Measuring Psychological Critical Thinking

Abstract

Critical thinking is widely considered an important skill for psychology majors. However, few measures exist of the types of critical thinking that are specific to psychology majors. Lawson (1999) designed the Psychological Critical Thinking Exam (PCTE) to measure students’ ability to “think critically, or evaluate claims, in a way that explicitly incorporates basic principles of psychological science” (p. 207). However, Lawson’s goal was not to present the PCTE as a standardized measure that was ready for use by other departments. We developed an updated version of the PCTE for broader use and investigated its reliability and validity. Results showed very good split-half and test–retest reliability. As expected, senior psychology majors scored significantly higher on the PCTE than junior psychology majors, senior biology majors, senior art majors, and introductory psychology students.