The relationship between critical thinking ability, personality, and academic achievement of graduate students in the School of Education at the University of Southern California

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Content THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY,
PERSONALITY, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF GRADUATE
STUDENTS IN THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
by
Ke nn eth(G arett?
A D issertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Education)
January 1978
UMI Number: DP24275
All rights reserved
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UNIVERSITY OF S O U T H E R N CALIFORNIA
THE GR ADUATE SC H O O L «*. »
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS A N G ELE S, C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7
E A
> 7 S
G 2 2 9
This dissertation, written by
..............................Kemie jtfe. .Crgre ±;t............................
under the direction of M s . . . . Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by The Graduate
School, in partial fulfillment of requirements of
the degree of
D O C T O R OF P H I L O S O P H Y
Dean
m e -
Date ........J2Q 3T.em b.er.. 1 ,... 197-7
DISSERTATIQ IOMMITTEE
i airman
When we are young
we long to tread a
path none trod before.
"The Land of Hearts Desire"
Yeats
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
i
II
III
Page
THE PROBLEM...................................................................... 1
Background of the Problem
Statement of the Problem
Q uestions to be Answered .
Purpose of the Study
Procedures
Assumptions
Limitations
Delim itations
Definition of Terms
Organization of the Remainder of the Study
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.......................................................10
Early Attempts Toward Formulation
Towards a Redefinition
Critical Thinking and Its Relationship to
a General Overview of Intelligence
When Does a Child D evelop Critical Thinking?
Can Critical Thinking be Facilitated Through
Instructional Technology
Critical Thinking and Its Relationship to Personality
Future Directions
METHODOLOGY ............................... . . . . . . . . . 32
Sample C haracteristics
Instrumentation
Research D esign
Test Administration
Scoring
Data C ollection Procedures
Data Processing and S tatistical Analysis
iii
Chapter Page
IV ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF F IN D IN G S .......................... 42
Statistical Procedures
A nalysis of Findings
Part A: Male Students Intercorrelations Along
with Related D escriptive S tatistics
Inferential S tatistics Along with Related
D escriptive S tatistics (Male)
Part B: Female Students Intercorrelations Along
with Related D escriptive S tatistics
Inferential S tatistics Along with Related
D escriptive S tatistics (Female)
D iscu ssio n of Findings
Part C: Comparison of the Results for M ales
and Females
General Issu e s
V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . 62
Summary
C onclusions
Recommendations
REFERENCES 66
LIST OF TABLES
Table
1 Definitions of Variable C odes U sed in Tables of
Chapter I V .............................................................................................. 45
2 Demographic Data for M ales; M eans, Standard
D eviations and Correlation C oefficients for Total
Male Sample of MM PI S cales to C T O T ........................... 46
3 Male Subjects Involved in the One-Year Follow-Up.
M eans, Standard D eviations, F Ratios and t Scores . 49
4 Demographic Data for Females; M eans, Standard
D eviations and Correlation C oefficients for Total
Female Sample of MMPI Scales to C TO T........................51
5 Female Subjects Involved in the One-Year Follow-Up.
M eans, Standard D eviations, F Ratios and t Scores . 53
6 Comparison of M ale and Female C oefficient Correla
tions on the MMPI S cales U t i l i z e d .................................. 55
7 One-Year Follow -U p, Comparison of M ales and
Females on the Relationship Between Critical
Thinking Ability and Academic S u c c e s s .............. 60
v
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
Background of the Problem I
The development and solid ification of abstract reasoning in
students has been a continuing concern among p sychologists and educa
tors. One asp ect of this com plex reasoning process has been c la ssifie d
as critical thinking. Critical thinking for our current purposes can be !
i
defined as the ability to lo g ica lly a s s e s s whether statem ents are pro- '
posed correctly. This definition is an extraction from Robert Ennis'
(1962) attempt to define and sp ecify the components of critical thinking.
The concept of critical thinking as a goal in educational o b jec
tives was em phasized by Piaget in his general statement on the goal of
education: "The principle of education is to form minds which can be
critical, can verify, and not accept everything they are offered" (Phil
lip s, 1975, p. 147).
Statement of the Problem
Although substantial research has been conducted to estab lish
critical thinking as a major component in the development of complex
reasoning, at the present time lim ited empirical in vestigation s have
been conducted which attempt to relate critical thinking ability to non-
cognitive a sp ects of human behavior. This study w ill endeavor to re
mediate this situation by focusing on the sp e cific personality traits of
[
i
the critical thinker. The so le empirical study currently existing in this
particular area by Simon and Ward (197 4) attempted to determine whether!
performance on a critical thinking inventory was significantly a s s o c i
ated with extroversion-introversion scores on the Eysenck Personality
Inventory. This research found no significant relations to exist between
th ese two factors. However, this experiment is hardly an adequate or
thorough attempt to relate critical thinking to personality. The proposed
study will expand our knowledge in this area by relating critical think
ing to a number of personality variables which are in d ices of character
variation in normal populations. The central theme of the research pro
ject is to determine if superior cognitive development is related to
greater personality adjustment. This particular type of superior person
ality stability is referred to in the literature as ego strength. This in
vestigation im p lies, as does most of the research by Witkin (1954) and
his a s s o c ia te s , that cognitive style and personality are in some ways
interrelated.
The investigation will a lso attempt to ascertain how useful a pre-
i
dictor of academic achievem ent the Cornell Critical Thinking Test is 1
when used on a population of graduate students. The criteria utilized
to measure achievem ent in this study were grade point index (overall),
as well as the number of graduate units com pleted at the U niversity of
Southern California.
Q uestions to be Answered
The sp ecific questions to be answered by the study are:
1. Does a significant relationship ex ist betw een critical
thinking and ego strength in a sample of male graduate
students ?
2. Does a significant relationship ex ist between critical
thinking and resista n ce to neuroticism in a sample of
male graduate students ?
3. Does a significant relationship ex ist between critical
thinking and ego strength in a sample of female graduate
students ?
4. Does a significant relationship ex ist between critical
thinking and resista n ce to neuroticism in a sample of
female graduate students ?
5. Do male students with higher scores on an inventory of
critical thinking have significantly higher grade point
indexes than students who do not score as w ell on this
inventory ?
6. Do th ese male students also com plete sign ifican tly more
unit hours than students who do not score as w ell on an
4
inventory of critical thinking ?
7. Do female students with higher scores on an inventory of
critical thinking have significantly higher grade point
indexes than students who do not score as w ell on this
inventory ?
8. Do th ese female students a lso complete significantly
more unit hours than students who do not score as w ell
on an inventory of critical thinking ?
Purpose of the Study
This study exam ines personality indices which may be related to
the cognitive style previously d iscu ssed as critical thinking. The in
vestigation expands the traditional research approach which separates
cognitive style and personality as unrelated a sp ects of the human
psyche. The investigation a lso attempts to d iscover how useful critical
thinking ability is as an indicator of achievem ent and academ ic su c c e ss
in a population of graduate students. It is mandated that research p sy
chology seek s a more integrated w h olistic view of man and in so doing
(
seek s logical connectives betw een different division s of academ ic p sy
chology. This study should advance our understanding of the p ossib le
variables which separate our most in tellectu ally developed students
from o th ers.
Procedures
A sample of all students currently enrolled in the School
of Education at the University of Southern California will ;
be conducted with consent of the Dean's office. Two I
I
i
hundred students w ill be sele cted and requested by mail
to participate in the study. Hopefully, one hundred
students contacted w ill become subjects; if not, the
sample w ill be augmented by sampling students currently
enrolled in introductory cou rses in educational psychology.
All subjects w ill be requested to com plete both the Cornell
Critical Thinking Inventory and the M innesota M ultiphasic
Personality Inventory.
Data w ill be separated on the b a sis of sex.
The Cornell Critical Thinking Inventories will be scored and
ranked. Subjects' scores on the appropriate sc a le s of the
M ultiphasic will be utilized to gain personality in d ices.
Then scores on the two measurement d evices will be
matched for each subject.
Appropriate sta tistic a l treatment for product-moment correla
tion and the student t te st for independent samples w ill be
applied to the data.
Assumptions
The Cornell Critical Thinking Inventory and the M innesota
M ultiphasic Personality Inventory are reliable and valid
measures for the particular dimensions stated in this study. I
The subjects responded to the inventories in an honest and
diligent manner which provides the experimenter an accurate
indication of the subject's critical thinking ability and per- '
sonality structure. j
The graduate students were a representative sample of the
student population from which they were drawn.
!
Data was accurately collected , recorded, stored and ana
lyzed .
The research design, subject sele ctio n procedures, and
data processing techniques used in the study were appro
priate to the intent of the investigation .
The data yielded by this study were appropriate for an a ly sis
%
through product-moment correlation and the student t te st
procedure.
Limitations (
The reliability and validity of the te st instrument designed
and sele cted for use in this study w ill affect the outcomes
of the study. j
2. Subjects employed in the study were representative only of
the delimited population from which they were sampled.
H ence, generalizations to students from other populations
should be avoided pending the appropriate replication of
this investigation.
3. Sample s iz e is limited to 100 students.
4. Since personality in d ices were measured by the MMPI, the
study does not infer that a total view of the student's per
sonality was co llected .
5. True randomness in sampling did not occur becau se of co n
straints im posed by using a stratified sampling procedure,-
as w ell as lim itations caused by student cooperation.
6. To the extent that any one of the assum ptions was not met,
a lim itation in the investigation did e x ist.
D elim itations
This study w ill be lim ited to students enrolled in the School of
Education at the University of Southern California.
