Evaluating for bias

Kotler, S. (2005, March/April). The Perils of Higher Education. Psychology Today, 38(2), 64+. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20050309-000006.xml&print=1.

The information in the article is fairly one sided and thus there could be a slight bias here. However, it does appear to be valid and well-researched. One glitch is that the author does not provide a bibliography to allow the reader to further explore the article's claims. This would improve the article's level of objectivity.

The tone of the article seems to be one of an opinion piece, yet the author never really makes it clear if this is his intention. Instead, one should look at the fact that the piece was written for Psychology Today. What do we know about this journal? It's not overly scholarly in nature and it's audience tends to encompass more of the general public. Perhaps, the article's purpose is meant to merely cause people to think about how certain behavior could impact long-term learning, more so than trying to be definitive research article on the topic.

Close window