Dispositional factors predicting Chinese students’ critical thinking performance

• Published in: Personality and individual differences Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 54 - 58
• Main Authors: Ku, Kelly Y.L., Ho, Irene T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Chinese people; Chinese student; Cognitive abilities; Critical thinking; Cultural aspects; Educational psychology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Individual difference; Openness; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure; Thinking disposition; Individual difference; Thinking disposition; Chinese student; Critical thinking; Conscientiousness; Human; Cognitive ability; Cognition; Personality; Student; Reasoning; Openness to experience; Interindividual comparison; Performance
• ISSN: 0191-8869; 1873-3549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2009.08.015

Dispositional factors have been suggested to affect individuals’ critical thinking performance. The relative and combined effects of thinking dispositions and cognitive ability on the critical thinking performance of a group of 137 Chinese undergraduates were examined. Participants were administered the Need for Cognition Scale, Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness Subscales of the NEO Five Factor Inventory as well as the Concern for Truth Scale. Cognitive ability and critical thinking performance were respectively estimated with the WAIS-III Verbal Comprehension Index and the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment Using Everyday Situations. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that only the disposition of concern for truth accounted for unique additional variance in critical thinking beyond that explained by cognitive ability. The findings are discussed in the light of cultural factors affecting critical thinking in the Chinese context.