Definition of Terms U sed
1. Critical Thinking - the ability to correctly a s s e s s s ta te
ments. This ability has three e sse n tia l dimensions: a
logical dimension, a critical dimension, and a pragmatic
8
dimension. Critical thinking is the ability to u tilize this
type of reasoning on a standardized testin g instrument.
The following definition is a brief symmary of the Ennis ,
(1962) definition which attempted to delineate critical !
thinking as the ability to do "logical analysis" of informa
tion, as w ell as the ability to proceed from this an alysis
to an evaluative inquiry into the assum ptions utilized in
any reasonable argument.
Ego Strength - the term is a conglomeration of traits in d ica
tive of superior personal adjustment. Subjects p o sse ssin g ,
\
ego strength a re self-relia n t, self-con trolled and show
circum spection in their everyday conduct and behavior. Ego
strength is a term which grew in u sage by Neo-Freudian
p sych ologists and which has been developed by Barron
(19 53) into a w idely utilized research sc a le of the M inne
sota M ultiphasic Personality Inventory.
Neuroticism - emotional disturbances characterized by e x
aggerated u se of avoidance behavior and defense maneuvers
to reduce anxiety. Neuroticism is a term used to identify
i
most emotional problems common to people who are still
functioning within the mainstream of so cie ty .
Organization of the Remainder of the Study
In Chapter II a review of the literature and research pertinent to
, this study w ill be presented.
In Chapter III the methodology including the design, instrument
to be u sed and procedures for co llectin g , analyzing and reporting the
data w ill be set forth.
In Chapter IV the findings of the investigation w ill be reported
i
' and a d iscu ssio n of the results provided.
I
<
In Chapter V the summary of findings, con clu sion s and recom -
j
I mendations of the study w ill be presented.
I
I
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
i
i
The manner in which students are able to evaluate arguments
critically’and draw valid inferences has been one of the most n eglected
areas in curriculum development and planning. Possibly, this stems
from the inability of educators to formulate an operational definition of
I
i
Critical thinking which is u tilizable in their instructional programming
i
I
or from the general n eglect critical thinking has experienced as a com
ponent of the general cognitive hierarchy.
Brown (1950), in an early survey of classroom teachers concern
ing important ob jectives of teaching geometry, found the objective re
c e iv in g the highest rating w as, "to develop the habit of clear thinking
and precise expression" (p. 101). However, what exactly clear thinking
is remains both nebulous and unclear.
Pingry (1951) found the following phrases u tilized as if id en tical
in his investigation on the nature of thinking: clear thinking, factual
thinking, straight thinking, empirical thinking, reflective thinking,
productive thinking, elaborate thinking, autonomous thinking, sc ie n tif
ic thinking, lo g ica l thinking, postulational thinking, and on and on.
All th ese terms have been u tilized in a highly im precise and confusing
manner. The iss u e of where critical thinking as a concept fits within
10
11
th ese semantic'frameworks was indeterminable.
Early Attempts Toward Formulation i
i
During the past 25 years some attempts have been made to remedyi
i
this theoretical confusion. This work has notably been accom plished
by the Illinois Critical Thinking Project (1954) and the Cornell Critical
. Thinking Readiness Project (1962-1969). These studies w ill be d is -
■ cu ssed more fully later. M ost intim ately involved in the development
- of a definition of critical thinking was Robert H. Ennis, who attempted,
! in 196 2, to formulate a functional definition of critical thinking. Ennis
!
stated, "There has been a lack of careful attention to the concept, crit-
■ ical thinking. Furthermore, no com prehensive, thorough up -to-d ate
treatment of this concept is available" (1962,, p. 3024).With the e x c e p
tion of Goldmark (196 6) little has been initiated attempting to s p e c ific -
1 ally restate or expand the model Ennis esta b lish ed in his early formula
tion. Substantial work on the development of lo g ica l ability in children
has occurred (O'Brien & Shapiro, 1968; Donaldson, 1963; Gardiner,
1965; Paulus, 1967; Roberge, 197 0). It appears that establishing the
, relationship betw een the concepts critical thinking and lo g ica l thinking
may prove e sse n tia l in expanding our understanding of th ese theoretical ]
configurations. We w ill begin with the former concept and through a
thorough explanation of it attempt to esta b lish some w holistic co n n ec
tion with lo g ica l thinking. ,
Towards a Redefinition
| Attempts to define critical thinking as a global trait have failed to
i
■ produce operational value. Johnson's (19 68) definition, which view s
critical thinking as a deliberate and purposeful involvem ent with ideas
or con cep ts, is operationally inadequate. Research findings concerning
1 critical thinking as a (g) or general trait have been in con sisten t (Foll-
i
man, 197 2; Guilford & Hoepfner, 1971).
Other theoreticians have attempted to subsume critical thinking
I
, as synonymous with problem solving (Dewey, 1933; Dull, 1964; Piet-
rasinski, 19 69; W allas, 1945). It appears that little universality
ex ists as to what exactly is the proper developm ental sequence of the
scien tific method and it is debatable whether critical thinking entails
the entirety of problem solving or if it is mainly concerned with the
1 evaluative aspect of problem solvin g. The difficu lties encountered by
both the sequential a b ilities format and global trait formulization point
to the need for an alternative framework which would more adequately
resolve the question of definition.
Ennis (1962) defined critical thinking as the correct a s s e s s in g of
; statem ent. In order to sp ecify how this a sse ssm e n t would occur he
listed 12 a sp e cts of the critical thinking p rocess.
1. Grasping the meaning of a statement.
2. Judging whether there is ambiguity in a line of reasoning.
13
i
j 3. Judging whether certain statem ents contradict each other.
I
i
4. Judging whether a conclusion follow s n e c e ssa r ily .
5. Judging whether a statement is sp e cific enough.
6. Judging whether a statement is actually the application of
a certain principle.
7. Judging whether an observation statement is reliable.
; 8. Judging whether an inductive conclusion is warranted.
£
9. Judging whether the problem has been identified.
t
' 1 0. Judging whether something is an assum ption.
I
I 11 . Judging whether a definition is adequate.
1 2. Judging whether a statement made by an alleged authority
is a ccep tab le.
There are three e sse n tia l distinguishing dim ensions of Ennis'
proposed concept of critical thinking; a lo g ica l dim ension, a critical
dimension, and a pragmatic dim ension. Ennis considers the logical
dimension to be the com petency an individual indicates in comprehend
ing the effect lo g ica l operators have in the verity of statem ents. For
example, does the inclusion of such words as "all, " "some, " "more, "
or "and" affect the interpretation of the statem ent? The criterial dimen-
i
sion refers to whether the information has been se le c te d from a know-
1 ledge b ase which is considered reliab le. The pragmatic dimension en
ta ils an endorsement of whether or not the statement is adequate to fu l- ■
14
fill the sp ecifica tio n s considered n ecessa ry by the speaker. This triad
of criteria adequately encom passes the 12 operation steps Ennis con
sider mandatory in a critical thinking operation.
The Ennis framework b a sica lly placed critical thinking in the area
of logical thinking operations. Goldmark (1966) proceeded from th is to
conclude critical thinking is the ability to do "logical analysis" of in
formation as w ell as the ability to proceed from this an a ly sis to an eval
uative inquiry into the assum ptions utilized in any line of argument. It
may prove valuable at this point to illustrate sp e cific a lly how a critical
thinking dialogue would occur. The following sele ctio n was utilized by
Goldmark (1966) in her attempt to illum inate the sequence of logical
operations which occur in a critical thinking progression. This extract
was sele cted for a sixth grade c la s s engaged in researching information
about the Soviet Union.
D oubtless, the Soviet economy has w eak
n e s s e s , even today in agriculture, in short
ages of consumer goods, and in imbalanced
rates of production resulting from poor coor
dination of plans. Yet the productive machine
of the USSR p oses a threat to the W est. It
is geared singlem indedly to an unlimited pol
itica l aim: to extend Communist power over
the whole planet.
The Argument
TEACHER: Now that we have read it and d iscu sse d
some difficult words, le t's se e what the author's
argument i s .
PUPIL: That the Soviet Union plans to take over
the world and runs the whole country for this
purpose.
PUPIL: He a lso says that this is bad for the
people there and bad for the W estern countries.
(This fulfills step one in Ennis' critical thinking
p r o c e ss.)
Analyzing Argum ent--Categories
TEACHER: What categories does he u se to talk
• about his argument ?
PUPIL: Economics is one.
TEACHER: What does he sa y about Soviet e c o n
omy ?
PUPIL: It is poorly planned.
PUPIL: That it is meant to take over the world,
TEACHER: D oes he u se any other categories ?
PUPIL: He talks about political aim s.
PUPIL: But he sa y s the econom ics are really
p olitical,
(Student is now proceeding from his lo g ica l
an alysis to an investigation of the assum ption
in the author's line of rea so n in g .)
Language A nalysis
PUPIL: What evidence does he have that the
whole economy is geared to one political aim ?
I read consumers are much better off now than
they ever were in R ussia.
TEACHER: Why don't you find that out for us
so that we can compare it with this point of
view .
PUPIL: The way he s a y s, "single-m indedly"
you would think he didn't care if people
starved in R ussia, That seem s to be an over
statement. (Goldmark, 1966, p. 330)
At this point the student has truly begun a critical or evaluative
stance. He is sim ultaneously judging for ambiguity in the line of r e a s
oning, doubting the author's co n clu sio n s and considering the reliability
of the inductive p rocess. Once the child has succeed ed in approaching
the excerpt in this manner he has entered what could be referred to by :
I
Goldmark (1966) as the evaluative m ode. This mode is e s se n tia l for the;
critical thinking process to occur, for it entails the b a sic judgmental
stance implied in all active com prehension. (It may be valuable to note
that the entire concept of critical com es from the Greek word "Kritikos, "
meaning to discern. "Discern" is an extraction from the Latin word J
"descernere, " "to separate by sifting. ") If the child is capable of d is
cerning, discriminating and detecting, the critical thinking process has
been initiated.
