EFFECTS OF THINKING STYLES AND GENDER ON

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
OF
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

BY

NERGİS AYŞE GÜREL

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN
THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

SEPTEMBER 2009
Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences

Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata

Director

I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of
Master of Science.

Prof. Dr. Ali Yıldırım

Head of Department

This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully
adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science.

Prof. Dr. Ayhan Demir

Supervisor

Examining Committee Members

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Safure Bulut (METU, SSME)

Prof. Dr. Ayhan Demir (METU, EDS)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Oya Yerin Güneri (METU, EDS)

I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and
presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare
that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced
all material and results that are not original to this work.

Name, Last name : Nergis Ayşe Gürel

Signature :

iii
 ABSTRACT

EFFECTS OF THINKING STYLES AND GENDER ON

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Gürel, Nergis Ayşe

M.S., Department of Educational Sciences

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ayhan Demir

September 2009, 60 pages

The purpose of the current study is to investigate how global and local thinking
styles affect psychological well-being among undergraduate students. A total of 372
(213 females and 159 males) students at Middle East Technical University
participated in this study. The qualitative data were gathered via self-report
questionnaires including Scales of Psychological Well-Being, Thinking Styles
Inventory and a demographic information form. To be able to determine the
differences between psychological well-being due to global thinking and local
thinking scores as well as gender, ANOVA was held. The results revealed a
significant difference between high and low scorers of local thinking in terms of
psychological well-being when the global thinking style was low. In addition, the
findings indicated that for higher levels of psychological well-being individuals need
to adopt one of the styles and report higher levels on that adopted style. On the other
hand, the statistical analysis revealed no significant differences between high scorers
of global thinking and low scorers of global thinking on psychological well-being.
Additionally, no significant difference found between high scorers and low scorers of
local thinking in terms of psychological well-being. Upon the examination of gender
related findings, it was found that females reported higher levels of psychological
well-being compared to males while males reported higher levels of global thinking
than females did.

Keywords: Global thinking, local thinking, psychological well-being.

iv
 ÖZ

DÜŞÜNME STİLLERİ VE CİNSİYETİN PSİKOLOJİK İYİ OLMA HALİ

ÜZERİNE ETKİLERİ

Gürel, Nergis Ayşe

Yüksek Lisans, Eğitim Bilimleri Bölümü

Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Ayhan Demir

Eylül 2009, 60 sayfa

Bu çalışmanın amacı bütünsel ve ayrıntısal düşünme stillerinin lisans öğrencilerinin

psikolojik iyi olma haline etkisinin incelenmesidir. Çalışmaya 372 (213 kadın, 159
erkek) Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi öğrencisi katılmıştır. Nitel veriler, Psikolojik
İyi Olma Ölçekleri, Düşünme Stilleri Envanteri ve demografik bilgi ile toplanmıştır.
Psikolojik iyi olma halinin bütünsel ve ayrıntısal düşünme stillerine ve cinsiyete göre
farklılıklarını belirleyebilmek için ANOVA uygulanmıştır. Sonuçlar, bütünsel
düşünme puanları düşük olanların, iyi olma hali sonuçlarının ayrıntısal düşünme
anketinde düşük veya yüksek puan almalarına göre anlamlı farklılık gösterdiğini
ortaya koymuştur. Ek olarak, bulgular, psikolojik iyi olma hali yüksek olan bireylerin
düşünme stillerinden birini tercih etmeleri ve bu stilde de yüksek seviyede olduğunu
göstermiştir. Buna karşın, istatistiksel analizler bütünsel düşünme anketinde yüksek
puan alanlar ile düşük puan alanların psikolojik iyi olma puanları arasında anlamlı
bir farklılık ortaya koymamıştır. Benzer şekilde ayrıntısal düşünme anketinde yüksek
puan alanlar ile düşük puan alanların psikolojik iyi olma puanları arasında da anlamlı
bir farklılık bulunamamıştır. Cinsiyet ile ilgili sonuçlar incelendiğinde kadınların
erkeklerden daha yüksek psikolojik iyi olma durumu bildirirken erkeklerin
kadınlardan daha yüksek bütünsel düşünme seviyesi bildirdikleri gözlenmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Bütünsel düşünme, ayrıntısal düşünme, psikolojik iyi olma hali.

v
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Firstly, I would like to thank all the members of Department of Educational Sciences
who provided support, guidance, and encouragement throughout my graduate study.

I especially would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Prof. Dr.

Ayhan Demir for his invaluable time, guidance and support during the research and
my graduate education.

I am also thankful to Prof. Dr. Esin Tezer for her precious and encouraging support.
Besides, I would also like to express my special thanks to examining committee
members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Oya Yerin Güneri and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Safure Bulut for
their helpful feedbacks, contributions, and comments.

Moreover, I would like to declare appreciation to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Seval Fer for her
permission to use the Turkish version of Thinking Styles Inventory and Assist. Prof.
Dr. Fulya Cenkseven for her permission to use the Turkish version of Scales of
Psychological Well-Being and her precious answers about the scale at very critical
times.

I would like to express special thanks and acknowledge the helpful and invaluable
feedbacks and support of Didem Tufan. I would also present by gratefulness for the
efforts, understanding and supports of. Özge Akoğlu, Babacan Taşdemir, Aynur
Kaya, Berrin Balay, Funda Erarslan and Rafet Çevik when I was stressed and down.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the members of my family who

supported and believed in me throughout my life without questioning.

vi
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PLAGIARISM.............................................................................................................iii

ABSTRACT................................................................................................................iv

ÖZ.................................................................................................................................v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...........................................................................................vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................................vii

LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................x

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Purpose of the Study ....................................................................................... 5

1.2. Research Questions ......................................................................................... 6

1.3. Definitions of Terms ....................................................................................... 6

1.4. Significance of the Study ................................................................................ 6

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE................................................................................. 9

2.1. Well-Being ...................................................................................................... 9

2.1.1. Dimensions of Well-Being...................................................................... 10
2.1.2. Subjective Well-Being ............................................................................ 11
2.1.3. Psychological Well-Being....................................................................... 12
2.1.3.1. Research on Psychological Well-Being............................................ 14
2.1.3.2. Studies about Psychological Well-Being of University Students in
Turkey ............................................................................................................ 16

2.2. Thinking Styles ............................................................................................. 17

2.2.1. Theory of Mental Self-Government........................................................ 18

vii
 2.2.1.1. Dimensions of the Theory of Mental Self-Government ................... 19
2.2.2. Research on Thinking Styles................................................................... 21
2.2.3. Studies about Thinking Styles of University Students in Turkey ........... 23

III. METHOD............................................................................................................ 26

3.1. Participants of the Study ............................................................................... 26

3.2. Data Collection Instruments.......................................................................... 27

3.2.1. Demographic Information Form ............................................................. 27
3.2.2. Scales of Psychological Well-Being ....................................................... 27
3.2.3. Thinking Styles Inventory....................................................................... 29

3.3. Data Collection Procedure ............................................................................ 30

3.4. Data Analysis Procedure ............................................................................... 31

3.5. Limitations .................................................................................................... 32

IV. RESULTS ........................................................................................................... 33

4.1. Descriptive Statistics of Variables ................................................................ 33

4.2. Results of ANOVA Regarding Psychological Well-being, Global Thinking,

Local Thinking and Gender .................................................................................. 34
4.2.1. Psychological Well-being, Global Thinking, Local Thinking and
Gender ........................................................................................................... 35
4.2.2. Psychological Well-being and Global Thinking..................................... 37
4.2.3. Psychological Well-being and Local Thinking....................................... 38
4.2.4. Psychological Well-being and Gender.................................................... 38
4.2.5. Global Thinking and Gender................................................................... 39
4.2.6. Local Thinking and Gender .................................................................... 40

V. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................... 41

5.1. Discussion ..................................................................................................... 41

5.2. Implications and Recommendations ............................................................. 46

REFERENCES.......................................................................................................... 48

viii
APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………55
A. Demographic Information Form (In Turkish)………………………………...55
B. Scales of Psychological Well-Being (In Turkish)…………………………….56
C. Thinking Styles Inventory (In Turkish)……………………………………….59

ix
 LIST OF TABLES

TABLES

Table 4.1 Means and Standard Deviations of the Variables ..................................... 33

Table 4.2 The Interaction Effects of Global Thinking, Local Thinking and
Gender ....................................................................................................................... 35

Table 4.3 The Results for Independent Samples T-Test between Levels of Local
Thinking on Psychological Well-being When Global Thinking Level is Low ........ 36

Table 4.4 The Results for Independent Samples T-Test between Levels of Local
Thinking on Psychological Well-being When Global Thinking Level is High........ 36

Table 4.5 The Main Effects of Global Thinking, Local Thinking and Gender ........ 37

Table 4.6 The Results of ANOVA Psychological Well-being and Global

Thinking .................................................................................................................... 38

Table 4.7 The Results of ANOVA Psychological Well-being and Local

Thinking .................................................................................................................... 38

Table 4.8 The Results of ANOVA Psychological Well-being and Gender.............. 39

Table 4.9 The Results of ANOVA Global Thinking and Gender............................. 39

Table 4.10 The Results of ANOVA Local Thinking and Gender............................. 40

x
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In the 21st century, studies on psychology changed direction after Seligman’s (1998)
reminder: “Psychology is not just the study of weakness and damage, it is also the
study of strength and virtue.” (p. 2). In other words, “What is wrong with people?”
was the question of 20th century whereas “What is right about people?” became the
question of 21st (Snyder & Lopez, 2007). This change also affected the popular
topics in the field of psychology; as some positive experiences, personality traits and
civic virtues, like well-being, life satisfaction, hope, optimism, happiness, courage,
spirituality and tolerance, are listed as being in the field of positive psychology
(Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

Moore and Keyes (2003) defined well-being in adulthood as a combination of

cognitive functioning, behavioral functioning, physical health and mental health. The
cognitive functioning component includes positive thought processes whereas
restorative sleeping is an example for physical health. In addition, Keyes and
Waterman (2003) stated that the level of well-being also indicates how the individual
is being involved in communal activities, such as volunteering and voting, and how
one feels responsible to others. Researchers also presented people, who report high
levels of well-being, consider themselves as “sources of intergenerational
transmission of important social skills” (p. 493).

Two approaches for well-being; hedonic and eudaimonic defined by Ryan and Deci
(2001). Hedonic well-being focuses on happiness and defines well-being in terms of
pleasure attainment and pain avoidance, whereas eudaimonic well-being focuses on
meaning and level of functioning in life and human potential. On the other hand,
well-being literature designated two dimensions for well-being which are subjective
and psychological well-being. Subjective well-being was defined as the individual’s
self-assessment related to life events and emerges as a result of the feeling of
mastery, experiencing pleasurable activities and positive relations (Diener, Sapyta, &

1
Suh, 1998). In addition, subjective well-being was defined as the balance of positive
and negative affect and satisfaction (Keyes, Shmotkin, & Ryff, 2002). Whereas,
Bradburn (1969) defined psychological well-being in terms of positive and negative
affect while Keyes et al. (2002) considered psychological well-being as the perceived
commitment to existential challenges. When these approaches are considered
together, subjective well-being, which emphasizes happiness, overlaps the hedonic
approach while psychological well-being, which underlines the use of human
potential, matches the eudaimonic approach (Deci & Ryan, 2008).

