General Education Component: Logic and Research Methodology
The elective general education block tests logic and research methodology - the toolkit for reasoning and for designing a thesis. Expect items on syllogisms, truth-functional inference, hypothesis formation, sampling, validity, reliability, and research ethics. The exam rewards formal correctness, not opinion.
Core rules and concepts
- Laws of logic: identity (A is A), non-contradiction (not both A and not-A), excluded middle (A or not-A), sufficient reason.
- Deduction vs induction: deduction is truth-preserving (general → specific); induction is probabilistic (specific → general).
- Valid syllogism (Barbara): All M are P; All S are M; therefore All S are P.
- Conditional inference: modus ponens (If P then Q; P; therefore Q) is valid; modus tollens (If P then Q; not Q; therefore not P) is valid. Affirming the consequent (Q; therefore P) and denying the antecedent (not P; therefore not Q) are invalid.
- Research: validity (construct, internal, external), reliability, random vs convenience sampling, informed consent, confidentiality.
Worked example
"All teachers are educators. Some educators are researchers. Therefore some teachers are researchers." Is this valid? No. The middle term "educators" is undistributed in both premises: the first premise says teachers are inside educators, but the second only says some educators (possibly non-teachers) are researchers. The conclusion does not follow. A valid conclusion would require "All educators are researchers" or "All researchers are educators."
Traps that cost marks
- Treating a valid form as true in content: validity concerns structure, not factual truth.
- Confusing correlation with causation in methodology items.
- Confusing reliability (consistency) with validity (measuring what it claims).
- Ignoring sampling bias when generalizing.