Goldmark proceeds to s e e the critical thinking process as a three
state p rocess.
Level III: What value assum ptions were made by the author?
Level II: What criteria did the author have for his judgment?
Level I: What was his argument? What are the con seq uences
of this argument (ends) ? What are the n ecessary
means and methods ?
Evaluation is the final and obligatory step which must occur in
I
order to fulfill the operational definition proposed in the previous s e c - \
i
tion s. If the evaluation process lead s the student to reject the author's
conclusion, he can then propose an alternative structure.
‘ This reconstruction of the original position a lso can be v isu a lized
i
*in a sequential manner.
t
Evaluation
Level III: Alternative
value assum ptions New assum ptions posed.
Level II: Alternative
criteria for judgments New criteria constructed.
Level I: Alternative arguments
'm eans-end methods relations New argument formulated.
Goldmark sta tes that any evaluative position n e ce ssa r ily im plies
i
isome reconstructive a s p e c ts . In order to propose lo g ica l inadequacies
in one position, alternative assum ptions are mandated or the process of
hypothetical reasoning is terminated. At this point the evaluative mode
reaches its con clu sion and a creative thinking process e n su e s. If crit
ic a l thinking is to find its position within the field of cognition, a
sp ecific delineation of this continuum w ill be mandated. Goldmark has
created a theoretical structure which could be valuable in establishing
a b a sic structure for clarifying th ese related but distinct in tellectu al
fu n ction s.
Critical Thinking and Its Relationship
to a General Overview of Intelligence
The relationship of critical thinking to general in tellig en ce has
been in vestigated by various researchers (Gunnels, 1967; Houtz, Ring-
bach, & Feldhusen, 197 3; M athias, 197 3; Westbrook 5c S ellers, 1967).
iThe results of th ese studies indicate a strong relationship betw een in
te llig e n c e and critical thinking.
Watson and G laser (1964) reported correlations between their
measuring instruments and traditional in tellig en ce te sts which ranged
from .55 to .7 5 with a median of .6 8 . High te st correlations were a lso
| found betw een the W atson-G laser Test and the Quick Word Test. The
I
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• factor an a ly sis of variables indicates that the W atson-G laser does
|
show strong correlations to in te llig e n c e , and sp e c ific a lly to verbal in
te llig e n ce .
The Westbrook study (1967) which was conducted in the Raleigh,
Virginia Public High School System , showed significant correlations
between pupil scores on the W atson-G laser Critical Thinking Appraisal
(WG), with scores on the H enm on-N elson Tests of Mental Ability (HN)
‘and the Quick Word Test (QWT) which ranged from . 55 to .7 5 with a
median of .6 8 . M athias a lso concluded that the ch ild 's reading le v el
and his socioecon om ic le v e l appeared predictive of his ab ility to apply
critical thinking s k ills .
Gunnels (1967), in a study conducted with 120 students from
.grade 4 through 9 found "The higher the mental age of a child the more
frequently he used the formal operational thought in solving scien ce
problems" (p. 3024). Formal operations have been subsumed as im plicit j
in critical thinking in our d iscu ssio n of Piaget. It appears Gunnels'
findings, although exp ressed through a different theoretical modality,
a lso support the M athias (197 3) and Westbrook (1967) stu d ies, which
I
)
u tilize the Purdue Elementary Problem Solving Inventory and T ests of \
Logical Thinking, found the correlation between IQ and lo g ica l thinking .
to range betw een . 40 and . 46. These studies co n sisten tly point to a
: strong relationship betw een IQ and critical thinking. They a lso strongly
j
!em phasize the importance reading and language ability play in determin-;
!
I
'ing the critical thinking le v e l of a child. It appears, however, that b e-
,yond the global correlation of critical thinking and in tellig en ce little has
been found in estab lish in g viable correlations betw een sp e cific areas
of in tellig en ce and the concept of critical thinking.
When Does A Child D evelop Critical Thinking?
The past 15 years have shown a marked in crease in the number of
empirical in vestigation s focusing on the development of lo g ica l ability
in children (Donaldson, 196 3; Ennis & Paulus, 1965; Gardiner, 1965;
H ill, 1961; H owell, 1965; M iller, 1968; Newman, 197 4; O'Brien &
Shapiro, 1968; Paulus, 1967; Roberge, 1970). The v a st majority of
i
th ese investigators have d isc u sse d the nature of their findings in terms ,
of Piaget's (1958) theory. These experimenters are struggling with the
iss u e of whether or not the developm ental framework the Geneva School
'created is truly viable when compared with experimental findings.
am assed in the study of the development of critical thinking in children.
The central debate on the development of lo g ica l reasoning in
i :
[children revolves around criticism of the Piaget position concerning the
■ organismic development of hypothetical-deductive thinking in the Formal;
i
i
Operations Period. !
The three underlying prem ises on Piaget's concept of learning
could be briefly summarized as follow s: "1) If a child is not ready to
|change, no teacher can help him; 2) if he is ready, the change w ill
I occur without intervention; 3) therefore, intervention is superfluous"
i (Phillips, 197 5, p. 17 5).
The im plications of the organismic position are clear. It appears '
that teaching may be not only superfluous for the development of critical,
thinking, but may be harmful or as Piaget stated in an unpublished l e c
ture, "Every time you teach a child something, you keep him from rein - ■
;venting it" (Phillips, 197 5, p. 17 5). The ch ild 's receptivity to the type
of logical inference and a critical thinking attitude is determined by his
structural development if one a ccep ts the position of the Geneva School.'
0
Suppes (1964, 1965) c ite s H ill's study (1961) which provided
evidence contrary to that given by Piaget/Inhelder. He states children
of age six , sev en , and eight "are able to deal effectiv ely with verbal '
prem ises that ca ll for hypothetical reasoning and th e se a b ilities are by .
no means lim ited to formal op erations" (Phillips, 1975, p. 175). The
Hill study co n sisted of a 100-item te st which sampled the following '
21
(Categories of elementary lo g ica l operations: e s se n tia l lo g ic, c la s s ic a l ,
j syllogism , and lo g ic of quantification. The findings were:
1. In the oral administration of the te s ts , mean
scores of 7 1. 18, 7 9 .5 4 , and 85. 58, much
higher than the 50. 00 chance score, were ob
tained by the six, seven and eigh t-year-old
students, resp ectiv ely . The mean scores in
all logic categories increased with age; in
deed, all differences between age le v e l means
were sta tistic a lly significant beyond the . 001
• le v e l.
j 2. Eight-year-old students to whom the lo g ic te st
had been administered in written form obtained
1 a mean score of 8 6 .7 0 , not significantly differ
ent from that obtained by a comparable group
1 of eigh t-year-old s to whom the te st had been
administered orally.
3. No sta tistica lly significant differences were
detected between mean scores of girls and
those of b oys. (Hill, 1960, p. 231)
O ’Brien and Shapiro (1968), in a revision of the original Hill
study, a lso found children capable of discriminating lo g ica l n e c e s s ity .
Ennis (1969) and Bruner (196 3) strongly criticize the Piagetian frame
work in which he lim ited the development of true hypothetical deductive
thinking until a d o le sc e n c e . Bourne and O'Banion (1971) found children
capable of ca lc u lu s. Suppes and Feldman (1971) found children capable
of comprehending language con n ectives of conjunctive statem ents, for
exam ple, "Give me the green things and the round th in gs. " However,
disjunctive prepositions were more difficult for th e se children.
Paris (197 3) attempted to defend the Piagetian developmental
sequence in a study on the Comprehension of Language C onnectives.
He found that although sim p listic conjunctive logic could be understood
by young children, com plex relationships were le s s discernible. He
sp ecifica lly stated that his findings indicated disjunction and that
children did not gain adequate functioning in im plication until middle
ad o lescen c e.
There appear to be few co n clu siv e im plications that can be drawn
from the current controversy on the sp ecific development time of criti
cal thinking; however, it seem s that a strong ch allen ge to the organ
ism ic position of the Geneva School has been esta b lish ed and that this
challenge has substantial empirical findings to justify alternative p o si
tions on the development of logical n e c e ssity .
Can Critical Thinking
Be Facilitated Through Instructional Technology ?
A crucial question in the development of a w h olistic conceptual
ization of critical thinking is the relative effects training programs have
on the development of lo g ica l inference. The most ex ten siv e attempt at
programmed instruction of conditional logic was conducted by Ennis
(1969) in his longitudinal Cornell Critical Thinking Project. The Ennis
study, sampling both lower and upper middle c la s s elementary school
children, failed to show significant findings that programmed instruc-
i 2 3 1
i
jtion had meaningful effects on the development of lo g ica l inference.
I
! Ennis' (1969) remarks on the failure of the project were: j
! 1
t
, One wonders why the instruction did not j
su c ceed . One p o ssib le answer is Piagetian |
in flavor. It did not su cceed b eca u se men- !
; tal a b ilities develop and unfold on their :
; own and cannot be hastened. The trouble j
with this answer is that we clearly did s u c
ceed in instructing upper secondary stu
dents in our earlier study (1965); we did
hasten their acquisition of knowledge of
conditional lo g ic , A second p ossib le e x
planation is that children this young ca n - I
not learn b a sic principles of conditional !
lo g ic. The trouble with this explanation is
that so many have already learned conditional
logic . . . . Another explanation is that
! children at this le v e l cannot be taught con
ditional lo g ic, although older children can be
taught it. A fourth p o ssib le explanation is
that our teaching materials were inadequate.