To confine the elements of psychological well-being, Ryff (1989) developed a six

dimensional, which are self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy,
environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth, model. Ryff established
this model with an eudaimonic approach, based on the theories of scientists, namely
Erikson, Maslow, Rogers, Allport, Neugarten, Bühler, Jung, Jahoda and Frankl (Ryff
& Singer, 2008). Self-acceptance defines how an individual acknowledges positive
and negative aspects of own personality and is pleased about past experiences.
Individuals who are reported to have positive relations with others are able to
establish warm and trusting relations, experience empathy and intimacy as well as
understanding the dynamics of a relationship. Both autonomy and environmental
mastery are concerning how an individual relates with social environment.
Autonomy refers to the obedience of an individual to others whereas mastery refers
to the ability to manipulate environment due to personal needs. Purpose in life is
regarded as the fifth dimension of psychological well-being and refers whether an
individual has aims for living and believes the meaning of life. The final dimension
is personal growth and indicates an individual’s competence for development and
exploration.

Research on psychological well-being focused on cultural differences (Diener &

Diener, 1995; Kwan, Bond, & Singelis, 1997), individual differences (Sheldon &
Niemiec, 2006; Sheldon, Ryan, Deci, & Kasser, 2004; Wissing & Van Eeden, 2002),
change in psychological well-being through life span (Blanchflower & Oswald,
2008; Shields & Price, 2005) and gender differences due to gender stereotypes
(Mills, Grasmick, Morgan, & Wenk, 1992; Roothman, Kirsten, & Wissing, 2003).

2
Thinking style refers to the way an individual prefers to process and manage the
intellect and knowledge (Zhang & Sternberg, 2000). Sternberg (2009) defined 5
dimensions, which are functions, forms, levels, scopes and leanings, and 13 thinking
styles grouped under these dimensions in the theory of mental self-government.
Functions refer to the individual preference of initiating new ideas and practice,
setting regulations or evaluating. Legislative, executive and judicial thinking styles
are included in this dimension. The second dimension, which is forms, includes
monarchic, hierarchic, oligarchic and anarchic styles and refers to how individuals
prefer to approach the life events. Levels, including global and local thinking styles,
identify the individuals focusing on abstract and large issues or the individuals
paying attention to concrete issues and details. The forth dimension is scopes, which
embrace internal and external styles, and refers to preference of individuals to be
introverts or extraverts. Leanings, which include liberal and conservative thinking
styles, is the fifth dimension defined by Sternberg and associated with the flexibility
of individuals about transcending existing rules or adherence to the rules. In addition
Zhang and Sternberg (2006) grouped 13 thinking styles into 3 types; Type I styles
are perceived more positive and adaptive and include legislative, judicial,
hierarchical, global, and liberal styles whereas Type II styles are more negative and
less adaptive and include executive, local, monarchic, and conservative styles.
Finally, Type III styles are neither positive nor negative but adaptable due to the
requirements of a situation and include anarchic, oligarchic, internal, and external.

Global thinking style is characterized by concentrating on the big picture, ignoring

details, preferring abstractness, enjoying generalization, conceptualizing and thinking
(Sternberg, 2009; Zhang & Sternberg, 2001). Whereas local style identify focusing
on details, preferring concreteness, avoiding conceptual analysis and experiencing
difficulty in distinguishing important from unimportant (Fer, 2005; Sternberg, 2009).

The studies on thinking styles can be clustered under three approaches. First group of
studies focus on the relationship between thinking styles and personal variables, such
as socioeconomic status, birth-order and age, and environmental characteristics,
exemplified with learning settings, parental thinking styles and preferred
extracurricular activities. The second group explores the role of thinking styles on

3
different aspects, such as academic achievement, cognitive and psychosocial
development of student development and learning. The third group investigates how
thinking styles correspond to other style constructs, for instance Biggs’ learning
approaches and Holland’s career personality types (Zhang & Sternberg, 2006).

Thinking styles frequently studied in educational concepts since thinking is the core
of education and considered as being one of the components which shape the
learning environment. In addition, in literature there are recent research which
focused on thinking styles and technology usage (Kao, Lei, & Sun, 2007). But in
psychology this concept did not attract much attention, although the way individuals
think leads to thoughts which is one of the three main aspects of human beings as
stated by Cloninger (2008). Thinking styles are cognitive preferences, which affect
how an individual behaves and feels, and selected as a cognition representative for
this study.

Generally, researchers preferred to consider thinking styles as a whole and study 13

styles together since they constitute a profile for an individual’s thinking preferences
(Zhang, 2000). When the results of thinking style studies are examined, the
differences between global and local thinking styles and how they affect individuals
can be identified. For example, teachers’ preferences between global and local
thinking changes according to their profession (Zhang, 2008a), male students prefer
global thinking more than females do (Zhang & Sternberg, 2006) and global thinking
style is positively related with the ability to deal with emotions (Zhang, 2008c).

Furthermore, Zhang and Sternberg (2006) stated that for teachers some intellectual
styles, which embrace thinking styles, contribute more to psychological well-being
than others. Although review of literature did not revealed any study focusing on the
effects of thinking styles on psychological well-being, there are some studies on the
relationship between thinking styles and the components of psychological well-being
defined by Ryff (1995). Zhang and Postiglione (2001) examined thinking styles and
the level of self-esteem among university students in Hong Kong and concluded that
Type I thinking styles are related to higher self-esteem whereas Type II thinking
styles are related to lower levels of self-esteem. In addition, Zhang and Sternberg

4
(2006) considered three types of thinking styles as the ground they based the nature
of intellectual styles and related Type I styles with autonomy while researchers
defined Type II styles with authority. Zhang and Sternberg (2006) also stated that
teachers preferring Type I thinking styles tend to demonstrate positive perceptions
about job environment and participate in positive experiences like attending training
or extra-curricular activities, both are contributors to high levels of psychological
well-being. On the other hand, Zhang (2006) stated that neuroticism which
negatively related to well-being is found to be correlated with local thinking.
Similarly, Kadivar and Shokri (2008) found that neuroticism have positive effect on
local thinking style.

As these findings considered in the frame of this study, since positive self-esteem
and autonomy are defined as components of psychological well-being by Ryff (1995)
and life satisfaction contributes to psychological well-being while neuroticism
undermines psychological well-being, it can be hypothesized that global thinking
style, grouped under Type I, is related to higher levels of psychological well-being
while local style, which is a Type II style, is related to lower levels of psychological
well-being.

Moreover, studies on levels-of-focus introduced relations among global and local

focus, similar concepts with global and local thinking, and feelings. Gasper and
Clore (2002) concluded that individuals who are feeling happier tend to focus on the
big picture more than details of the picture compared to sadder individuals.
Similarly, Derryberry and Reed (1998) stated that high anxious individuals attend to
details more than low anxious ones. Likewise, Basso and his colleagues (1996) found
that positive mood and optimism are positively related to global focus and negatively
related to local focus, whereas depression and anxiety are positively related with the
local focus. In the light of these findings, focusing on the forest or on the trees, in
thinking style terms global or local thinking, seems to be related with happiness,
optimism and psychological well-being.

1.1. Purpose of the Study

5
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of levels of global and local
thinking styles and gender on psychological well-being among university students.

1.2. Research Questions

The research questions of this study are:

1. Is there any difference between high and low levels of global thinking in
terms of undergraduate students’ psychological well-being?
2. Is there any difference between high and low levels of local thinking in terms
of undergraduate students’ psychological well-being?
3. Is there any difference between female and male students on undergraduate
students’ psychological well-being?

1.3. Definitions of Terms

Well-being: The capacity to actively participate in work and recreation, create

meaningful relationships with others, develop a sense of autonomy and purpose of
life, and to experience positive emotions (Hatch, Huppert, Abbott, Croudace,
Ploubidis, Wadsworth, Richards, & Kuh, 2007).

Psychological well-being: How commitment to existential challenges is

perceived (Keyes et al., 2002).

Thinking styles: A person’s preferred way of thinking and using abilities (Sternberg,
2009).

Global thinking: The thinking style is characterized with preference to deal

with relatively large and abstract issues and ignoring details (Sternberg,
2009).

Local thinking: The thinking style is characterized with enjoying concrete

problems and requirement to deal with details (Sternberg, 2009).

1.4. Significance of the Study

6
Although there are several studies on thinking styles and psychological well-being
independently, the review of related literature revealed that these constructs were not
studied together, pointing out an open area for research. The results of a study
focusing on the effect and correlation of thinking styles and psychological well-being
may contribute to understand another aspect of personality which affects
psychological well-being. Specifically, this study aimed to examine the effects of
gender and thinking levels (global and local thinking) on psychological well-being
and it is expected that the results of the study will provide information about thinking
level of Turkish undergraduate students and its effect on psychological well-being.
The results are assumed to be important for both research and counseling practice.

Zhang and Sternberg (2006) grouped thinking styles literature under three subject
areas, which are the relation between thinking styles and personal variables, role of
thinking styles in various aspects of life and the correspondence between thinking
styles and other styles constructs. In Turkish literature, thinking styles are frequently
studied in educational contexts to be able to define the characteristics of teachers and
administrators and to find out how several personality traits of individuals employed
for education, such as externality and coping behaviors, are related to thinking styles
(Balgalmış, 2007; Palut, 2003; Palut, 2008). Furthermore, undergraduate students of
faculty of education were also selected as samples for studies. These studies aimed to
define the thinking style characteristics of students in different departments and how
the styles vary due to demographic variables (Buluş, 2005; Fer, 2007; Saracaloğlu,
Yenice & Karasakaloğlu, 2008). As the samples of these studies are examined, it is
obvious that research on thinking styles is limited to educational context. For the
current study, undergraduate students from various departments are chosen to
exemplify Turkish undergraduate students, in order to figure out thinking styles
preference of them, specifically their preference on global and local thinking. This
result may help for a better understanding of university students.

Moreover, psychological well-being was studied from various aspects; personal and
cultural differences affecting psychological well-being, predictors of psychological
well-being and change of psychological well-being over lifespan (Blanchflower &
Oswald, 2008; Brown & Ryan, 2003; Diener & Diener, 1995; Kwan et al., 1997;

7
Roothman et al., 2003; Sheldon & Niemiec, 2006; Shields & Price, 2005). In Turkish
literature, psychological well-being has been studied with various samples including
university students, married couples, military officers and cancer patients. The
studies on university students focused on the predictors of psychological well-being,
the relation between social support and psychological well-being as well as the effect
of personal differences on psychological well-being (Aydın, 1999; Cenkseven 2004;
Cirhinlioğlu, 2006; Gençöz & Özlale, 2004). When the concepts these studies are
examined, there is a neglect about the cognitive aspect of the psychological well-
being. Although cognition is accepted as the third dimension of personality
influencing affect and behavior as well as being influenced by them, studying on
how the cognitive characteristics of individuals affect well-being has not been a
popular topic. In this study, thinking levels are considered as a representative of
cognitive structure affecting well-being. Therefore, this study will be a preliminary
study on both thinking styles and well-being, and cognition and well-being.

