How to Evaluate Psychological Information
With all of the discussions as to the working of a person's mind and how it influences his daily actions and personality, a massive influx of psychological information is available. However, while those with PhDs may argue back and forth over theories and treatments, a layman has other options for evaluating psychological information.
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Instructions
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How to Evaluate Psychological Information
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Read and review the information. Whether it's a report in the news, an article in a magazine, or even an evaluation given to you by your own psychologist, make sure that you can understand it. If you attempt to evaluate psychological information without understanding what it means, than the process has already failed.
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2
Make notes. Particularly look for items that you disagree with or that you agree with in the text. It's also important to write down key words, such as condition names, diagnosis, method and possible treatments, depending on the information presented.
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Research the information further. Unless you've been handed a full experimental report, or a similarly complete document, you likely have incomplete information. Only by checking other sources, such as psychological textbooks and journals, can you find more information to help support or condemn the information you're evaluating.
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Review all of the facts that you have now. You should be better informed, and you should understand all the details of the information that you're evaluating now, both what you were given initially and what you had to find on your own.
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Evaluate the information. Things to keep in mind are how complete the psychological information was when you received it, the age of the theories and concepts involved, experimental proof, and whether or not the idea has popular support in the mental health community.
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