One of the peculiarities about a readiness
study is that negative resu lts do not e a sily
show that children are not ready, while p o s
itive results e a sily show that they are ready.
(Ennis, 1969, p. 143)
Ennis has eloquently stated the current status of the empirical
finds concerning the trainability of lo g ica l inference. However, there
have been a number of studies which have indicated the p o ssib ility of
using instructional technology to develop lo g ica l inference (Bingham-
Newman, 197 4; Darnell, 1961; Debold, 1969; M athias, 197 3; Rap- j
parlie, 1968; Story, 197 4). These studies were in response to the
failure of the Cornell Project to indicate support for the learning theor-
'ists and their position on cognitive developm ent. j
24
Rapparlie (19 68), in a relevant pilot study listed ob jective guide
lin es for teachers that may prove e ssen tia l for the s u c c e s s of instruc
tional procedures in teaching critical thinking to primary children. Her
recommendations are summarized:
1. Basic sk ills for thinking, such as observing, comparing,
cla ssify in g and analyzing should be introduced early in
the ch ild 's educational career.
2. Thinking sk ills must be esta b lish ed in behavioral terms
which can be evaluated by both the learner and the teacher.
3. An inquisitive critical attitude should be encouraged, as
w ell as developm entally presented by the teacher.
• 4. Extrinsic reinforcement can hinder the autonomy of thought
being sought in this education p rocess.
5. The teacher can aid in the transition from sp e cific co n
crete objects to generalizing with sem i-ab straction s.
Debold (1969), in an attempt to train fourth-grade children, found
that a significant improvement of the children's understanding of the
probability of statem ents and a more thoughtful critical attitude toward
thinking could be fa cilita ted . Experimental and control groups were
matched on a b a sis of age, in tellig en ce, reading ability and initial -
performance on the te st of inference. The training course employed
group a ctiv ities and d iscu ssio n designed to develop evaluative sk ills
25
and attitudes which would promote a more critical attitude towards
thought. The effect of the 12-w eek program in its entirety provided the
most measurable change in the acquisition of lo g ica l inference; where
as groups receiving parts of the course improved except le s s markedly
than the group receiving 12 w eeks of instruction.
Darnell (1969), in a group of 2 36 kindergarten and first-grade
pupils a lso found that lo g ica l inference could be improved by structured
experiences with some of the prerequisites of the more com plex lo g ica l
ta sk s. Darnell utilized five b asic treatment m odalities.
Treatment I C lass training em phasizing negation
Treatment II C lass training em phasizing dim ensionality
Treatment III M ultiple c la ssific a tio n and relation
Treatment IV Simple truth table strategy training
Treatment V Irrelevant training
A three-dim ensional fixed effects factorial design w as utilized and the
a n a ly sis of the data showed that treatment I and II were co n sisten tly
superior to treatment V in conservation ta sk s. Treatment IV was more
effective than irrelevant training but was most effectiv e when coupled
with other treatment m odalities.
’The adequacy of the instructional m ethodology may be a key is s u e
in determining why various studies achieved sign ifican tly p ositive re
sults in the instruction of lo g ica l inference and other studies failed to
! produce in crea ses in critical thinking s k ills . j
O bviously, there seem s to be evidence indicating logical infer-
i
i !
ence can be affected by instruction and that this process can be
i
I
initiated before the child enters the age dimension previously co n sid
ered reasonable for the instruction of critical thinking sk ills . Hill
(197 0), M athias (197 3) and Story (197 4) conducted empirical in v e stig a -
i tions which a lso showed significant effects of instruction on critical
I
t
1 thinking ab ility. It appears that the most difficult sk ill to train is the ;
i
j recognition of in con clu sive inferences (Hill, 1961). Precisely why
negation is a more difficult skill to acquire is in need of further in v e s-
. tigation.
Critical thinking may be far more trainable than has been proposed
by Geneva School's organism ic stan ce. This indicates that the major
avenue for future in vestigation is the struggle for adequate m ethodol-
ogic curriculum which can effectiv ely transmit critical thinking to c h il- ,
dren at various le v e ls of cognitive development.
Critical Thinking and Its Relationship to Personality
Remarkably little has been done attempting to relate critical
thinking to personality structure. There are a number of p o ssib le e x -
i
planations for the lack of research in this area. One is that few e x
perts in the area of cognition attempt to glob alize their findings on the .
in tellectu al structure to relate them to other a sp e cts of human phenom-J
jena, Another and probably more accurate explanation is that research
f
-psychology lack s a phenom enological incorporative view of the in d iv i
dual and tends to reduce human process into d istinct areas rather than
view man w h o listica lly .
I
The only empirical study relating critical thinking to personality
,was conducted by Simon and Ward (197 4) in which they attempted to
.find a relationship betw een the W atson-G laser Critical Thinking Apprais-
‘ I
,al and the te s t of extroversion-introversion from the Eysenck Personality|
'Inventory. Seventy-nine British university students were used in the j
'sam ple. Both m ales and fem ales made up the sam ple. The findings in
dicated no relationship betw een critical thinking and the personality
dimension introversion-extroversion. No other studies are currently
available which have attempted to relate critical thinking to other a s
pects of personality.
The Relationship Between In telligen ce and The M innesota M ultiphasic
Personality Inventory
Since the MM PI is being u tilized as the psychom etric instrument
to measure various personality variables in this study, a brief review
of previous efforts to u se this te st to predict achievem ent and in te lli
gence seem s appropriate. The leading researcher in this particular
area is Gough (1953a, 1953b, 1967). Gough is w idely known as the
author of the California Personality Inventory, as w ell as the former
I head of the Psychology Department at the U niversity of California at
j Berkeley.
Gough's early work was conducted in order to ascertain whether
sp ecific items from the MM PI could be aggregated to create a Hr sca le
(for honor point ratio). He was attempting to determine whether the Hr
| sca le could be used as an indirect measure of in telle c t. His results
indicated that the Hr s c a le 's correlation with IQ in a sample of students
i
and military officers was only .2 6 . However, Gough did find stronger
I
• relationship between the Hr sc a le and various in d ices of ego autonomy
such as tolerance, in tellectu al efficien cy and resp on sib ility.
These personality factors were accumulated by Barron (1953)
when he created his ego-strength (Es) sc a le . Barron originally d evised
■ this sca le to ascertain the degree of p sychological read in ess of in d ivi-
■ duals about to initiate psychotherapy. His study found that patients
who improved significantly under brief, psychoanalytically-oriented
psychotherapy had higher le v e ls of ego strength as measured by the
(Es) sca le than individuals who did not seem to benefit from treatment.
Kleinmuntz (1963a, 1963b) developed a computerized system of inter
preting MMPI profiles which helped him differentiate m aladjusted c o l
leg e students from the w ell-ad ju sted counterparts. Once again, the
ego strength factor proved valuable in differentiating high versus low
achieving co lle g e students.
Many other studies have found that the Es sc a le is sen sitiv e to
psychological differences between individuals with relatively adequate
le v e ls of emotional adaptation. It has a lso been estab lish ed that this
tool can be u sed effectiv ely in predicting the likelihood of emotional
disturbance and academ ic difficu lties in c o lleg e students.
Block (1965) d evised two additional ego adaptive s c a le s , ego
control and ego r e silie n c e . The correlations of th e se s c a le s with
Barron's Es sc a le indicate that they may a lso be valuable in the evalu
ation of the emotional stab ility and productivity of an individual. The
Ec and Er s c a le s have been included in this study to a s s is t the re
searcher in finding whether critical thinking generally correlates with
various m easures of p sych ological health.
In his la st major study attempting to correlate n on -in tellectu al
factors to academ ic s u c c e s s , Gough (1967) found that other factors b e
yond the MCAT scores and GPA were predictive of differential perform
ance in m edical sch ool. He created a regression equation based on
various California P sychological Inventory (CPI) s c a le s which corre
lated . 46 with cum ulative four-year GPA in a cross-valid atin g sam ple.
C ollege m ales who scored high on this equation were described as
reasonably self-co n fid en t, informal and u n selfish . Goldschmid (1965)
found similar results when he utilized MMPI profiles to forecast stu
dents' likelihood to su cceed in c o lle g e . These young men were d e s -
j 30-
i
I
/
cribed in his study as enterprising, reserved, prudent, controlled and
practical. It appears that research in d icates there is a reasonably I
■ w ell-docum ented relationship betw een ego strength and academ ic
achievem ent; however, the relationship betw een personality and IQ is ;
le s s stable and le s s useful in making predictions as to one's in te lle c
tual efficien cy . There a lso appears to be very lim ited research a v a il-
i
able indicating whether or not trends reported with male students are 1
a lso applicable for fem ale students. [
: i
Future Directions
It appears that in many w ays critical thinking is a neonate con -
. cept within the field of cognition. Efforts to create a fea sib le opera -
; tional framework (Ennis, 19 63; Goldmark, 1966) seem to indicate that
, it is n ecessa ry to clearly delineate the nature of lo g ica l inference and
! its development in an exp licit and utilitarian manner. However, th ese
frameworks can be considered pioneer efforts to extract the develop
ment of lo g ica l inference from the broad category of concept learning
where it had previously been subsumed. The need for more definitive
theoretical and empirical expansion of th ese frameworks seem s manda-
. tory.
The relationship of critical thinking to the nature-nurture co n
troversy a lso had hardly been clarified. There appear to be two b a sic
positions on this issu e : the Piaget and Inhelder stance (1958, 1964) I
versus the Ennis (1962) and O'Brien and Shapiro (1968) position. This
controversy a lso is central to the entire is s u e of trainability of critical
thinking and i s , therefore, of great interest and concern to educational
research.