The results of the study are expected to provide information about the effect of
thinking level on psychological well-being of undergraduate students. It is believed
that formulating the more positive and efficient thinking styles in terms of
psychological well-being may contribute to counseling practice. Once which
thinking style is positively related to psychological well-being is found, counselors
can work on changing the less effective styles to more effective ones in order to
improve individual’s psychological well-being. Although, thinking styles are
generally learned via socialization, styles are also teachable (Sternberg, 2009). Based
on this characteristic of thinking styles, several activities can be developed for
counseling practice.

Furthermore, the determination of gender effects on psychological well-being would

help to identify any specific need of females or males. When a difference between
genders on psychological well-being is found, related and needed activities could be
prepared and planned for the gender group which needs more attention and concern.

8
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter presents the literature related to well-being and thinking styles. The first
section contains reviews of literature related to well-being, dimensions of well-being
focusing on psychological well-being, and Turkish literature on psychological well-
being of university students. The last section includes research on thinking styles,
Sternberg’s theory of mental self-government and studies conducted in Turkey with
university students.

2.1. Well-Being

Lexical meaning of well-being is “a contented state of being happy, healthy and

prosperous” and it refers “optimal psychological experience and functioning” (Deci
& Ryan, 2008, p. 1). Well-being is also defined as “a positive and sustainable state
that allows individuals, groups or nations to thrive and flourish” (p. 1331) and well-
being is exemplified with happiness, satisfaction, empathy, motivation, interest,
physical vitality, satisfying social relationships and resilience (Huppert, Baylis &
Keverne, 2004).

Ryff (1995) provided another definition about well-being and explained that well-
being acquires more than not being ill but positive self-esteem, mastery, autonomy,
positive relationships with other people, a sense of purposefulness and meaning in
life, and feelings of continued growth and development. Parallel to Ryff’s definition,
Cloninger (2008) stated that authentic well-being involves positive emotions, mature
character traits, like self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence, life
satisfaction, and character strengths and virtues, such as hope, compassion, and
courage. In addition self-awareness was pointed as the key to authentic well-being
depending on the fact that simulation of the features of well-being diminishes if the
features are not internalized, experienced spontaneously and being aware of the self

9
and action (Cloninger, 2008). Besides self-awareness, self-acceptance is shown to be
a way to develop well-being (Henry, 2007).

Well-being research was categorized under two approaches as stated by Ryan and
Deci (2001). Researchers defined hedonic and eudaimonic approaches for well-being
research. Hedonic well-being refers to studying on happiness and defining well-being
in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance, whereas eudaimonic well-being
is characterized by focusing on meaning and level of functioning in life and human
potential. The term eudaimonic is originated from “Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
(1947), which states that the highest of all goods achievable by human action is
happiness” (Ryff, 1989, p. 1070). But there are also other perspectives, which
criticize this direct connection, such as Waterman’s. Waterman (1984) stated that
eudaimonia is more precisely defined as "the feelings accompanying behavior in the
direction of, and consistent with, one's true potential" (as cited in Ryff, 1989, p.
1070). Moreover, Ryff and Singer (2008) examined Aristotle’s work and concluded
that he did not consider only the bodily pleasures and pain, but emphasized self-
fulfillment and growth. Additionally, Deci and Ryan (2008) asserted that well-being
cannot be considered as an outcome but it should be considered as the process of
self-fulfillment as thought in eudaimonic standpoint. Although hedonia and
eudaimonia are separate concepts, when they are thought in well-being context, these
two concepts are not independent at all; Waterman, Schwartz and Conti (2008)
emphasized that as individuals experience eudaimonia while developing their
potentials they also experience hedonic happiness. In other words, eudaimonia leads
to hedonic happiness even though hedonic happiness is not a satisfying condition for
eudaimonia.

2.1.1. Dimensions of Well-Being

Besides the hedonic and eudaimonic approaches, well-being is generally separated

into two dimensions; subjective well-being and psychological well-being. Subjective
well-being is usually defined as happiness and absence of problematic events, while
psychological well-being includes individual development, self-actualization,
attempting to grow up (Waterman, 1993, as cited in Kuzucu, 2006). Similarly, Keyes

10
and colleagues (2002) specified subjective well-being as the balance of positive and
negative affect, and satisfaction whereas psychological well-being is how
commitment to existential challenges is perceived.

Although subjective well-being and psychological well-being are usually accepted as

separate dimensions there are other perspectives. Keyes and Waterman (2003)
supposed that psychological well-being is one of the three aspects of subjective well-
being, other two aspects are social and emotional well-being. Moreover, Keyes and
colleagues (2002) found that the two dimensions are distinct but still have
overlapping aspects, which are environmental mastery and self acceptance. These
overlapping aspects were not considered as being related to subjective well-being
theoretically but the relation was statistically proven.

Furthermore, when eudaimonic and hedonic well-being perspectives are considered,

subjective well-being, which emphasizes happiness, overlaps the hedonic approach
while psychological well-being, which underlines the use of human potential,
matches the eudaimonic approach (Deci & Ryan, 2008).

2.1.2. Subjective Well-Being

Subjective well-being is said to be related to the people’s emotional and cognitive

evaluations of how well they feel and how functional they are both personally and
socially (Keyes & Waterman, 2003; Moore & Keyes, 2003). In other words,
subjective well-being depends on evaluation of life satisfaction, the frequency of
pleasant and unpleasant affect and how the individual perceives them (Diener &
Lucas, 2003). Similarly, Myers and Diener (1995), who used well-being and
subjective well-being interchangeably, stated that subjective well-being is correlated
with three independent factors which are existence of positive affect, nonexistence of
negative affect and life-satisfaction. In addition researchers considered satisfaction
with life, work, marriage and other domains as cognitive level of well-being, whereas
pleasant emotions and positive appraisal as affective level.

11
2.1.3. Psychological Well-Being

About psychological well-being, a pioneer study was conducted by Bradburn (1969).

Bradburn used psychological well-being interchangeable with happiness and
mentioned two dimensions which are positive and negative affect. From this point of
view being high in psychological well-being reflects a dominance of positive over
negative affect. Bradburn emphasized that although positive and negative affect are
independent of each other, the frequency of both positive and negative affects
determine the level of psychological well-being. Furthermore, Bradburn excluded
self-actualization, autonomy and self-esteem concepts although researcher accepted
these concepts as the species of trees in the psychological well-being forest.
Although, Bradburn did not ignored concepts like autonomy and self-esteem, and
that study is accounted as being one of the pioneers of psychological well-being
studies, the emphasis on positive and negative affect can be interpreted as what
Bradburn studied was subjective well-being rather than psychological well-being, in
the light of the definitions of subjective and psychological well-being (Diener &
Lucas, 2003; Keyes et al., 2002; Myers & Diener,1995).

Later, to define psychological well-being, Ryff (1989) developed a six dimensional

theory. Keyes and Ryff (1998) stated that this theory analyzed psychological well-
being from a eudaimonic perspective and combined the psychological functioning
theories which are Maslow’s conception of self actualization, Rogers’ fully
functioning person, Jung’s individuation formation and Allport’s depiction of
maturity. In addition, Erikson’s, Buhler’s and Neugarten’s theories on adult
development were included as well as Jahoda’s mental health approach. The six
dimensions of Ryff’s theory are self-acceptance, positive relations with others,
autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. According
to Ryff’s theory, self-acceptance defines how an individual acknowledges positive
and negative aspects of own personality and is pleased about past experiences. Self-
acceptance is considered as a dimension of psychological well-being since it is
accepted as one of the criteria needed for embodiment of mental health (Jahoda), self
actualization (Maslow), optimal functioning (Rogers) and maturity (Allport). Since
ability to love (Jahoda), to feel empathy (Maslow), to develop warm relations

12
(Roger) and feeling responsible to other people (Erikson) are considered as aspects
of positive functioning, positive relations with others became one of the six
dimensions. Individuals who are reported to have positive relations with others are
able to establish warm and trusting relations, experience empathy and intimacy as
well as understanding the dynamics of a relationship. Both autonomy and
environmental mastery are concerning how an individual relates with social
environment. Autonomy refers to how an individual survives independently whereas
mastery refers to the ability to manipulate environment due to personal needs.
Independency and self-evaluation according to self standards are needed in order to
evaluate one as autonomous. Whereas, feeling of being able to manage daily events
as well as change context due to individual needs are the characteristics of
environmental mastery. Specifying a purpose for life and having a plan accordingly
are defined as an feature of maturity by Allport. Therefore, purpose in life is
regarded as the forth dimension of psychological well-being based on Allport and
other theorists’ view point. Purpose in life refers whether an individual has aims for
living and believes the meaning of life. The final dimension is personal growth and
indicates an individual’s competence for development and exploration. Being open to
new experiences, perceiving self as changing and growing as well as using personal
potential are characteristics of personal growth.

Supporting the dimensions defined by Ryff (1989), autonomy, competence and

relatedness are also found to be related to well-being in studies conducted in the
frame of Self-Determination Theory. Self-determination theory defines these three
traits as basic psychological needs. More specifically competence is found to be the
need that should be fulfilled most consistently for well-being since competence-need
fulfillment is positively and uniquely related to self-esteem and positive affect
(Patrick, Knee, Canevello & Lonsbary, 2007). In addition Sheldon and Niemiec
(2006) interpreted that the experience of balanced autonomy, competence and
relatedness-need fulfillments arose higher levels of well-being. In addition,
autonomy was pointed out as a factor leading psychological well-being by Sheldon
and his colleagues (2004). Researchers administered three studies to test how the
content of goals and the drives underlying these goals affect the psychological well-
being. These studies suggested that the goals from extrinsic forces done for reasons

13
controlled by others results in lower levels of psychological well-being. Thus,
intrinsically directed and autonomous actions lead higher psychological well-being.

Recently, Wissing and Van Eeden (2002) attempted to achieve an empirical

clarification of the psychological well-being and administered 10 questionnaires to a
diverse sample. The researchers concluded that psychological well-being had a
multidimensional composition with regard to affective, behavioral and cognitive
aspects of self and life domains such as intrapersonal and interpersonal relations and
social network. The indicators of the general psychological well-being were defined
as sense of coherence, satisfaction with life and affect-balance.

2.1.3.1. Research on Psychological Well-Being

To introduce the predictors and the factors affecting psychological well-being,

several studies were conducted and some of these studies were explained in this part.

