The Critical Thinking Components of Psychology Major Students

Abstract

Abstract

Background. The study of critical thinking is driven by the need to develop a vital competence — critical evaluation of information in the context of digitalization, while theoretical ambiguity in its conceptualization persists.

Objectives. Theoretical and empirical identification of an "orientation towards doubt" as a stable critical thinking disposition, and the development of a model linking critical thinking with intrinsic motivation.

Study Participants. The study involved 78 respondents aged 17 to 50 years (M_age = 23.01; SD = 9.12; 72 women), students in psychology.

Methods. The research had a correlational design. Syllogistic reasoning tasks were used to assess critical thinking skill. The study implemented the following methods: to assess critical thinking dispositions — scales of Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire, Need for Cognition Scale, and Wason four-card selection modification tasks; to assess different aspects of motivation — the Academic Motivation Scale and a modified version of involuntary text memorization tasks (psychology-themed). Correlation analysis and structural modeling were used to process quantitative data.

Results. The study developed general and specific path models linking critical thinking and intrinsic motivation, both demonstrating good fit with empirical data. The analysis presented correlations between variables and summary tables of regression coefficients. Results show that orientation towards doubt has a statistically significant effect on critical thinking skills, while critical thinking dispositions show no predictive relationship with skills performance. Content-related intrinsic motivation at the dispositional level can act as a mediator for orientation towards doubt. Formal-dynamic intrinsic motivation significantly influences critical thinking dispositions.

Conclusions. The study enabled the identification of a key critical thinking disposition — orientation towards doubt, which is a better predictor of its effectiveness compared to other dispositions. The developed model specifies the relationship between critical thinking and intrinsic motivation, demonstrating that the content-related intrinsic motivation (related to subject-specific characteristics) can be a better predictor than the formal-dynamic aspect (associated with enjoyment of the activity).

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