Although some work has been done correlating critical thinking to
in tellig en ce (Watson & G laser, 1964; Westbrook & Silver, 1967), little
has been done to sp ecify which components of in telligen ce seem most
highly related to critical thinking. We realize that reading ability is
strongly related to the development of lo g ica l inference. However, the
sp ecific manner in which th e se two variables interact and whether they
are mutually dependent has yet to be determined.
Probably the most obvious area of p o ssib le exploratory research
would be relating critical thinking to a more global v iew of the person.
Are critical thinkers in any way measurably different from non-critical
thinkers in personality sty le, cognitive sty le, or attitude information?
These questions may open the avenues in considering both the d evelop
mental and structural patterns im plicit in the process of lo g ica l infer-
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
Sample C haracteristics
The 100 subjects who participated in this study were enrolled in
the U niversity of Southern California School of Education during the
1976 school year. The sample was co llected in the following manner:
1. Student folders were randomly pulled from each of the
12 sh e lv es located in the D ean's office in the School
of Education.
2. To ensure that students with both high and low Graduate
Record Examination scores were involved in the study,
the groups were subdivided into four categories:
Group I: GRE Verbal 600 or more
GRE Quantitative 600 or more
Group II: GRE Verbal 500 or le s s
GRE Quantitative 600 or more
Group III: GRE Verbal 600 or more
GRE Quantitative 500 or le s s
Group IV: GRE Verbal 500 or le s s
GRE Quantitative 500 or le s s
3. Stacks were counted; if any stack had more than 50 in d i
viduals the additional folders were returned to the sh elv es
4. After completing the random sele ctio n , each subject was
assign ed a number from 1 through 200.
5. Students were contacted through a letter written on univer
sity stationery and each subject was requested to come to
a testin g site for administration of the battery. This letter
a lso used the in cen tive of having a commendatory letter
placed in the students' graduate folder for participation in
the study.
It was hoped that half of the graduate students contacted would
be w illing to participate in the investigation; however, resp on se fell
short of expectations, with only 70 of the subjects reporting. The
sample was supplemented with Dr. Kathleen W ulf's a ssista n c e . Dr.
Wulf allow ed the investigator to sample students currently enrolled in
her introductory course in Educational Psychology. Ultim ately, 54
women and 46 men were included in the calculation of intercorrelation.
This shortcoming brings up the p o ssib le threat of a b iased sample which
is an experimental lim itation.
An attempt was made, one year after the original testin g , to c o n
tact the students in the sample to measure their current academ ic status
in terms of grade point index and total graduate unit hours com pleted at
the U niversity. Only 7 2 of the original students were still a c c e s s ib le
to the researcher and th ese 7 2 students were u tilized in the sta tistica l
treatments measuring achievem ent. The reduction in sample s iz e due
to the differential lo s s of subjects makes mortality a threat to the in
ternal validity of the experiment; however, this factor only affects the ,
research questions relating to achievem ent,
i
i
i
i
In strum entation
The following instruments were used in the investigation:
The Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level Z
The Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level Z (Ennis & Millman,
1971), hereafter referred to as the Cornell, is an ob jective te st designed
to measure critical thinking ability. It was normalized on students from
a co lleg e population, as w ell as a sample of adults. Although there are
no formal su b tests, the manual sta tes that there b a sica lly are four s e c
tions to the te st which a s s e s s th ese sp e cific critical thinking a b ilitie s,'
The first section was generally designed to represent on e's ab ility to
judge whether (a) a sim ple generalization was warranted, (b) a hypo
th e sis was warranted, or (c) a reason was relevant. The second s e c
tion was planned to reveal one's ability to judge whether an alleged
authority of an observation is reliab le. The third section was construc
ted to determine one's ab ility to judge whether a statement follow s from
i
prem ises. This deductive lo g ic a sse ssm e n t is continued in the fourth
section . In addition, this section em phasizes one's ability to identify
assum ptions, and le s s directly, to determine whether a reason is rele- (
j 35
i
vant for a given deduction.
Based on the Kuder-Richardson formula, 20 is the estim ated r eli-
!
, ability coefficien t for the norm group m ost nearly lik e the sample in the
present study; the coefficien t was ,8 0 . The Cornell presents a prob-
♦
lem in determining its valid ity as there is no con sen su al agreement as
. to the precise operational definition of critical thinking; however, the
■ Cornell Test has been found to s u c c e ssfu lly measure the critical think -
! ing dim ensions previously described by Ennis (1962).
I The M innesota M ultiphasic Personality Inventory, Form R
j The MMPI is one of the most frequently s e l
ected questionnaires used in the a sse ssm e n t
of personality in recent years. It has been
popularized by being administered to more
than one million persons, and its reliab ility
and validity are without question firmly
based on em pirically researched data for more
than three gen eration s, (Dahlstrom, W elsh,
& Dahlstrom, 1972, p. 21)
However, today the MMPI has proven to be not only a valuable clin ica l
instrument, but a remarkably flexib le and insightful research tool.
The MMPI, when used in a research context, is substantially
different than it is in typical clin ica l ap p lication s. For th is particular
study a number of research sc a le s w ill be u tilized . These in d ices were
sele cted as they are more lik ely to show variance in personality in te
gration in normal populations. One researcher, Laborsky (1962) found
Barron's Ego Strength Scale (Es) is se n sitiv e to differences among in d i-
| 36
I
viduals with good psychological adjustment. Block (1953, 1965) d ev-
| eloped two additional research s c a le s which have proven pertinent to
i
the a sse ssm e n t of em otional control and flexib ility. These s c a le s are
referred to as ego control and ego resilien c e (EC and ER s c a le s ). In
correlating critical thinking and ego adjustment factors all three of
th ese sc a le s w ill be u tilized .
Neuroticism has been in vestigated by numerous stu d ies. Ruesch
and Bowman (1945) have d evised what has been referred to as the
Neurotic Score (NS). This particular index is a com posite score a c
quired by utilizing the summation of three clin ica l in d ic e s, hypochon
driasis (Hy), depression (D), and hysteria (Hs) s c a le s . The NS sc a le ,
as w ell as the individual sc a le s on neuroticism w ill be correlated with
■ critical thinking scores to attempt to esta b lish general relationships
between critical thinking and neuroticism . These neuroticism m easures
' have been found by Shostrom and Knapp (1966) to be n egatively correla
ted with self-a ctu a liza tio n as measured by the Personal Orientation
Inventory. Furthermore, the depression sc a le (D) has been found to be
significant at the . 01 confidence le v el as a predictor of an in d ividu al’s
self-a ctu a liza tio n le v e l.
The MMPI is a flexib le and viable research instrument; over 200
studies have been conducted using the MMPI with c o lle g e populations.
The key to the s u c c e ss of such in vestigation s has been the ab ility of
the researcher to identify a sp ects of the inventory which w ill prove
appropriate to respond to the original research q u estion s.
Research D esign
The major research design utilized was the correlational research
approach described by Isaac and M ichael (1971). The research design
a lso employs the independent t approach which is a parametric te st
u tilized to measure differences between sm all sam ple groups. The fo l
lowing characteristics of this design have been summarized in this
manner:
1. Appropriate where variables are very com plex
and/or do not lend th em selves to the experi
mental method and controlled manipulation.
2. Permits the measurement of several variables
and their interrelationships sim ultaneously
and in a rea listic settin g.
3. G ets at the degrees of relationship rather
than the all or nothing question posed by
the experimental d esign . (Isaac & M ichael,
1971, p. 106)
The goal of the correlational approach is to measure relationships
which ex ist in natural settin gs; sin ce the strict controls of the experi
mental approach do not e x ist within this m ethodology the follow ing lim
itations are applicable:
a.. It only identified what goes with w h a t--it
does not n ecessa rily identify c a u s e -e ffe c t
rela tio n sh ip s.
b. It is le s s rigorous than the experimental
approach.
c . It is prone to identify spurious relational pat
terns or elem ents which have little or no re
liab ility or validity. j
d. The relational patterns are often arbitrary and
ambiguous. (Isaac & M ichael, 1971, p. 107)
I
These is s u e s limit the inferences one can draw from correlational re
search; however, th is method has been implemented with substantive
su c c e ss in the area of personality theory. W hile correlation does not <
directly e sta b lish cau se and effect relationsh ip s, it may furnish e v i
dence which can later be utilized in developing more rigorous experi
mental d esig n s.
The parametric te st u tilized in this study w ill be implemented to
answer questions sp e c ific a lly related to the academ ic achievem ent of
the sam ple. The scores of the students on the Cornell Critical Thinking:
Test w ill be ranked, and the median w ill be used as the dividing point
separating high critical thinkers from low critical thinkers. Once stu
dents are divided, the two groups, high and low , w ill be compared to
discover whether significant differences ex ist in the relative a c h ie v e
ment of students in either category. Once again, the sample w ill be
divided on a b a sis of sex to retain continuity estab lish ed in earlier 1
phases of the sta tistic a l d esign .
! Test Administration
I Subjects were requested to attend preestablished testin g centers
i i
: at the U niversity of Southern California. The time n ecessa ry for testing
i
, ranged from two to three hours; sin ce neither examination is timed the ,
environment was relaxed and non-threatening. The contents of th ese
te sts are com pletely unrelated, therefore no transfer effects could be
j presumed; however, the Cornell was given to the subjects first as it
; :
i requires greater concentration and would be most affected by fatigue. :
■ Scoring
f
The investigator scored each inventory by means of hand-scoring
tem plates. As a check for accuracy, both the MMPI and the Cornell
were rescored one week later, with a third scoring for any te st results
which differed betw een the first and second scoring.
i
Data C ollection Procedures
All subjects were requested to provide the following information
during the te st administration:
1. sex
2. chronological age
3. number of years in university and co lle g e training
4. the number they were given in our randomization
(this was checked by the examiner before the sub-
ject left the testin g s i t e , )
Data Processing and S tatistical A nalysis
All sta tistica l a n a ly sis w ill be performed with the u se of a hand
calculator. The Pearson pro duct-moment correlational coefficien t w ill
be the sta tistic a l te st implemented; this is frequently denoted by r„,r.