In order to find out the predictors of the psychological well-being Diener and Diener
(1995) conducted a cross-cultural research. The results of the study showed that
predictors of well-being differ due to the structure of culture to which the individual
belongs. Researchers stated that self-esteem is correlated to life satisfaction, which is
one of the aspects of well-being, in individualistic Western countries than it has in
collectivist Eastern countries. Another cross-cultural study was conducted by Kwan,
Bond, and Singelis (1997) to compare the effects of self-esteem and relational
harmony on well-being in United States of America, considered as an individualistic
country, and Hong Kong, a collectivist country. According to the results relational
harmony significantly affects well-being in Hong Kong while it has no effect on
well-being in United States, although having positive relations with others is one of
the eudaimonic dimensions of well-being as stated by Ryff (1989).

The correlation between demographic factors, including age and gender, and
psychological well-being was also studied. The correlation between age and well-
being is recently studied by Blanchflower and Oswald (2008) who considered
happiness as an indicator and concluded that well-being displays a U-shaped change
as the age changes. The researchers studied with a large sample from USA and

14
Europe, and found that well-being degrades to the lowest level in middle ages. The
European sample included Turkish participants and the turning age of the U-shape
for Turkish sample is found to be 45. U-shape correlation is also found by Shields
and Price (2005) who stated the minimum level of psychological well-being is
around the age of 34. On the other hand, the change of happiness on life cycle
showed a slight increase from 18 to midlife and decrease afterwards as the
satisfaction from several life domains increase through midlife but decline after
midlife in Easterlin’s (2006) study. In addition, Keyes and colleagues (2002) stated
that the younger adults with less education report lower levels of subjective and
psychological well-being.

In addition, gender differences on psychological well-being are a common topic

studied generally in terms of gender roles. Roothman, Kirsten and Wissing (2003)
conducted a study to find how psychological well-being varies due to gender. The
researchers administered 13 instruments to measure general, affective, cognitive,
physical, spiritual, self and social aspects of psychological well-being and concluded
that females and males reported differences. Roothman et al. (2003) observed that
men scored significantly higher on cognitive, physical and self aspects, whereas
women scored significantly higher on somatic symptoms, expressing affect and
spiritual aspects but there was no difference between men and women regarding
social dimension. When the results were evaluated together, researchers concluded
that men scored higher than women and explained that difference with the “socially
disadvantaged position historically held by women” (p. 216). Mills and his
colleagues (1992) similarly stated that women reported significantly lower levels of
psychological well-being than men did as a result of the study about effects of
gender, family satisfaction and economic strain on psychological well-being.

Another study was conducted to examine the effect of variations of mindfulness to

psychological well-being by Brown and Ryan (2003). Mindfulness refers “being
attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present” (p. 822). Mindfulness
when taken as a characteristic of individuals varies due to the nature of personal
traits and can be considered similar to self-acceptance and environmental mastery of
Ryff’s dimensions. Researchers administered a set of studies and concluded that

15
mindfulness is related to and also a predictor of more positive well-being and less
cognitive and emotional disturbance.

2.1.3.2. Studies about Psychological Well-Being of University Students in

Turkey

There are also studies conducted to define the predictors and the factors affecting
psychological well-being of Turkish university students and these studies were
included in this section.

To determine the predictors of university students’ subjective and psychological

well-being Cenkseven (2004) conducted a study while Tuzgöl (2004) studied how
the subjective well-being level of university students varies and they shared gender,
socio-economic status, and locus of control variables. Neuroticism, extraversion,
perceived satisfaction of interaction with dates and parents, external locus of control,
and perceived satisfaction of recreation activities were listed as the predictors of both
subjective well-being and psychological well-being by Cenkseven (2004). In
addition, the writer specified learned resourcefulness, perceived satisfaction of
interaction with friends, and gender as the predictors of psychological well-being. In
terms of psychological well-being Cenkseven (2004) pointed out that females scored
higher than males.

Social support is a construct included in two studies about psychological well-being

of university students. First, Aydın (1999) conducted a research of which one of the
aims was to find out the relationship between how university students perceive the
social support and their psychological well-being. Researcher concluded that social
support, which is provided by family, did not have a significant effect on
psychological well-being of university students in their first semester whereas social
support provided by friends had a low but significant effect on psychological well-
being. Then, Gençöz and Özlale (2004) also studied the effects of social support to
psychological well-being of university students and concluded that “appreciation-
related social support had a direct effect on psychological well-being” (p. 449).

16
Cirhinlioğlu (2006) studied the relationship among several personality
characteristics, including shame proneness, religious orientations and self-construal,
and demographic differences, such as gender and grade, and psychological well-
being with university students. Psychological well-being was considered with both
negative aspects, including depression, anxiety and negative self-perception, and
positive aspects, including self-acceptance, ability to establish positive relationships
and level of autonomy. The researcher stated that deficiency of social support or
sharing, parental styles could be factors affecting psychological well-being. On the
other hand, grade had no significant effect on psychological well-being. Cirhinlioğlu
(2006) concluded that life satisfaction and psychological well-being will ascend if
the personal characteristics are more consistent with cultural characteristics. In
addition, the results showed that female students reported higher levels of positive
relations with others, personal growth, self-acceptance and autonomy than males did
but gender had no significant effect on depression, anxiety and negative self-
perception.

2.2. Thinking Styles

Before widening the concept of thinking styles and the approaches, style itself needs
to be explained. The concept of style is emerged to be able to explain personal
differences which can not be understood only by personality and ability differences,
and cognitive styles were the first type of style studied to bridge the cognition and
personality (Zhang & Sternberg, 2006). As seen style is neither cognition not
personality but the connection between them. Similarly, Zhang and Sternberg (2000)
underlined that style is not the intellect itself but the way it is used. In other words,
style is the bridge between skill and personality.

Thinking styles are encompassed by intellectual styles which also embrace cognitive
styles, learning styles and problem-solving styles (Zhang & Sternberg, 2006).
Intellectual style refers to an individual’s propensity to process information and deal
with life events. Zhang and Sternberg (2006), depending on prior studies of
Sternberg, perceive thinking styles a wider concept than learning and cognitive styles
since they can be applied to both academic and non-academic settings. On the other

17
hand it is stated that cognitive, learning and thinking styles are overlapping as they
are used to process the same information; cognitive style is the ways an individual
prefers to conceive information, learning style is how the individual prefers to learn
that information whereas thinking style is the preference of the individual how to
think about the information both during and after learning process.

In conceptualizing the thinking styles literature, there are four studies remarkable;
which are Curry’s onion model (1983), Miller’s cognitive styles (1987), Riding and
Cheema’s two dimensional style and learning strategies (1991) and Sternberg’s
theory of mental self-government (1997) (Buluş, 2005). This study focuses on the
last theory, Sternberg’s theory of mental self-government, which introduces the
thinking levels as a dimension of thinking styles.

2.2.1. Theory of Mental Self-Government

Sternberg (1997) introduced the theory of mental self-government suggesting that

how governments are managed is a reflection of how individuals manage their own
thinking. Sternberg stated that individuals did not have a style but a profile of styles
and to be successful one’s preferred styles, abilities and environmental demands
needs to match. Researcher emphasized the mismatch between styles and
environments causing conflict between couples, students and teachers or employers
and employees. Since the essence is the true match between styles, abilities and
environmental demands, individuals could arrange the tasks they face or transform
the style they prefer. In other words, styles can be modified or the efficient style can
be adopted for the specific situation (Sternberg, 2009). This modification is also
proven by research; Zhang (2001) stated that thinking styles are at variance due to
age, gender and socioeconomic status and added number of hobbies, job, travel and
leadership experience as other factors affecting thinking styles.

Thinking styles are not polarized but multidimensional. Therefore the theory of
mental self-government provides a profile of how an individual thinks (Fer, 2005;
Zhang, 2000; Zhang & Sternberg, 2006). In addition, Sternberg (2009) clarified that
styles are variable across tasks and situations as well as the valued styles are
changeable across tasks, situations and values of the environment. In other words,

18
individuals can prefer internal thinking for a specific task whereas for another task
they can prefer external style, moreover global thinking will be valued for a situation
but for the same situation in another location local thinking will be valued. Sternberg
(2009) explained how individuals develop their own profile of styles via socializing,
usually from their role models, but still styles can be taught. In addition flexibility of
styles was stated as being an important characteristic for individuals. Sternberg
(2009) formulated being satisfied and successful with the match between the
requirements of the environment and the preferred styles of individuals but
unfortunately, finding a job or a spouse whose requirements and styles are matching
is not possible all the time for everyone. Therefore, individuals need to be flexible,
open to adapt own styles to the requirements or adopt the required styles of the
environment.

2.2.1.1. Dimensions of the Theory of Mental Self-Government

The theory of mental self-government defines 5 dimensions, which are functions,

forms, levels, scopes and leanings, and 13 thinking styles grouped under these
dimensions (Fer, 2005; Kao et al., 2007; Sternberg, 2009; Zhang, 2000; Zhang &
Sternberg, 2006).

First dimension, which is functions, refer to the individual preference of creating and
assessing ideas, and performing rules. Functions include legislative, executive and
judicial styles (Kao et al., 2007; Sternberg, 2009). An individual preferring
legislative style is characterized by being creative, innovative and planned as well as
enjoying to follow own way and generate new alternative solutions to traditional
ones (Buluş, 2005; Fer, 2005; Sternberg, 2009). The next style of this dimension is
executive style. This style is distinguished by the preference to follow given
instructions and rules, need for clear guidelines and be organized (Buluş, 2005; Fer,
2005). The last style included in functions dimension is judicial style. Individuals
who choose judicial style focus on evaluating others, analyzing others’ products and
compare work, product or ideas of others (Fer, 2005; Sternberg, 2009).

The second dimension of mental self-government theory is forms which defines the
styles in terms of goal-setting and self-management (Kao et al., 2007). One of four

19
style grouped under forms is monarchic. Monarchic style is characterized by
focusing on one task at a time, matching each problem with a certain solution while
ignoring other possible ways and being perfectionist (Fer, 2005; Saracaloğlu et al.,
2008; Sternberg, 2009). The other style of this dimension is hierarchical style which
refers to preference to prioritize tasks, assign attention accordingly and be systematic
problem-solvers with prosperous time management skills (Buluş, 2005; Sternberg,
2009). Oligarchic style is the third style included in forms dimension. Individuals
who prefer oligarchic style usually have trouble with time management since they
prefer to pay attention among non-prioritized tasks at the same time (Fer, 2005;
Sternberg, 2009). Anarchic style is the forth style associated with forms dimension
and anarchic style is distinguished by preferring to focus on tasks without any
systematic approach, in other words randomly selecting the task to work on, avoid
rules and instructions as well as desire to have flexibility (Fer, 2005; Sarı & Sünbül,
2004).

Levels are considered as the third dimension of mental self-government theory and
classify the preference of individuals to deal with problems in detail or as a whole.
Levels include global and local styles. Global style is characterized by concentrating
on the big picture, ignoring details, preferring abstractness, enjoying conceptualizing,
generalization and thinking (Sternberg, 2009; Zhang & Sternberg, 2001). Whereas
local style identify focusing on details, preferring concreteness, avoiding conceptual
analysis and experiencing difficulty in distinguishing important from unimportant
(Fer, 2005; Sternberg, 2009).

