الأسلوب المعرفي (التصلب-المرونة)‎ لدى طلبة الدراسات العليا

Abstract EN

The cognitive style (rigidity - flexibility) is one of the styles that has attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of psychology, for its important role in determining response patterns in different situations, and its contribution in building the personality of the individual, especially university youth students.

The aim of this study is to identify the cognitive style (rigidity - flexibility) among postgraduate students, and revealing the significance of the differences in the cognitive style (rigidity - flexibility) according to the two variables: gender (males, females) and specialization (scientific branch, and humanities branch).

To achieve this aim, the researchers built a scale for cognitive style (rigidity - flexibility) in the light of Rokich's theory, it consisted of (26) items.

The items were formulated in the style of verbal attitudes, as each situation includes two alternatives, the first indicates rigidity and gives the degree (zero), and the other indicates flexibility and gives the degree (1).

After the researchers verified the psychometric properties of the scale, such as validity, reliability, and others, some necessary modifications were made.

The instrument was applied to the sample consisted of (423) male and female postgraduate students, for both the gender and the specialization in three universities: (Baghdad, Al-Mustansiriya, and Anbar).

The statistical analysis was carried out by using (SPSS), and the results revealed the following: - The participants have a flexible cognitive style, as high scores on the scale mean flexibility; and the low scores on the scale mean rigidity.

- There are statistically significant differences in the distribution of flexible and rigid sample according to the gender variable, in favor of males; with respect to flexibility and in favor of females with respect to rigidity.

- There are statistically significant differences in the distribution of flexible and rigid participants according to the variable of specialization, in favor of (human specialization) for flexibility, and in favor of (scientific specialization) for rigidity.