difference (even when talking about specific issue and aspect like describing a person) cultural and value system differences matter; e.g.,

• Old Vs mature
• narcissistic Vs high self-esteem
• terrorist Vs freedom fighter

C. Another aspect is Reciprocal influence of attitudes and language

Our perceptions, beliefs, values, influence our language and vice versa: How we refer to someone/thing shapes how we perceive and treat them

¢ Examples:

“All men cheat” or “All women are money oriented”

D. Bidirectional relationships also influence the choice in words that we use Politically correct terms.

Let’s see ways in which names have changed as a function of different social and historical contexts.

During earlier periods; Ashebir/ Aschenaki/ Dilnesa /Dem Mellash

Later on: Abiyot, Hige-mengst wetalign….

Now: selam/moges

more western culture/kana like Obama, Biyonce/

Thus, our use of any particular term serves not only to describe, but also to prescribe what is desirable or undesirable to us.

Differentiating between dichotomous and continuous variables

Definition:

• Dichotomous variables are: two mutually exclusive or contradictory ¢categories
• Male or female,
• CAfOS PhD student or nor,
• Married or single, etc
• Continuous variables: have points between two polar opposites
• Dependent-autonomous;
• Normal-abnormal
• Clever-lazy

The problem we often confuse these two types of variables. Specifically,describe things that are continuous as dichotomous/ false dichotomization e.g., ¢ Black vs. white ¢ Old vs. young ¢ mental health–mental illness, introverted–extroverted biased–unbiased; competitive–cooperative autonomous–dependent Pregnant vs. not pregnant (can’t be both…or in between)Not everything is black and white ¢ Tend to do so when describing people or behavior Continuous variables tend to be more accurate and meaningful descriptions or explanationsThe similarity-difference paradox:First, every phenomenon has something in common and as difference!!Given the fact that any two events are similar and different, it is crucial to take them both into account in your assessment of the phenomena.And dimensions or variables you select for purposes of evaluation ultimately determine just how “similar” or “unique” the phenomena turn out to be.Antidotes

• When comparing and contrasting any two phenomena ask yourself,
• “In what ways are they similar?”and “In what ways are they different?”
• “What is the purpose of this analysis?”and choose the most appropriate and relevant dimensions and sorting variables.
• Carefully select the dimensions on which you will evaluate various phenomena. Recognize that the dimensions you select will ultimately determine the degree of“similarity”or “uniqueness”displayed between the two phenomena
• Do not allow yourself to be swayed by individuals who maintain that “These events are exactly the same,” or “You can’t compare these events because they have absolutely nothing in common.”

The Burnum effect: the “one-fits all” description/approachA Barnum statement is a personality description about a particular individual or group that is true of practically all human beings; or it is a general statement that has “a little something for everybody.”Examples:

• Ethiopians has good tourism potential. (But other countries too!).
• Women hate being rejected (who does not?)
• Eritreans love their country.

The Barnum effect refers accepting the validity of such overly inclusive and generic appraisals about particular individuals.Antidotes/remedy

• Differentiate Barnum statements from person- and group-specific descriptions and interpretations.
• Whenever feasible and appropriate, reduce the Barnum effect by qualifying personality descriptions and interpretations in terms of their magnitude or degree.

Example when the above example is de-barnumized:Ethiopians has good tourism potential given its historical heritages.The assimilation bias: viewing the world through schema-colored glassA schema is a cognitive structure that organizes our knowledge, beliefs, and past experiences, thereby providing a framework for understanding new events and future experiencesIt can be seen as an eye glass or lens with which we see the world.In the cross-cultural domain, these include perceptual sets about people based on their age, gender, race, religion, vocation, socioeconomic status, political affiliation, social role, or any other characteristic.Seeing the world through rose colored glasses. If your glasses are rose tinted, you will see the world as rosy (and likely full of optimism). If your glasses are cracked and dirty, your ¢outlook on life will likely be skewed.As Jean Piaget (1954, 1970) identified two complementary processes that we utilize when there is a clash between our schemas and new/info or data:

• Accommodation: modifying our schema to fit the data and
• Assimilation : modifying the data to fit our schema

Assimilation Bias - the tendency to engage in assimilation rather than accommodation to reject rather than accept information.The representativeness bias: fits and misfits of categorizationHeuristics: a mental shortcut that reduce complex and time-consuming tasks to more simple, manageable, practical, and efficient problem-solving strategies. Rule of thumb strategy for problem solving. In general, heuristics can be great as they allow us to process information quickly. Who has time to fully ¢process everything However, shortcuts sometimes cause errors in processing that could have been avoided if we had fully processed the ¢information At times, using heuristics might cause us to make underestimations or overestimationsExample: the way we represent ethnic groupsThe availability bias: the persuasive power of vivid eventsAvailability heuristic: refers to the process of drawing on instances that are easily accessible or “available” from our memory. It helps us to answer questions like:

• “How many are there?”
• “How often does something happen?”
• “What are the odds that something will occur?” of particular events.

Availability Bias- when Availability heuristic causes a systematic error in information processing.It leads us to conclude about the general based on few, vivid but false cases/individuals therby developing to false beliefs about the characteristics of a wide variety of groups in our society.The fundamental attribution error: understanding the impact of external influence:Fundamental attribution Error Fundamental Attribution Error- individual’s tendency to associate behaviors with internal factors and give external factors less consideration or completely ignore ¢them.Cognitive Bias- errors produced by our limited thinking capacity e.g. caused by fatigue, distraction, low IQ Motivational Bias- errors produced by efforts to satisfy our own selfish needsThe self-fulfilling prophecy: when expectations create realitySelf-fulfilling prophecy:A person’s adoption of attributes based on others’ expectations, attitudes and beliefs towards him/her .Our expectations/assumptions of others may actually produce the very behaviors that we expect to find in them. See effect of family’s perception/expectation on ChildrenWe are continually cultivating the constructions of each other’s social realities.i.e., Our actions are shaped not only by our own attitudes but also by the expectations of those with whom we interact.Example: You get married not necessarily you are in love but you are told/expected by your family to do so.Correlations does not prove causation: confusing “what” with “why”Correlation & ¢Causation

• Correlation- there is a relationship among the variables, positive or negative
• But does not recognize ¢cause and effect
• Correlation ≠ causation! Just because there is correlation or relationship between crime and urban neighborhoods, living in “the hood” does not “cause” someone to commit crime.

Antidotes

1. Remember that a correlation or coappearance is not, in itself,proof of causation.
2. Keep in mind that correlations enable us to make predictions from one event to another; they do not,however,provide explanations as to why the events are related.
3. When a correlation is observed,consider all possible pathways and directions of causation. For example,if Event Aand Event Bare correlated,does Acause B? Does Bcause A? Do A and Bcause each other? Does Ccause Aand B?

Bidirectional causation and multiple causation: causal loops and compound pathwaysThere are different types of influence/relationships between variables;Bidirectional Causation: When event A causes Event B and ¢Event B causes Event ASaving-investment and vice versaCan be said causal loop or, depending on our subjective evaluation of it, either “healthy spiral”(if we happen to like it) or “Vicious cycle”(if we do not).