The other dimension is scopes referring to the preference of being alone or belonging
to a group (Kao et al., 2007). Individuals with internal style prefer working
independently, being goal-oriented and introverted, whereas individuals preferring
external style are distinguished by feeling more comfortable when working with a
group, developing interpersonal relationships, being extroverted and interdependent
(Buluş, 2005; Fer, 2005; Sternberg, 2009; Zhang & Sternberg, 2001).

The fifth dimension defined in theory of mental self-government is leanings dealing

with the individual preferences of requirement of originality and need for existing

20
rules. Leanings include liberal and conservative styles. Liberal style is identified by
appreciating novelty and ambiguity, tracing new alternatives while disregarding
instructions (Buluş, 2005; Zhang & Sternberg, 2001). On the other hand conservative
style is characterized by adherence of existing rules and procedures, avoiding
ambiguity and resistance to novelty (Buluş, 2005; Zhang & Sternberg, 2001).

Besides the dimensions of the theory, Zhang and Sternberg (2006) classified
intellectual styles, which encompass thinking styles, into three types. Type I styles
are perceived more positive and adaptive whereas Type II styles are more negative
and less adaptive. The styles categorized under Type I or Type II are considered as
being value-laden as they are evaluated as being more or less adaptive and positive
or negative. Whereas Type III styles are value differentiated since they are neither
positive nor negative but adaptability depends on the requirements of a task and
situation. Based on this general classification researchers grouped thinking styles;
Type I thinking styles include the legislative, judicial, hierarchical, global, and liberal
styles, Type II thinking styles include the executive, local, monarchic, and
conservative styles, and Type III styles include the anarchic, oligarchic, internal, and
external styles. Type I thinking styles are defined as more creativity-generating, Type
II are characterized by a norm-favoring tendency, while depending on the demands
of the specific task Type III may reveal the characteristics of both Types I and II
styles.

2.2.2. Research on Thinking Styles

Thinking styles are frequently studied in the educational contexts. A recent example
is the study conducted by Zhang (2008a). Zhang (2008a) examined the teachers’
thinking styles and the consistency between thinking styles and teaching styles, and
concluded that the teaching styles can be predicted due to the thinking styles of the
teachers. In another study, Zhang and Sachs (1997) found that natural science and
technology teachers in Hong Kong prefer global thinking more frequently than social
sciences teachers do, similarly Lam (2000) revealed that art teachers in Hong Kong
score higher on local thinking than science teachers, whereas Sternberg and

21
Grigorenko (1995) have found that science teachers in USA have tendency for local
thinking than humanities teachers do (as cited in Zhang & Sternberg, 2006).

Within the educational context, Zhang introduced several studies analyzing thinking
styles and development of individuals. Zhang (2008b) concluded that thinking styles
strongly associated with identity development but also the thinking styles are
predictors of identity development as a result of a study to investigate the
relationship between these two constructs among Chinese students. Another study of
Zhang (2002a) focused on the thinking styles and the psychosocial development of
college students and concluded that wider range of thinking styles is a predictor of
the sense of purposefulness. Cognitive development of students was also studied and
the results proved that wider range of styles are used by students whose cognitive
development levels are higher compared to the students whose cognitive
development levels are lower (Zhang, 2002b). Zhang’s another study is one of the
rare studies about the relationship between thinking styles and emotions. Zhang
(2008c) considered emotions as one of the dimension in Chiekering’s (1969)
psychosocial development theory. The results indicated “thinking styles were
associated with emotions and also thinking styles had predictive power for emotions
beyond age” (p. 497). When the relationship between thinking styles and ability to
deal with emotions are examined Type I (legislative, judicial, hierarchical, global,
and liberal) styles are found to be positively associated with the ability to deal with
emotions. In addition, the anarchic and external styles, which are Type III styles, are
also positively related with the ability to cope with emotions. The researcher also
checked which the thinking styles can be considered as predictors of which emotions
and concluded that depression is positively predicted by the hierarchical style but
negatively predicted by the oligarchic style, happiness is positively predicted by the
external and hierarchical styles but negatively predicted by the anarchic style,
attraction is positively predicted by the judicial styles.

The effect of thinking styles to vocational choices is another subject studied.

Kaufman (2001) studied on a population composed of student journalists and student
creative writers and found that journalists scored higher on executive thinking than
creative writers did, whereas creative writers preferred legislative thinking than

22
journalist did. Another study conducted by Hommerding (2002) studied thinking
style profiles of library directors and the results revealed that the most preferred
styles are legislative, oligarchic and global while judicial, hierarchic, anarchic and
local styles are least preferred.

A study out of the educational context was conducted by Kao and colleagues (2007).
Researchers studied on indentifying the effect of thinking levels (global vs. local) on
the internet search habits of users in order to improve search engine architecture.
What they found was parallel to the characteristics of global and local thinking
styles. Findings showed that high global thinkers search for every possible issue
related and skim the search results while high local thinkers focus on a topic, look for
explicit answers and explore that topic in detail.

2.2.3. Studies about Thinking Styles of University Students in Turkey

Similar with a great amount of thinking styles studies, studies conducted in Turkey
also focused on educational contexts. Palut (2008) conducted a study to find out the
relationship between thinking styles and level of externality of female preschool
teachers. The results revealed a close correspondence between thinking styles and
level of externality while showed a negative association between level of externality
and legislative, judicial, hierarchic, global, and liberal thinking styles. Palut (2003)
also studied the thinking styles of elementary teachers and defined teacher’s thinking
styles both in personal and teaching environments. The results of the study showed
that male teachers prefer legislative, global and internal thinking styles compared to
females but in teaching environments male teachers prefer local thinking styles.

Education is the branch of science which is most interested in thinking styles.

Therefore several studies are available of which undergraduate students of the faculty
of education are the samples. One of these studies was conducted by Saracaloğlu,
Yenice and Karasakaloğlu (2008) to determine and compare the thinking style
profiles of students registered to elementary education department in Adnan
Menderes University. Researchers studied the relationship between academic
achievement and thinking styles. The most preferred thinking styles are found to be
legislative, hierarchic, executive and judicial where as least preferred styles are

23
liberal and local. If the findings are examined in order to find the most preferred
styles of five dimensions (functions, forms, levels, scopes and leanings) the profile
seems to be legislative, hierarchic, global, external and conservative. When the
preferred styles were compared for major departments, science education students
show a tendency to think locally, whereas social sciences and primary school
teaching students prefer global thinking. Gender was considered as another variable
and both males and females prefer global thinking to local thinking but males think
more globally compared to females. Buluş (2005) have conducted another study to
determine the thinking styles profile of a similar sample with Saracaloğlu et al. in
Pamukkale University. The results showed parallelism with the findings of the other
study except for the leanings dimension. For this specific study, for the whole sample
legislative, for especially forth-year students hierarchic styles are found to be
positively related to academic achievement, in addition for the whole sample
conservative and external, for especially first-year students local styles are negatively
related to academic achievement. Buluş (2005) also examined the effect of the year
at university on the thinking styles and stated that forth-year students prefer
legislative style more compared to first-year students but prefer external style less
than first-years. Gender is also considered as a variable and showed significant
effect; males are more global, internal and conservative compared to females.

Another study was conducted by Fer (2007) to determine whether the thinking styles
of student teachers differ due to gender, age, educational level, type of university
attended and the field of study, and test the validity and reliability of Thinking Styles
Inventory among Turkish teacher students. The results revealed in terms of gender
variable that “male students scored higher on the monarchic and conservative styles
than did females while females scored higher on the legislative and hierarchic styles”
(p. 1506). When age variable was considered the younger students scored
significantly higher on the legislative and liberal styles than older ones did. As the
findings of the study was examined in terms of thinking levels (global vs. local),
males prefer global style to local and males scored higher in global thinking
compared to females. Interestingly there was no difference between global and local
thinking styles preference of females. When age was considered the older the

24
students are, the more global they think and global thinking style is preferred to local
thinking style.

Undergraduate students of the faculty of education constituted the sample of another

study on how the thinking styles affect perceiving the learning environment and
reacting to the environment and the study was conducted by Çubukçu (2004). Firstly,
the thinking style preferences of the participants were examined and found that
hierarchic and legislative thinking styles are preferred more than others whereas
conservative style is the least preferred. When the findings are examined for levels
dimension, global style is more preferable than local among faculty of education
students. Next, gender was taken into consideration as a variable and legislative,
monarchic and conservative styles showed significant variation. Major of the
students was another variable and only internal thinking style appeared to be
significantly differing due to the major. The last analysis was on how learning styles
(visual, auditory and kinesthetic) and thinking styles were related and Çubukçu
(2004) found that legislative thinking style is positively related with the kinesthetic
learning while monarchic, local and internal thinking styles are negatively related
with the visual learning, which is the most preferred type of learning. These findings
are being supported by Balkıs and Işıker (2005) who conducted a study, on a sample
of undergraduate students, to investigate the relation between thinking styles and
personality types, and the effect of gender and major field of study on thinking
styles. They concluded that the thinking styles and personality types corresponds and
thinking styles change due to gender and major field of study.

25
 CHAPTER III

METHOD

The methodological procedures used in the study are introduced in this chapter. The
topics are the sample, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure,
the data analysis techniques and limitations. The method used for the selection of the
participants and the characteristics of the sample are included in the first section. The
instruments used in the study are explained in the second section. The data collection
procedure is clarified in the third section. The following section introduces the
statistical techniques for the analysis of the data. Finally, limitations of the study are
presented.

3.1. Participants of the Study

This study aimed to discover the thinking levels preferences and the effect of this
preference on the psychological well-being of Turkish university students.
Considering Middle East Technical University (METU) as an example, the data was
collected from METU students.

The participants of this study were 372 (213 females, 159 males) undergraduate
students enrolled in METU, during the spring semester of 2008-2009 academic year.
For selection of participants convenient sampling method was used and instruments
were conducted by researcher with the volunteered individuals from different
departments.

The sample consisted of prep students (2.4%), freshmen (25.0%), sophomores

(31.2%), juniors (18.3%) and seniors (23.1%), and the participants’ age ranged from
18 to 31 (M = 21.58, SD = 1.78). In addition, the 35.2 percent of participants were
students of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 27.7 percent were students of Faculty of
Engineering, 13.4 percent were students of Faculty of Education, 12.4 percent were
students of Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences and 11.3 percent were

26
students of Faculty of Architecture. The academic achievement, according to the
grade point averages (GPA), ranged from .43 to 4.00 (M = 2.64, SD = .62).

3.2. Data Collection Instruments

The data of this study was obtained by Scales of Psychological Well-Being (SPW)
(Ryff, 1989), the Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) (Sternberg & Wagner, 1992) and a
demographic information form.

3.2.1.Demographic Information Form

A demographic information form was prepared by the researcher to collect

information about age, gender, department, grade and GPA characteristics of the
participants (Appendix A).