The other sta tistic a l a n a ly sis w ill be the F ratio and the student t te st
for independent sam ples.
I
The follow ing null hypotheses w ill be tested with this procedure: .
1. No significant relationships e x ist betw een critical thinking
ability and ego strength factors in male students on any of
the three sc a le s u tilized (Es, EC and ER).
2. No significant relationships e x ist betw een critical thinking
ability and neuroticism factors in male students on any of
the three s c a le s utilized (Hs, D, Hy).
3. No significant differences e x ist between the mean grade
point in d exes of the low critical thinkers and high critical
thinkers in male students.
4. No significant differences ex ist betw een total unit hours
com pleted (in graduate school) by low critical thinkers and !
high critical thinkers in male students.
5. No significant relationships ex ist betw een critical thinking ,
ability and ego strength factors in fem ale students on any
41
6 .
7 .
of the three sc a le s u tilized (Es, EC and ER).
No significant relationships e x ist betw een critical thinking
ability and neuroticism factors in female students on any
of the three s c a le s u tilized (Hs, D, Hy).
No significant differences e x ist between the mean grade
point in d exes of the low critical thinkers and high critical
thinkers in fem ale students.
No significant differences e x ist between total unit hours
com pleted (in graduate school) by low critical thinkers and
high critical thinkers in female students.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ON f i n d i n g s ;
i '
i
The results are presented to answer the research questions relat- I
ing to: 1) the relationship betw een ego strength and critical thinking;
2) the relationships between neuroticism and critical thinking; and 3)
the utility of critical thinking ability to serve as a predictor of academ ic
i achievem ent in graduate sch o o l. Achievement in this study was m eas-
i
! ured by grade point index and unit hours com pleted. These findings
t
i
w ill be presented in three sectio n s of this chapter, one for m ales, the
' other for fem ales, and the final section comparing m ales and fem ales.
Definitions of Variable Codes in this chapter w ill be explained in
Table 1. Table 2 presents demographic data for male su b jects, as w ell
as correlations between the MMPI sc a le s and the Cornell Test. Table
3 w ill be a summary of the resu lts relating to the relative u sefu ln ess of
critical thinking ability to serve as a predictor of academ ic a c h ie v e
ment in m ales. Table 4 w ill present demographic data for fem ales, as
w ell as correlations of the Cornell Test with the sca le s of the MMPI.
Table 5 w ill be a summary of the resu lts relating to the relative u se fu l
n ess of critical thinking ability to serve as a predictor of academ ic
!
achievem ent in fem ales. Tables 6 and 7 w ill be a comparison of results
between m ales and fem ales u tilized to facilitate a d iscu ssio n of se x
42
! 43
i
differences presented in the study.
Each of the eight null hypotheses outlined at the conclusion of
i
! Chapter III w ill be restated and tested in Chapter IV. H ypotheses one
1 i
through four w ill be included in Part A, and hypotheses five through
I
eight w ill be included in Part B. The concluding part of Chapter IV,
■ Part C, w ill include the comparison of m ales and fem ales, as w ell as
■ I
! a d iscu ssio n of th ese findings in relationship to other relevant research!
j
I S tatistical Procedures j
t
All scores were acquired by the u se of the MMPI tem plates with
the K correction factor to assure greater predictive accuracy. The le v e l
, of sign ifican ce employed throughout the study for making inferential
! statem ents about the comparisons was the .05 le v e l of significance;
this le v el is generally recognized as suitable within the field of re
search psychology as a valuable predictive standard. However, where
sign ifican ce exceed ed this le v el of confidence, the experimenter noted
the .0 1 le v e l of sign ifican ce to further strengthen any declarative sta te
ments presented by the findings. In the la st four h yp oth eses, to rein
force the rejection criterion of the null h y p oth eses, a tw o-tailed te st of
significance was u sed . Since the experimenter had no knowledge of
a unidirectional effect in the resu lts, the tw o -ta iled te st, which pro
tects again st the Type II error in both directions, was deemed more
appropriate as a sta tistica l d e v ice. A Type II sta tistic a l error is the j
44
failure to reject a null hypothesis when it is truly fa ls e .
The median was utilized as the dividing point betw een high and
low critical thinking students. All students w hose score on the Cornell
Test was below the 50 percentile were placed in the low critical think
ing category; on the other hand, students who scored above the 50th
percentile were placed in the high critical thinking category. This is
similar to the procedure utilized by Simon and Ward (197 4) in their in
vestigation comparing h igh /low critical thinkers on the introversion-
extroversion dimension.
A nalysis of Findings
Part A: M ale Students Intercorrelations of Test M easures Along with
Related D escriptive S ta tistics (Questions 1 and 2)
M eans and Standard D eviations of the Test M ea su res: Table 2
indicates the means and the standard deviations on the Cornell Test and
the MMPI sc a le s utilized in the investigation with the male su b jects.
Table 2 a lso includes the correlation coefficien ts between the Cornell
Test and MMPI s c a le s . Each s c a le from the MMPI was correlated to
the Cornell Total Score (CTOT). This particular table enables the in
vestigator to answer the mandates of H ypothesis 1 which stated that no
significant relationships ex ist betw een critical thinking ability and ego
strength factors in male students on any of the three sc a le s utilized
(Es, EC and ER).
i 45
I
I
Table 1
Definition of Variable Codes '
I U sed in the Tables of Chapter IV ,
Definitions Codes
Cornell Total Score CTOT
Validity Scale (L) L
Validity Scale (F) F
Validity Scale (K ) K
Hypochondriasis Hs
D epression ^ D
6 r1
Hysteria
A
Hy
/ V
Ego Strength ' Es
/ * 1
Ego Control ^ ^ EC
Ego R esilience ER
Grade Point Index GPI
Total Grade Units TGU
i
46
Table 2
Demographic Data for M ale Subjects i
(N = 46) |
Average Age . . . . 28 Average G P I .......................... 3. 4 |
i
: Average Number of Average Number of units
t years in C ollege . 6 .2 completed in graduate
1 s c h o o l ...........................................28
M eans, Standard D eviations and Correlation
C oefficients for Total Male Sample of MMPI S cales to CTOT
Total
Variable ____________ M SD__________ CC
CTOT 31. 80 6. 17 n/a
L 3 .9 4 .83 08
F 4. 58 1.62 - . 11
K 17. 48 4. 89 . 12
Es 50. 00 4. 20 . 21
EC 19. 34 3.65 . 25
ER
87. 53 1 1 .2 1 . 22
Hs 10.88 2. 12 . 10
D 16.96 2. 52 . 13
Hy 20. 36 3 .91 . 11
The correlations in Table 2 indicate that there are p ositive corre
lations between the Es, EC and ER sc a le s and critical thinking ability;
however, th e se relationships were not significant at the . 05 lev el of
sig n ifica n ce. The sta tistic a l procedures reflected that there were no
significant correlations; therefore, H ypothesis 1 was accep ted .
Table 2 a lso contains data which w ill allow the researcher to te st
H ypothesis 2 which stated that no significant relationships ex ist b e
tw een critical thinking ab ility and neuroticism factors in male students
on any of the three s c a le s utilized (H s, D, Hy).
The correlations in Table 2 indicate that there is a sm all positive
relationship betw een the H s, D, and Hy sc a le s and critical thinking.
These correlations did not approach the . 05 le v e l of sign ifican ce;
therefore H ypothesis 2 was accep ted .
Inferential S tatistics Along with Related D escriptive S ta tistics (Q ues
tions 3 and 4).
This section includes m eans, standard deviation s, F ratios and
t scores which are com parisons betw een high critical thinkers and low
critical thinkers as identified by the Cornell. The male subjects tested
by the MMPI and the Cornell Test were contacted one year after the
original testing by the researcher and asked to indicate their current
grade point index and units com pleted in graduate sch ool. There was
a substantial number of subjects whom the investigator could not con
tact or who were unwilling to d iscu ss their academ ic status; therefore,
as compared to the original testin g , 30 m ales instead of 46 were in
volved in the sta tistic a l computations to answ er questions 3 and 4.
This mortality factor reduces the valid ity of the resu lts about to be pre
sented.
Table 3 enables the investigator to answ er the mandates of Hypo
th e sis 3 which stated that no significant differences e x ist betw een the
mean grade point in d exes of the low critical thinkers and high critical
thinkers in male students.
The t te st resu lts in Table 3 indicate that there is a significant
difference betw een the mean grade point in d exes of the low critical
thinkers and high critical thinkers in male subjects at the . 05 le v e l of
sign ifican ce; therefore, H ypothesis 3 was rejected.
Table 3 a lso contains data which w ill allow the investigator to
te st H ypothesis 4 which stated that no significant differences exist
between the mean total unit hours com pleted in graduate school by low
critical thinkers and high critical thinkers in male students.
The t te st results in Table 3 indicate that there is a significant
difference betw een the mean total unit hours com pleted in graduate
school by low critical thinkers and high critical thinkers in male stu
dents; this difference reached the .0 1 le v e l of significance; therefore,
H ypothesis 4 was rejected.
