Взаимосвязь уровня развития критического мышления подростков с их личностными характеристиками и показателями интеллекта

Abstract

Critical thinking is one of the most important skills of the 21st century. However, there is still ambiguity about the structure of this phenomenon. Researchers describe two basic components of critical thinking: intellectual and personal. However, today there is evidence only of the connection between critical thinking and intelligence, while the data on the connection between critical thinking and personality traits still remain contradictory. Another problem is that the studies of critical thinking are usually conducted abroad, and there is a lack of data about Russian-speaking high school students. This research aimed to study the relation between basic personality traits of the “big five” and intelligence with the level of critical thinking in a sample of Russian adolescents. The study involved 104 Saint Petersburg schoolchildren aged 15–17 (44 girls and 60 boys). Data collection was carried out using Starkey Critical Thinking Test (as adapted by E. L. Lutsenko), the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI-RU) by S. Gosling and others (as adapted by A. S. Sergeeva and others), and Test of Intellectual Potential of Children and Adolescents by P. Rzhichan (as adapted by L. I. Wasserman and others). According to the results of the research, the level of critical thinking of adolescents is comparable to that of adults. The students’ ability to infer was the best developed ability, and the ability to recognize manipulations was the worst developed. A strong correlation between nonverbal intelligence and the general level of critical thinking was identified, proving that nonverbal intelligence, along with verbal intelligence, may be included in the intellectual component of critical thinking. Furthermore, a connection between emotional stability and some characteristics of critical thinking was found. Specifically, emotionally stable respondents performed better in tasks related to the influence of emotions in the decision-making process and in tasks related to the search for suitable information resources. The results of the study highlight the need for further research on the relation of critical thinking with personality traits using various stimulus materials and a larger cross-cultural sample.