3.2.2.Scales of Psychological Well-Being

Scales of Psychological Well-Being (SPW) is a structured, self-report instrument

based on the 6 dimensions of psychological well-being and SPW was developed by
Ryff (Ryff, 1989). An example of the scale is included in Appendix B. The 6
dimensions and the factors of the scales are autonomy, positive relationships with
others, environmental mastery, self-acceptance, personal growth, and purpose in life.
Each item is responded using a 6-point Likert scale (1-strongly disagree, 2-
moderately disagree, 3- slightly disagree, 4- slightly agree, 5- moderately agree, 6-
strongly agree) and the scale includes 39 reverse items. The total value of the
responses for each item constitutes the score for the psychological well-being and
similarly scores for each subscale are obtained. Therefore, the possible maximum
and minimum scores depend on the number of items; possible maximum score of
SPW is calculated as 6 times number of items while the possible minimum score
equals to the number of items (Ryff, 2005).

The original version of SPW consisted of 20 items for each factor, and then Ryff
introduced 3 length options for the scale, which are 14, 9 and 3 items for each
dimension adding up to 84, 54 and 18 items, and suggested 84 or 54 items for
academic studies. In addition to these versions of SPW, Dierendonck (2005)

27
proposed a new version consisted of 39 items selected among the 84 items of the
original scale “on the basis of the highest item-total correlations (at least .30) on their
scale and low cross-loadings on other scales (< .40)” (p. 636). Dierendonck stated
that the results of the scale with 39 items are matching with the results of 84 items.
Internal consistency values of Dierendonck’s 39 item scale were significantly higher
than the values of other versions; reliability coefficient of sub-scales range between
.72 (personal growth) and .81 (self-acceptance, autonomy and purpose in life).

Ryff (2005) reported internal consistency for each subscale of 84-item scale
changing between .83 (autonomy) and .91 (self-acceptance). Though, Dierendonck
(2005) reported lower values for internal consistency of the subscales; ranging
between.77 (environmental mastery) and .90 (self-acceptance).

SPW was adapted to Turkish by Cenkseven (2004). Reliability studies indicated that
Turkish version of the scale is reliable since the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients for
each scale was found to range between .74 (personal growth) and .83 (positive
relationships with others) while .93 for total psychological well-being. Moreover,
test-retest reliability coefficients for each subscale were found to be between .74
(personal growth and positive relationships with others) and .77 (autonomy and
environmental mastery). In addition reliability for total psychological well-being was
.84. Instrument-related validity findings were significant (p<.01) indicating that the
scale is valid; the coefficients of validity were -.62 with Rosenberg’s Self Respect
Scale (1968), -.72 with Zung Depression Scale (1965), .60 with Life Satisfaction
Scale (Diener et al, 1985), .52 with positive subscale of Positive and Negative
Emotions Scale (Watson et al, 1988) and -.52. with negative subscale of Positive and
Negative Emotions Scale (Watson et al, 1988).

For this study, the scale suggested by Dierendonck (2005) was used The Cronbach’s
Alpha for SPW (39 items) was found to be high (α = .90) according to the results of
the data collected from the sample of the study (N = 372). In addition for the internal
consistency test of the scale, split half method was used and correlation between
forms was found to be .84 which implies that the scale is internally consistent.

28
3.2.3. Thinking Styles Inventory

Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) was developed by Sternberg and Wagner (1992).
TSI is a 7-point scale, self-report questionnaire consisting of 5 factors and 104 items;
8 for each 13 subscales (legislative, executive, judicial, monarchic, hierarchic,
oligarchic, anarchic, global, local, internal, external, liberal and conservative) (Fer,
2005; Zhang & Sternberg, 2000). An example of the scale is included in Appendix C.
This instrument does not provide a total score but evaluate each subscale
independently since Sternberg’s theory states that each style is independent and the
results of the instrument reveal a profile of the individual (Fer, 2005). The mean of
the responses for the items of a subscale constitutes the score for that thinking style.
Therefore, the possible maximum score of any thinking style is 7 while the possible
minimum score is 1 (Sternberg, 2009).

The reliability studies revealed that the reliabilities of subscales range from .42
(monarchic) to .88 (external), with a .78 median (Zhang & Sternberg, 2000). In
addition although reliability coefficients are generally satisfactory, local, monarchic
and anarchic subscales were found to reveal lower levels of Cronbach’s alpha
coefficients, which were around .30s for anarchic subscale while .50s for both local
and anarchic subscales (Zhang, 2003; Zhang, 2009). Therefore some items of these
subscales were revised and the result of this revision was a dramatic improvement of
local and monarchic subscales’ coefficients (Zhang & Sternberg, 2006).

Internal validity studies revealed inconsistent results; some support the six-factor
structure of the mental self-government theory whereas some suggest three- or four-
factor structures for TSI. Zhang and her colleagues suggested a three-factor structure
based on the types Zhang defined which are Type I (including legislative, judicial,
hierarchical, global and liberal styles), Type II (including executive, local, monarchic
and conservative styles) and Type III (includes anarchic, oligarchic, internal and
external styles) (Zhang & Sternberg, 2006). On the other hand, the construct validity
studies implied that the instrument is valid among U.S. students and TSI is validated
against other instruments, some examples for these instruments are a standardized IQ

29
test, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Also TSI was found to be valid and reliable
among Hong Kong students (Zhang & Sternberg, 2000).

Fer (2005) adapted unrevised version of TSI to Turkish and studied the validity and
reliability of the scale. The reliability study of Turkish version of TSI revealed that
the alpha coefficient varies between .50 (monarchic) and .89 (conservative) for 13
subscales and the subscale correlation coefficient ranges from .35 (monarchic) to .88
(conservative). For global thinking subscale alpha coefficient and correlation
coefficient were found to be .77 and .48 relatively, while for local thinking the
coefficients were .71 and .40, relatively as well. In addition the average of test-retest
reliability of subscales was .72, therefore Turkish version of TSI was considered as
reliable. Fer (2005) concluded that the study reached a reliable and valid instrument
although the factors of the Turkish version are different from other cultures’ factors.
Later, Fer (2007) stated in another study that internal consistencies reliability of
subscales varies between .61 (monarchic) and .91 (liberal) and the test-retest
reliability of subscales ranged from .63 (oligarchic) to .78 (external). In addition, Fer
(2007) found that Cronbach alpha for global and local thinking subscales were .77
and .71 relatively, and test-retest reliability of these subscales were .75 and .71.
Although Fer (2005) could not conclude that the items are grouped under five
factors, latter study divulged that “construct validity of the inventory addressed 13
subscales under the five dimensional constructs with 104 items” (p. 1488). Fer
(2007) considered the findings of latter study sufficient for the purposes of research.

For this study, only global and local thinking subscales were conducted, which added
up 16 items. For the global thinking scale Cronbach’s alpha was found to be .79 and
for the local thinking reliability coefficient was .81 when the scores of 372
participants were examined.

3.3. Data Collection Procedure

To collect data, the instruments, which are 39-item SPW, 16-item TSI and
demographic form, were administered to the students in Middle East Technical
university campus during the spring semester of 2008-2009 academic year for 3
weeks with the permission of Ethical Committee. In order to reach students from

30
different departments, questionnaires were administered in department buildings,
library and shopping center to volunteer students. Students were asked for
participation after explaining the purpose of the study and they were given the
questionnaire sets, including the explanation about the study, confidentiality issues,
contact information of the researcher, demographic information form, Scales of
Psychological Well-Being and Thinking Styles Inventory. The administration of the
instruments took approximately 10 minutes.

3.4. Data Analysis Procedure

For the current study, qualitative data was gathered and the quantitative data were
analyzed both employing descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS 15.0.

Before analyzing raw data, missing data analysis was done for the Scales of
Psychological Well-Being and Thinking Styles Inventory; as a result the participants
who have more than 1 missing response among 55 items (39 items of Scales of
Psychological Well-Being and 16 items of Thinking Styles Inventory) were not
included in the analysis. In the remaining data, missing responses were replaced with
the mean of that item, since item mean substitution provided a very good
representation of the original data in Likert-type scales (Downey & King, 1998).

Afterwards, scores of psychological well-being, global thinking and local thinking

were calculated. To calculate the scores of psychological well-being, the sum of the
responses to 39 (22 positive, 17 negative) items of Scales of Psychological Well-
Being were computed for each participant. Higher values state higher levels of
psychological well-being. The first 8 items (1-8) of the Thinking Style Inventory
questioned global thinking whereas remaining items (9-16) questioned local
thinking. Therefore averages of the items 1 to 8 were calculated as the score of
global thinking and averages of the items 9 to 16 were computed as the score of local
thinking. Higher averages state the greater tendency of the participants to the
evaluated thinking style.

Subsequently, means, standard deviations and frequencies were computed for the
scores and responses of demographic information form. Global and local thinking

31
scores were divided into two groups from the medians, which were 4.13 for both
scales, to label the values as high or low levels.

In the final step of the data analysis, 2x2x2 ANOVA design was held to find out how
gender (male-female) and the global (high-low) and local thinking (high-low) levels
differ on dependent variable which is psychological well-being. According to the
results of three-way ANOVA, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVAs
were held. In addition, to find the differences between thinking levels due to gender
additional one-way ANOVAs were computed.

Furthermore, age, grade and GPA variables were also analyzed for their correlation
but no significant correlation was found among these demographic variables and
thinking styles and psychological well-being. Therefore, age, grade and GPA were
not included in the main design of statistical analysis.

3.5. Limitations

The present study has some limitations. First, the sample included students in the
campus of Middle East Technical University (METU). Although departments and the
grades of participants varied, considering the characteristics of METU students, the
results of the study should be treated cautiously while deriving conclusions about
undergraduate students attending other universities. Second, since the data was
collected via self-report instruments, honesty and social desirability contributing the
participants’ responses are inevitable.

32
 CHAPTER IV

RESULTS

In this chapter, results of the study are presented. In the first section, the results of the
descriptive statistics including means and standard deviations regarding to
psychological well-being, global and local thinking scores of the sample are
presented. In the second part, the results of three way ANOVA which was performed
to examine the difference between global and local thinking levels and gender of
participants regarding to their psychological well-being scores are introduced. The
determination of the difference between females and males regarding to global and
local thinking scores are also covered in the second part.

4.1. Descriptive Statistics of Variables

The means and standard deviations of the scores of the Scales of Psychological Well-
being (SPW) and thinking styles instrument including global thinking and local
thinking were presented in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1
Means and Standard Deviations of the Variables
Variables M SD Min Max
Psychological Well-being 168.32 21.33 99.00 218.00
Global Thinking 4.16 .94 1.00 6.63
Local Thinking 4.10 1.00 1.00 6.63

The descriptive statistics revealed that the mean value for participants’ psychological
well-being scores was 168.32 with a standard deviation of 21.33. Moreover, scores
varied between 99 and 218, in a scale of which the possible minimum score is 39 and
the possible maximum score is 234.

