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Thinking Critically
Challenge
Children, Pets and Communication
Animal ownership is on the rise in Ireland and throughout the world. Studies
have shown that having an animal can improve children’s empathy for others,
their own well-being and positively influence communication skills.
Children with pets tend to have a greater understanding for the emotions of
others. This is because having an animal who cannot speak means a child must
try to guess at what their animal needs or is trying to communicate. Garvey and
Diggs (2012) showed that a group of 50 children attending a pet owners course
demonstrated higher than average understanding of other people’s emotions.
Studies have also shown that children who are in families with pets have high
levels of well-being compared to those without pets. Moore (1995) carried out a
five year study covering five to twelve year old children attending primary school
in Ireland. As part of this study, children with and without pets were asked to
rate their own sense of well-being using a specially designed questionnaire. The
results showed that those with pets scored significantly higher than those
without.
The communication skills of children with pets are also better than those without
pets. The reason for this is not fully understood, but could be due to the fact
that animal ownership can encourage children and parents to engage in joint
activities. Many studies have shown that where a pet is owned by a family,
children are rated by their teachers and parents as having better than expected
communication skills for their age group.
This all goes to show that due to the positive outcomes of owning a pet, every
child should be given the opportunity to have one at some stage in their
childhood.
References
Garvey, S., & Diggs, M. (2012). Empathy skills of children and in families with
pets. Journal of child and animal psychology, 22(6), 244-250.
Moore, I. (1995). Well-being in Irish children with and without pets. Journal of
child and animal psychology, 10(5), 203-217.
Author, Association for Pet Shops in Ireland, 2013
Created by UCD Library “Thinking Critically”
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Questions
Question 1
What are the premises and the core argument of this piece?
See below for the 5 Keys to Critical Thinking (Key 1).
Question 2
Identify any opinions and facts in this piece.
See below for the 5 Keys to Critical Thinking (Key 2).
Question 3
Are there any biases that might make the piece less objective or reliable?
See below for the 5 Keys to Critical Thinking (Key 3).
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Question 4
Is the evidence over-generalised without warrant?
Are the populations studied biased in any way?
Are the research studies recent?
See below for the 5 Keys to Critical Thinking (Key 4).
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Question 5
Does the evidence presented support the conclusion drawn?
Is there any other way of interpreting the evidence?
See below for the 5 Keys to Critical Thinking (Key 5).
Created by UCD Library “Thinking Critically”
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5 Keys to Critical Thinking
Key 1
The Line of Argument
This does not refer to disagreement or dispute. In academia an "argument" is
sometimes referred to as "the line of argument."
This is the set of statements the author is using to assert or make a point.
An argument is based on a set of premises or propositions to support a
conclusion.
A simple argument might be
The School of Geography has a sample of rock from the Giant's Causeway
in Co. Antrim [premise]. All rock from the Giant's Causeway is Basalt
[premise]. The sample of rock in the School of Geography from the
Giant's Causeway is Basalt [conclusion].
Key 2
Opinion versus Fact
Look at the line of argument. Highlight important sections or summarise the core
argument in your own words.
Can you identify which parts are opinion and which parts are fact?
Are there any assumptions, assertions or statements that might not be correct?
Not sure?
Read around. Look at your lecture notes, read a book chapter or article on the
subject.
How does it compare?
Talk to someone else studying in your subject area.
Key 3
Digging Deeper
Who wrote this piece? Do you think they have any hidden agendas or viewpoints
that might make them biased?
Read the piece again, can you identify any commercial, personal, social, cultural,
or even historical bias?
Example
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It has been found by six different research groups that Brand X Drug
completely cures symptoms of flu within two days of onset.
Sounds promising?
What if we found out all the research groups involved were funded by the drug
company that made Brand X Drug. Would we then question the results?
Key 4
Evidence
Read your piece again and identify each piece of evidence presented to support
the conclusion.
Now question the evidence. Is it reliable and valid?
If there is research presented, is it recent? Are the results over-generalised?
Carefully examine research methods and statistics
Were the numbers of people studied large enough to have a broader application?
Were there comparison groups?
Were the populations studied biased in any way like using everyone from the
same area/age group/gender?
You may also want to read around the subject at this stage.
Key 5
Conclusions
A conclusion is the final point or summary of the argument made by the author.
The conclusion should follow logically from the premises and evidence outlined.
To think critically ask yourself
Does the evidence actually support the conclusion?
Does each piece of evidence logically lead to the conclusion the author has
made.
Are they stretching the impact of the evidence?
Are there any alternative conclusions the evidence could point to?
What further impact will this conclusion have on the wider discipline or
society?
Created by UCD Library “Thinking Critically”