Table 3
M ale Subjects Involved in the One-Year Follow Up (N=30)
Demographic Data
High C ritical Thinkers (N=15)
Average A g e .......................................... 30
Average Number of years
in c o l l e g e ..............................................7 .6
Average G P I ...........................................3 .6
Average number of units com
pleted in graduate sch ool . . . 44
CTOT mean s c o r e 35. 2
Low Critical Thinkers (N=15) i
Average A g e ............................28
Average number of years
in c o l l e g e .......................... 6 .4
Average G P I ..................... 3 .3
Average number of units
com pleted in graduate
s c h o o l ..........................................33
CTOT mean score . . . 27. 1.
M eans, Standard D eviations, F Ratios and
t Scores for Total M ale Group to Test for Academic Achievement
Grade Point Index
Mean
High Low
Standard D eviation
High Low F te st t test
3.61 3 .29 . 16 . 18 1 .14 2. 08*
Total Graduate Units (TGU)
Mean
High Low
Standard D eviation
High Low F te st t te st
44.36 3 3 .1 4 10.71 11.63 1.42 2.52**
* indicates the .05 level of significance
** indicates the .01 level of significance
50
Part B: Female Students Intercorrelations of Test M easures Along with
Related D escriptive S ta tistics (Questions 3 and 4)
M eans and Standard D eviations of the Test M ea su res. Table 3 ■ <
indicates the means and the standard deviations on the Cornell Test and|
i
the MMPI s c a le s u tilized in the investigation with the female su b jects. '
Table 3 a lso inclu d es the correlation co efficien ts betw een the Cornell
Test and the various MMPI s c a le s utilized . Each sc a le from the MMPI
was correlated to the Cornell Test Score (CTOT). This particular table
enables the researcher to answ er the mandates of H ypothesis 5 which
stated that no significant relationships ex ist betw een critical thinking
i
ability and ego strength factors in female students on any of the three
sc a le s utilized (Es, EC and ER).
The correlations in Table 4 indicate that there is a significant
positive relationship betw een the Es, EC and ER s c a le s and critical
thinking ability and that th is relationship was greater than the . 05 con
fidence le v e l in a ll three sc a le s; therefore H ypothesis 5 was rejected.
Table 4 a lso contains data which w ill allow the researcher to test
H ypothesis 6 which stated that no significant relationships e x ist b e
tween critical thinking ab ility and neuroticism factors in female stu
dents on any of the three s c a le s utilized (Hs, D, Hy).
The correlations in table 4 indicate that there is a p ositive rela
tionship betw een the Hs, D, and Hy sc a le s and critical thinking. This
correlation did not approach the . 05 le v e l of sign ifican ce; therefore, j
Table 4
Demographic Data for Female Subjects (N=54)
Average A g e ..........................26 Average G P I ........................................3.3
Average number of Average number of units
years in c o lleg e . . . . 6 .0 completed in graduate
school . . .................................. 2 4
M eans, Standard D eviations and Correlation
C oefficients for Total Female Sample of MMPI S cales to CTOT
Total
Variable M SD CC
CTOT 30.79 5. 29 n /a
L 4 .4 6 2. 18 02
F 5. 10 3. 20 10
K 15.33 4.61 . 06
Es 46. 00 6. 87 . 35**
EC 17. 30 3. 68 .3 1 *
ER 8 1 .4 2 13.65 . 38**
Hs 12.58 4. 13 . 17
D 19. 15 5. 31 . 15
Hy 21.97 4 .73 .03
** indicates the .01 level of significance
* indicates the . 05 level of significance
H ypothesis 6 was accepted.
Inferential S tatistics Along with Related D escriptive S ta tistics (Q ues- 1
tions 7 and 8)
This section includes m eans, standard d eviations, F ratios and
t scores concerning comparisons betw een female high critical thinkers
and low critical thinkers as identified by the Cornell. The fem ale sub
jects tested by the MMPI and the Cornell Test were contacted one year
after the original te st administration by the researcher and asked to ;
indicate their current grade point index and units com pleted in graduate '
sch ool. Forty-two of the original 54 subjects were still a c c e s s ib le to
the researcher in this one-year follow -u p . Once again, as with the
male sam ple, this factor reduces the internal validity of the experiment,
as it cannot be determined whether the in clu sion of th ese 14 students
would have sign ifican tly affected the sta tistica l outcomes reported.
Table 5 enables the investigator to answer the mandates of Hypo
th e sis 7 which stated that no significant differences e x ist betw een the ;
mean grade point indexes of low critical thinkers and high critical
thinkers in fem ale students.
The t te st results on Table 5 indicate that there is a significant
I
difference betw een the mean grade point indexes of the low critical
thinkers and high critical thinkers in fem ale sub jects at the . 05 le v el
of sign ifican ce; therefore, hypothesis 7 was rejected.
53
Table 5
Female Subjects Involved in the One-Year Follow-Up
(N=42)
'Demographic Data
i
i
High Critical Thinkers (N=21)
Average A g e .........................27
Average number of
years in c o lle g e . . . . 6 .8
Average G P I ..................... 3.7
Average number of
units com pleted . . . . 38
CTOT mean score . . . 34.5
Low Critical Thinkers (N=21)
Average A g e ...................................... 26
Average number of
years in c o l l e g e ............................ 6 .0
Average G P I ...................................... 3 .3
Average number of
units c o m p le t e d ......................... 29
CTOT mean s c o r e .......................... 26.2!
M eans, Standard D eviations, F Ratios and
t Scores for Total Female Group to Test for Academic Achievement
Grade Point Index
Mean
High Low
Standard D eviation
High Low F ratio t te st
3. 68 3, 32 . 20 . 17 1.75 2. 33*
Total Graduate Units (TGU)
Mean
High Low
Standard D eviation
High Low F ratio t te st :
38.21 29 .4 3 9. 35 10. 14 1. 67 2 .2 1 *
* indicates the . 05 level of significance
54
Table 5 a lso contains data which w ill allow the investigator to
I te st H ypothesis 8 which stated that no significant differences ex ist b e-
I
| tween the mean total unit hours com pleted in graduate school by low j
critical thinkers and high critical thinkers in fem ale students. |
1 i
The t te st results in Table 5 indicate that there is a significant
t difference betw een the mean total unit hours com pleted in graduate
school by low critical thinkers and high critical thinkers in fem ale stu -
i
dents; this difference reached the .05 le v e l of sign ifican ce; th erefore/
i
H ypothesis 8 was rejected.
I
1 D iscu ssio n of Findings
J
Part C: Comparison of the Results for M ales and Fem ales, As W ell As
a General D iscu ssio n of the Results
The comparison of differences between m ales and fem ales w ill be
i a s siste d by Tables 6 and 7. Table 6 w ill be a comparison of the corre
lations of the m ales in Table 2 and th ose of the fem ales in Table 4;
th ese differences indicate that there is some need by the experimenter ,
to address se x differences and their sign ifican ce in the area of person
a lity developm ent. This is s u e w ill be presented later in this sectio n .
I
The findings concerning academ ic achievem ent w ill be presented
in Table 7; sin ce no major differences were found betw een m ales and ;
fem ales in this area explaining th e se findings w ill be somewhat more
sim p listic. The beginning of the d iscu ssio n w ill be a general review
55 1
Table 6 '
Comparisons of M ale and Female i
C oefficient Correlations on the MMPI S cales U tilized
Variable
M ales (N=46)
CC
Females (N=54)
CC
L - .0 8 - .0 2
F - .1 1 - . 10
i
K . 12
1
. 16
Es ,2 1 . 35**
EC .2 5 .31*
ER .22 . 38**
Hs . 10 . 17
D . 13 . 15
Hy . 11 .03
* indicates the . 05 le v e l of sign ifican ce
** indicates the .0 1 le v e l of sign ifican ce
i
i 56
of the findings in Part A and Part B; this d iscu ssio n w ill be divided
1 into three general areas; the findings on ego adaptivity, findings re- i
« I
i
! lated to neuroticism , and finally, findings relating to academ ic achieve--
, ment.
Ego Adaptivity: H ypotheses 1 and 5 are sp e c ific a lly related to
1 whether there were any relationships betw een critical thinking and ego
| strength in m ales and fem ales. In both c a s e s p ositive relationships
i
| were found betw een the Es, EC and ER s c a le s and critical thinking
ability; however, the relationships with fem ales were sign ifican tly
stronger than th ose with m ales (see Table 6).
There are a number of p o ssib le explanations for the results
view ed on Table 6. The most obvious explanation of this finding is
' that the differences are m erely a sta tistic a l error and that if the study
were reproduced with a larger sam ple, th ese differences would wash
out or diminish sub stan tially. However, for our present purposes let
us presume the differences are real and are indicative of a serendipi-
. tous finding. It appears that ego strength is more related to critical
thinking ability in fem ales than in m ales; p o ssib ly this could be e x
plained by reviewing previous research conducted in the area of differ-
, ential psychology; sp e c ific a lly in the area of s e x differences.
Findings in the area of se x differences on adjustment or person-
I ality inventories are large and co n sisten t. "On the Benreuter Person-
57 '
I
ality Inventory, for in stan ce, women c o lleg e students report sig n ifi
cantly more neurotic symptoms than do men. On the same inventory, j
I
men scored sign ifican tly more dominant, se lf-su ffic ie n t, and se lf-c o n -
I
fident" (Anastasi, 1958, p. 83). Sex differences in ego development
have been noted in other studies (Gordon, 1953; Guilford & Zimmerman,
1949). All th ese studies have supported the position that as a group,
fem ales are more vulnerable to neuroticism . M ost investigators attrib
ute th ese apparent differences in emotional adjustment to environmental I
factors which tend to frustrate and limit the so cia l and professional
mobility of women.