On the other hand, statistical results of global thinking scores showed that the mean
of global thinking was 4.16 (SD = .94). In addition, the mean of local thinking scores

33
of the participants was 4.10 and standard deviation was 1.00. Both global and local
thinking scores varied between 1.00 and 6.63. The attainable maximum score of
Thinking Styles Inventory is 7 where the attainable minimum is 1.

4.2. Results of ANOVA Regarding Psychological Well-being, Global Thinking,

Local Thinking and Gender

In order to investigate the differences between global thinking levels, local thinking
levels and gender regarding to psychological well-being, Univariate ANOVA was
held. The first research question tested was the existence of a significant difference
in psychological well-being scores between the participants scoring higher than the
median and scoring lower than the median in global thinking scale. The second
research question was determination of a significant difference in psychological
well-being scores between the participants scoring higher and lower than the median
of local thinking scale. Testing existence of any significant difference in
psychological well-being between males and females was the third researched
question. The fourth research question addressed the existence of any significant
difference between global thinking scores of males and females. The fifth research
question tested whether there was a significant gender difference on local thinking
scores.

Before performing ANOVA, assumptions of the test, which are independence of

observation, normality and homogeneity, were checked. For the independence of
observation assumption, is assured by the design of the study in which, each
participant answered the questionnaires once and independent of any other
participant. For the second assumption of ANOVA, skewness and kurtosis values
were examined to check the normality of dependent variable. Results revealed that,
for psychological well-being scores, statistics were -.30 and -.05 relatively. These
values remain in between the range of -1 and +1, which is an acceptable range
(Pallant, 2007) for the normality range for ANOVA. Finally, Levene’s test of
equality of error variances was examined. The test did not reveal a significant result
(p>.05), which shows that the homogeneity assumption was satisfied.

34
4.2.1. Psychological Well-being, Global Thinking, Local Thinking and Gender

In order to determine whether any difference in psychological well-being among

global thinking, local thinking and gender exists, three-way ANOVA was held since
there were three independent variables. Table 4.2 presented the interaction effect
results of variables retrieved from ANOVA.

Table 4.2
The Interaction Effects of Global Thinking, Local Thinking and Gender
F Sig. Partial Eta
Squared
Global Thinking * Local Thinking 6.48 .01 .017
Global Thinking* Gender .49 .48 .001
Local Thinking* Gender .42 .52 .001
Global Thinking * Local Thinking * 3.35 .07 .009
Gender

The interaction effects except the interactions between global and local thinking
levels were not significant. The results revealed that the interaction between global
and local thinking levels had a significant effect on psychological well-being (F(1,
364) = 6.48, p<.05). Since one of the interaction effects were significant, additional
analysis was needed in order to explore this relationship and analysis of simple effect
was held (Pallant, 2007). The data was split into two groups according to the global
thinking levels and independent samples t-test, since local thinking has two levels,
was held to find out any differences between low and high levels of local thinking on
psychological well-being. The results of independent samples t-test, in which global
thinking levels was low, were presented in Table 4.3.

35
Table 4.3
The Results for Independent Samples t-Test between Levels of Local Thinking on
Psychological Well-being When Global Thinking Level is Low
t df Sig. Mean
(2-tailed) Difference
Equal variances assumed -3.14 197 .002 -9.33
Equal variances not assumed -3.10 167.47 .002 -9.33

An independent t-test was conducted in order to compare psychological well-being

scores for low and high levels of local thinking, when global thinking level is low.
Since Levene’s test for equity of variances result was not significant, equal variances
assumed and related values were examined. There was a significant difference
between low (M = 162.77, SD = 21.67) and high (M = 172.10, SD = 19.92) levels of
local thinking (t(197) = -3.14, p<.05) on behalf of high level of local thinking. The
magnitude between means (mean difference = -9.33, 95 % CI:-15.19 to -3.47) was
small (eta squared = .04) (Cohen, 1988, as cited in Pallant, 2007).

The results of independent samples t-test, which was computed to determine any
differences between high and low levels of local thinking in terms of psychological
well-being when global thinking levels was high, were presented in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4
The Results for Independent Samples t-Test between Levels of Local Thinking on
Psychological Well-being When Global Thinking Level is High
t df Sig. Mean
(2-tailed) Difference
Equal variances assumed .56 171 .578 1.92
Equal variances not assumed .56 126.694 .574 1.92

An independent t-test was conducted in order to compare psychological well-being

scored for low and high levels of local thinking, when global thinking level is high.
The Levene’s test for equity of variances revealed that equal variances assumed and
related values were examined. There was no significant difference between low (M =

36
169.12, SD = 21.90) and high (M = 167.20, SD = 21.22) levels of local thinking
(t(171) = .56, p>.05). The magnitude between means (mean difference = 1.92, 95 %
CI:-4.88 to 8.73) was very small (eta squared = .002) (Cohen, 1988, as cited in
Pallant, 2007).

After analyzing the significant interaction effect, the main effects of global thinking,
local thinking and gender were examined and represented in Table 4.5.

Table 4.5
The Main Effects of Global Thinking, Local Thinking and Gender
F Sig. Partial Eta Squared
Global Thinking (Categorized) .57 .450 .002
Local Thinking (Categorized) 3.88 .050 .011
Gender 7.45 .007 .020

The results of the ANOVA revealed that the main effect of global thinking on
psychological well-being was not significant (F(1, 364) = .57, p>.05). Similarly,
there was no significant main effect of local thinking on psychological well-being
(F(1, 364) = 3.88, p>.05). On the other hand, the main effect of gender on
psychological well-being was significant (F(1, 364) = 7.45, p<.05). Although the
ANOVA showed that the means of males (M = 165.62; SD = 22.48) and females (M
= 170.33; SD = 20.24) were significantly different, the effect size was small to
modest (Cohen, 1988, as cited in Pallant, 2007); the partial Eta squared value was
just .020, which implies that gender by itself accounted for only 2 percent of the
overall variance of psychological well-being.

4.2.2. Psychological Well-being and Global Thinking

Although three-way ANOVA revealed no significant difference between

psychological well-being of high and low level global thinking, one-way ANOVA
was held to test the difference between two groups (high and low) of global thinking
scores. Table 4.6 presented the results of ANOVA.

37
Table 4.6
The Results of ANOVA Psychological Well-being and Global Thinking
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between Groups 5.20 1 5.20 .011 .92
Within Groups 168762.62 370 456.12
Total 168767.82 371

The results supported that no significant difference exists between psychological

well-being of high level global thinking (M = 168.44, SD = 21.62) and low level
global thinking (M = 168.21, SD = 21.13) (F(1, 370) = .01, p>.05).

4.2.3. Psychological Well-being and Local Thinking

One-way ANOVA was held to test the difference between two groups (high and low)
of local thinking scores. The results of ANOVA (Table 4.7) approved non-existence
of a significant difference between high (M = 170.41, SD = 20.45) and low (M =
166.42, SD = 21.97) levels of local thinking in terms of psychological well-being
(F(1, 370) = 3.27, p>.05).

Table 4.7
The Results of ANOVA Psychological Well-being and Local Thinking
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between Groups 1480.24 1 1480.24 3.27 .07
Within Groups 167287.58 370 452.129
Total 168767.82 371

4.2.4. Psychological Well-being and Gender

Since three-way ANOVA revealed a significant difference between psychological

well-being of males and females, one-way ANOVA was held to test the difference
between two groups and determine which group reported higher psychological well-
being. The results of ANOVA were presented in Table 4.8.

38
Table 4.8
The Results of ANOVA Psychological Well-being and Gender
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between Groups 2023.37 1 2023.37 4.49 .04
Within Groups 166744.46 370 450.66
Total 168767.82 371

Statistical analysis revealed once more that there was a significant difference
between psychological well-being of females and males (F(1, 370) = 4.49, p<.05). In
addition the difference was found to be on the behalf of females, signifying that
females reported higher psychological well-being than males did.

4.2.5. Global Thinking and Gender

In order to determine whether there is a difference between the levels of global

thinking of males and females, one-way ANOVA was held. Before the performing
the test assumptions of ANOVA was checked since the dependent variable of the test
was changed to global thinking. Skewness and kurtosis values were examined to
check the normality of dependent variable and they were .21 and -.13 relatively.
These values fall within the range of -1 and +1, which is an acceptable range
(Pallant, 2007) for normality. Levene’s test of equality of error variances conducted
and results suggested that the homogeneity assumption was also satisfied (p>.05).
Table 4.9 presented the results of ANOVA.

Table 4.9
The Results of ANOVA Global Thinking and Gender
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between Groups 7.78 1 7.78 9.03 .003
Within Groups 318.77 370 .86
Total 326.55 371

39
There was a significant difference between global thinking levels of females (M =
4.04, SD = .88) and males (M = 4.32, SD = .98) according to the results of ANOVA
(F(1, 370) = 9.03, p<.01). Moreover, the results revealed that males reported higher
levels of global thinking than females did, particularly males preferred global
thinking more than females did.

4.2.6. Local Thinking and Gender

In order to determine whether there is a difference between the levels of local

thinking of males and females, one-way ANOVA was held. Beforehand, to check the
normality of dependent variable skewness, which was -.09, and kurtosis, which was
-.51, values were examined and since these values are within the acceptable range of
-1 and +1 normality assumption was satisfied (Pallant, 2007). In addition, Levene’s
test of equality of error variances showed that the homogeneity assumption was also
satisfied (p>.05).

Table 4.10
The Results of ANOVA Local Thinking and Gender
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between Groups .01 1 .01 .006 .94
Within Groups 376.18 370 1.02
Total 376.18 371

The results of ANOVA (F(1, 370) = .01, p>.05), which were represented in Table
4.10, revealed that there was no significant difference between local thinking levels
of females (M = 4.10, SD = 1.00) and males (M = 4.11, SD = 1.02).

40
 CHAPTER V

DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the discussion, implication and recommendations of the study
based on the findings of statistical analysis. First section presents the discussion
about the results of this study. In the second section recommendations and
implications for future research are proposed.

5.1. Discussion

The purpose of the study was to investigate how gender, high and low levels of
global and local thinking affect psychological well-being. In order to find out the
difference between the groups on psychological well-being, 2x2x2 ANOVA, was
held.

Before the results of ANOVA, the findings of descriptive analysis of psychological

well-being, global thinking and local thinking scores of participants are discussed.
The mean of psychological well-being scores of the participants of this study are
168.32 with a standard deviation of 21.33 on a scale of which the maximum score
could be 234. Cenkseven (2004) reported that the mean of retrieved in her study was
380.29 and standard deviation is 44.01 on the 84-item version of Scales of
Psychological Well-Being. In order to compare the means, the corresponding value
of the mean of Cenkseven’s study in a 39-item scale was computed; the mean of the
Cenkseven’s study would be approximately 176.56 if 39-item scale was used with
the maximum value of 234. When these means are compared, the mean retrieved in
this study is lower than the mean reported in Cenkseven’s study. The gender
distributions of samples are different, which could be a reason for the difference
between the means of psychological well-being scores, since it is expected males to
report higher levels of psychological well-being (Mills et al., 1992; Roothman et al.,
2003). The percentage of males in Cenkseven’s sample is higher than the percentage
of females while the percentages in this study are reversed. In addition, the students

41
participated in these studies are from different universities. Therefore, their
characteristics would be different due to the requirements of the universities, which
could affect the level of psychological well-being of students.