Although women tend to a ch iev e w ell in sch ool and are le s s fre
quently retarded, and more frequently accelerated and promoted in large
number than boys, they don't seem to show vocational achievem ent
equivalent to their constitutional a b ilities. For exam ple, "In the D irec
tory of American Men of Scien ce, for in sta n ce, only 50 women are in
cluded in a total of 2,607 sc ie n tists between 1903 and 1943" (Visher,
1947, p. 232).
Another strong validation of this cultural inequality was reported
in the Stanford Gifted Child Study (Terman & Oden, 1947), probably the
i
best known longitudinal study ever conducted. These researchers found;
that the adult occupations of gifted women were on the whole undistin
guished. Moreover, IQ showed a strong relationship to occupational
58
le v e l among men, but IQ was generally non-related to occupational
le v e l in women. In fact, his study found that over tw o-thirds of the
women with IQ's above 17 0 were hou sew ives or office workers.
How do th e se generally accepted facts regarding sex differences >
in emotional adjustment and vocational achievem ent help explain the
findings reported in this in vestigation ? It appears that women in grad
uate sc h o o ls, in order to a ch iev e, must combat strong environmental
attitudes which are opposed to women entering p rofession s. In order to
s u c c e ssfu lly overcome th is, a talented woman would have to develop
greater ego strength than her male counterparts or e ls e it is unlikely
i
she would have attempted graduate education in the first p lace. There
fore, the female sample in this study is more em otionally secure than
most fem ale populations. Also, the difference between the emotional
stability of m ales who su cceed in graduate school is le s s different than
that of fem ales when comparing them to the general population. There
probably are many high critical thinking fem ales with lower ego strength
than th ose in our study; however, it is unlikely that such women
would be able to r e sist strong so cie ta l mandates to accept le s s demand
ing vocational careers. In light of the divergent so c ie ta l demands
placed on males or fem ales the findings reported in Table 6 become
more understandable.
Neuroticism appeared not to be related to critical thinking ability
" \
59
either in fem ales or m ales. It may be that measures of p sychological
maladjustment are not good discriminators of emotional differences in
groups of high functioning normals. The original premises of the re
searcher, that critical thinking ability is n egatively correlated with 1
neuroticism , seem incorrect. Critical thinking ability may help differ
entiate personality structure, but only on variables relating to advanced
emotional adjustment and is not as useful with pathological trends.
t
Academic Achievem ent: Table 7 is a comparison of the males and
i
fem ales on sta tistica l computations relating to achievem ent. It appears
that critical thinking in this study was generally a fairly good predictive
instrument to determine a graduate student's likelihood of s u c c e s s .
Findings for males and fem ales appear homogenous in this particular
! area. These findings seem in keeping with results on the Sch olastic
Aptitude Test which correlated . 52 with critical thinking ability, as v !
reported by Ennis and Millman (1971). Tests such as the GRE and SAT '
have, in general, been moderately accurate predictors of academ ic
s u c c e s s . However, in studies of younger students, critical thinking
score did not prove a significant differentiator of grade point average.
N
Possibly, the demands of graduate sch ool make critical thinking sk ills .
more crucial to academ ic su c c e ss than with high school students or
undergraduates.
This study indicates critical thinking ability may be a valuable
Table 7
One-Year Follow-Up Comparisons of Males and Females on
the Relationship Between Critical Thinking Ability and Academic Success
Grade Point Index (GPI)
Mean
High Low
Standard Deviation
High Low
F test t test
M ales 3.61 3.29 .16 .18 1. 14 2.08*
Females 3. 68 3. 32 .20 .17 1.75 2. 33*
Total Graduate Units (TGU)
Mean
High Low
Standard Deviation
High Low
F test t test
M ales 44. 36 3 3. 14 10.71 11.63 1.42 2.52**
Females 38. 21 29.43 9.35 10.14 1.67 2.21*
* indicates .05 lev el of significance
** indicates .01 lev el of significance
criterion in selectin g students who are more lik ely to succeed; this
hypothesis should be retested with an expanded sam ple.
General Issu e s
It appears that the cognitive style referred to as critical thinking
does have some relationship to emotional adjustment in fem ales. The
sp ecific importance of this phenomena should be investigated further.
However, does emotional stability lead to greater mental clarity? This
clarity would enhance on e's critical thinking ab ility. On the other hand
it may be that critical thinking ability g iv e s an individual a general
feeling of com petency; as this sk ill makes him more capable of respond
ing to the demands of the post-industrial s o c ie ty . This particular iss u e
could be clarified by studying children and noting long-term trends in
the development of both ego strength and critical thinking ability.
There appears to be reasonable justification for studying further
the importance of critical thinking sk ill in su c c e ssfu l educational ad
vancem ent. P ossibly, critical thinking sk ills should be included in
psychometric instruments utilized to discrim inate students of high and
low promise attempting to enter the p rofession s. These questions have
been raised by the in vestigation , but would need empirical support from
other studies to be answ ered.
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to in v estig a te whether critical
thinking ab ility, a s measured by the Cornell C ritical Thinking Test
(Cornell) w as related to the personality variables of ego strength and
neuroticism , as measured by the M innesota M ultiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI). The sp e c ific personality dim ensions utilized were
ego strength, ego resilien cy , ego control, hypochondriases, depres
sion, and hysteria. The in vestigation a lso examined whether critical
thinking ability was related to s u c c e s s in graduate sch ool as measured
by grade point index and total units com pleted.
The intent of the investigation was to begin to ascertain whether
individuals who did p o s s e s s superior ability in critical thinking were
also more em otionally secure than other graduate students le s s gifted
in th is particular reasoning ab ility. The study a lso was concerned with
whether critical thinking could be used as a valuable predictor of a c a
demic achievem ent in graduate sch ool.
62
'M ethodology
i
I
From the original 200 graduate students contacted by the research-;
i
er, 100 students com pleted both the M innesota and Cornell t e s t s . These
!
te sts were correlated by means of the Pearson pro duct-moment correla- !
tional design; m ales and fem ales were separated during the a n a ly sis of
the data. The achievem ent variable was studied by contacting the 100
students involved in the study one year after the original testin g; 28
: students from the original sample were no longer availab le to the re- I
I 1
searcher during the follow -up; therefore, there were 7 2 students in
v o lv e d in the sta tistic a l computations concerning achievem ent. These •
students were divided by the median into two groups: high critical
thinkers and low critical thinkers, and the independent t te st approach
was used to te st for differences betw een th ese high and low critical
think e r s.
Findings and Interpretations
The study indicated that there are some relationships betw een
critical thinking ab ility and ego strength development in m ales and
fem ales; however, th ese relationships are stronger for fem ales than
for m a les. The differences betw een m ales and fem ales were explained j
i
in terms of general personality structure deviations betw een the s e x e s ,
as w ell as general environmental inhibitions placed on women's v o c a
tio n a l developm ent. These is s u e s would make ego strength an e sse n tia l
factor for a woman who is attempting to counter so c ie ty 's stereotypes
and begin graduate stu d ies. I
On the other hand, factors relating to neuroticism were not found I
|
to be related to critical thinking in either m ales or fem ales. It was pre
sumed that in this particular investigation which utilized a sample of
high functioning normals, s c a le s studying pathological trends are not
good discriminators of personality variability.
i
The results concerning academ ic achievem ent indicated that crit- i
ic a l thinking ab ility was related to academ ic s u c c e s s in both m ales and
fem ales. Since com plex lo g ica l reasoning is mandated by many of the s
courses in upper d ivision studies or in graduate curriculum, this partic-
ular finding is not altogether unexpected. However, this finding does
indicate critical thinking ability may be a valuable instrument in pre
dicting academ ic achievem ent in graduate sch o o l.
C onclusions
This in vestigation attempted to find if any relationships between
critical thinking and personality structure could be esta b lish ed . The
results indicated that measurement d ev ices used must be se n sitiv e to„
advanced ego adaptivity if they are to be usefu l when studying normal
sam ples. Relationships between ego development and critical thinking
were significantly related to critical thinking lev e l in fem ales; and not
significantly related to critical thinking le v e l in m ales. M easures of j
65
; personality maladjustment were uniformly u n su cce ssfu l in differentiating
i
I
! males and fem ales with varying ability in critical thinking. The study
i
a lso found that critical thinking ab ility was predictive in both m ales
i
, and fem ales of s u c c e ss in graduate sch ool.
Recommendations
This particular study is one of the early attempts to find relation-
i ships between critical thinking ability and personality structure. No
!
• in vestigation s have ever been conducted with children to ascertain
whether there are any emotional components which differentiate low and
I ;
: high critical thinking children. It may a lso be valuable to attempt to
revalidate whether differences found between m ales and fem ales on ego
adaptivity would appear in other populations.
Since the in vestigation did indicate that critical thinking sk ills
did have value in discriminating students more lik ely to e x c e l in grad
uate sch ool, it would be important to find if this sk ill should be in
cluded in current psychom etric te sts used to discrim inate candidates
most lik ely to su cceed in graduate sch o o l. It would a lso be valuable
to find if critical thinking ability could serve as a predictor of s u c c e ss
in such endeavors as psychotherapy, vocational achievem ent and 1
i
marital stab ility. There is a need to in v estig a te whether a person
capable of using lo g ica l inference is generally more su c c e ssfu l in ad
justing to com plex demands of modern life . i
REFERENCES
6 6
j A nastasi, A. Differential p sych ology. N ew York: M acM illan, 1958.
: Bingham-Newman, A. M. Development of lo g ica l operations a b ilities :
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Creator Garett, Kenneth (author)

Core Title The relationship between critical thinking ability, personality, and academic achievement of graduate students in the School of Education at the University of Southern California

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, educational psychology,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c26-466373

Unique identifier UC11247807

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Dmrecord 466373

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Garett, Kenneth

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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