Moreover, the mean of global thinking scores is found to be 4.16 and standard
deviation is .94. On the other hand, mean of the local thinking scores is 4.10 where
the standard deviation is 1. Fer (2007) reported that the mean of the global scores is
4.50 and the standard deviation is .97, in addition mean of the local thinking scores is
4.44 where the standard deviation is .90. In addition Saracaloğlu and colleagues
(2008) stated that the mean of global thinking scores for their sample was 4.12 with a
standard deviation of 1.19 and the mean of local thinking scores was 3.84 and the
standard deviation was 1.12. When these results are compared, the means of the
present study is lower than the means of Fer’s study but higher than Saracaloğlu et
al.’s. The differences between the participants of these studies will be the reason for
the difference between means. Most of the participants of the study conducted by Fer
were graduate students, while the participants of the other two studies were
undergraduate students. Thus, the scores gathered from a sample constituted from
mostly graduate students are higher than the scores of undergraduate students. On the
other hand, the means of global thinking styles are higher than the means of local
thinking scores in all three studies. This similarity will represent a common
characteristic for Turkish university students, which is a tendency to global thinking,
focus on the big picture rather than the details.

The analysis of variances pointed out a significant interaction effect on psychological

well-being; the interaction between global and local thinking scores had a significant
effect on psychological well-being scores. In order to clarify which condition of this
interaction has a significant difference, independent samples t-test was computed.
The results of independent samples t-test revealed that when global thinking level is
low, a significant difference on psychological well-being scores of high and low
levels of local thinking exists and the difference is on behalf of high level of local
thinking. This finding implies that individuals who prefer low levels of global
thinking and high levels of local thinking report higher levels of psychological well-
being compared to the individuals who prefer low level of both global and local

42
thinking. On the other hand, when global thinking level is high, there is no
significant difference between high and low levels of local thinking in terms of
psychological well-being although the mean of low level local thinking is higher than
the mean of high level of local thinking. These results can be interpreted as if the
global thinking level is high; the level of local thinking has little effect on
psychological well-being. The reason for that could be the values of the culture; it
seems global thinking to be the style valued and commonly preferred in Turkish
culture depending on the higher scores in global thinking (Fer, 2007; Saracaloğlu et
al., 2008). Nevertheless, if the global thinking level is low, levels of local thinking
signify the difference; high levels of local thinking results in higher level of
psychological well-being. Moreover, when the psychological well-being means are
compared the lowest value belongs to low levels of both global and local thinking,
which indicate that group of individuals do not attend to neither individual trees nor
the whole forest. In addition, psychological well-being scores of participants who
reported high levels of both local and global thinking is lower than the scores of
participants who reported high level of either global or local thinking. When the
individual has a preferred way of processing information, that individual would
know how to progress. It can be concluded that individuals feel better if at least one
of the styles is highly preferred. The reason for this result could be the apparent
characteristics, which eases individual’s decisions and approach towards a task.
Individuals who are low on both thinking styles experience uncertainty and it is
accepted both as a powerful stressor and a component of stress (Rastegary & Landy,
1993; Greco & Roger, 2003). On the other hand, individuals who reported high
scores on both styles experience indecisiveness which is found to be related with
neuroticism and obsessive-compulsive complaints but correlated with life
satisfaction negatively (Jackson, Furnham, & Lawty-Jones, 1999; Rassin & Muris,
2005). Therefore, individuals experiencing uncertainty or indecisiveness because of
their preferences also experience stress and neuroticism which results in lower levels
of psychological well-being.

Besides the interaction effect, the results of three-way ANOVA revealed that there is
no significant difference on psychological well-being between high and low levels of
neither global thinking nor local thinking. Depending on the related literature

43
(Kadivar & Shokri, 2008; Zhang, 2006; Zhang & Postiglione, 2001; Zhang &
Sternberg, 2006) it was hypothesized that there will be a difference among the
reported levels of psychological well-being of these groups on behalf of high scorers
of global thinking but the statistical results rejected this hypothesis. This finding
contradicts with Zhang’s (2006) results about the relationship between neuroticism
and local thinking and the results of levels-of-focus studies, as Gasper and Clore
(2002) found that happier individuals prefer to see the big picture. The cultural
differences and the issues which participants concentrated on can be the reason of the
conflict between findings of the latter studies and this one. First, since thinking styles
are socialized, individual’s preferred styles are affected from the characteristics of
the culture they grow up and live in. According to the expectations and the appraised
styles of the culture, individuals formulate their preferred styles. Neither of the
studies which the hypothesis was based on is conducted with Turkish samples and
Turkish samples reported a tendency to higher levels of global thinking. On the other
hand, since the participants are university students, through their education they are
expected to pay attention to details and detailed works are appraised. While
participants were answering the questionnaires, they may be focused on their
education experiences, such as assignments and projects, which require them to adapt
themselves to local thinking. If they can match the requirements of the environment
and their styles, they are expected to report higher levels of psychological well-
being. Additionally, the adjustability and adaptability of the styles will be another
reason for this result. Sternberg (2009) stated that often individuals try to arrange the
tasks due to their styles or arrange their styles due to situations and added that styles
are socialized and can be thought. So styles are not rigid; people can learn to modify
their styles for a better adaptation. Therefore, it can be concluded that undergraduate
students who are considered as young adults, experienced and learned which style to
prefer on which situation resulting that thinking level does not affect the overall
psychological well-being.

Furthermore, it was found that psychological well-being significantly varies only

between female students and male students but gender accounted for only 1.8 percent
of psychological well-being. The difference between females and males was on the
behalf of females, in other words females reported higher levels of psychological

44
well-being than males did. This conclusion supports the findings of Cenkseven
(2004) and Cirhinlioğlu (2006). Cenkseven studied on a sample composed of Turkish
university students and found that female students reported higher levels of
psychological well-being than males did and emphasized that literature introduced
that females score higher on positive relations with others and personal growth
subscales. Cirhinlioğlu agreed that females reported higher levels of positive
relations with others and personal growth subscales and added self-acceptance and
autonomy subscales. In this present study, female students reporting higher levels of
psychological well-being can be explained with differences in academic achievement
and preference of local thinking. First, when GPA of females and males were
compared, females reported significantly higher GPAs than males did. Therefore,
females can be accepted as being more successful than males in academic context
and expected to report higher psychological well-being than males. Although there
was no significant difference between females and males on local thinking, females
reported higher levels of local thinking more frequently than males did. This
tendency to local thinking of females could be the second reason for the difference
due to gender.

After three-way ANOVA, to determine the differences between females and males in
global and local thinking, two one-way ANOVAs were held. The results showed that
males prefer global thinking more than females did. As Zhang and Sternberg (2006)
stated, this results matches with the stereotypical characteristics of males since they
tend to focus on the big picture than details. In addition, this finding supports the
results of the studies conducted on Turkish samples (Buluş, 2005; Fer, 2005; Palut,
2003; Saracaloğlu et al., 2008) which presents that Turkish male undergraduate
students share the stereotypical characteristics stated by Zhang and Sternberg (2006).
On the other hand, there were no significant difference between females and males in
terms of local thinking. In addition, more females scored themselves as high local
thinkers than as high global thinkers, but statistically it cannot be concluded that
females prefer local thinking than males do. This contradicts the stereotypical
characteristics of females as they are expected to prefer local thinking (Zhang &
Sternberg, 2006). Once more, the detail focused requirements of university

45
environment will be the reason for the nonexistence of a difference between females
and males in terms of local thinking.

5.2. Implications and Recommendations

This study can be considered as an attempt to examine cognitive aspects of

personality in terms of thinking styles affecting well-being. The results of statistical
analysis revealed that although there was no significant difference between thinking
levels regarding to psychological well-being, it was found that the interaction
between thinking levels has a significant effect on psychological well-being.
Statistical analysis revealed that the individuals whose global thinking level is high
but local thinking level is low reported higher levels of psychological well-being
compared to individuals whose both global and local thinking levels are high. In
addition when the psychological well-being scores of individuals are compared, it
was seen that individuals reported higher levels of psychological well-being also
report high level of either global or local thinking than individuals reported either
high or low levels of both thinking styles. In the light of these results, in counseling
processes, determination of which style individual prefers could help counselors to
work on adapting and changing the styles of individual. For instance, if the
individual scores low in both global and local thinking scales, after defining the
tendency of individual, with special exercises individuals can be guided to select one
of the styles to resolve the negative outcomes of uncertainty. Similarly, with a
counselee who scores high on both thinking styles, counselors could work on to
decide one of them in order to decrease the level of indecisiveness and the negative
consequences. By doing so, counselors would help counselees to relief and reduce
stress as well as increasing the psychological well-being.

Although there was an interaction, between global and local thinking, effect on
psychological well-being, the statistical results did not revealed any significant
difference on psychological well-being between high and low levels of neither global
thinking nor local thinking. This finding can be interpreted in the light of adaptable
characteristic of thinking style as undergraduate students who are considered young
adults learned the most effective style for specific life events. Therefore, neither

46
global thinking nor local thinking showed a significant effect on overall
psychological well-being. To conclude, for university counselors, the thinking level
of individuals does not need to be an issue to be worked on for psychological well-
being. Still, defining the thinking level of an individual could help counselors to
picture the portrait of the individual, to select a pathway and to adapt the counseling
process to the style of individual. When the counseling process matches with one’s
style, the individual will feel more comfortable and to build rapport will be easier for
the counselor.

Furthermore, the statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between

psychological well-being scores of females and males. The difference was on behalf
of females; in other words, females reported higher levels of psychological well-
being. This result indicates that special attention and more counseling support are
needed for males’ psychological well-being.

For further research, special exercises which will be used to transform thinking styles
in counseling processes can be developed. For gender differences, the factors
generating the difference between females and males can be studied and according to
the factors found, counseling applications, programs and exercises can be developed.
In addition, including all thinking styles with a more diverse sample, including
university students from other universities, will point out an effective profile of styles
which apply to population of Turkish university students. Also, considering the
adaptable characteristic of the styles, thinking styles can be studied for specific life
events to find out the more preferable and adaptable styles for each event. As the
more effective styles for a life event is specified, psychological counselors can work
on changing the less effective style to a more effective one. In addition, it can be
hypothesized that individuals need to experience and observe different situations and
how different styles affect the resolution of that situation. Studying thinking styles
with younger participants will introduce whether a need for help to simplify learning
the more effective style process is required. In addition, a longitudinal study can be
performed to examine the development and change of thinking styles of individuals
over time.

47
 REFERENCES

Aydın, D. (1999). Social network composition, social support and psychological

well-being in first year METU students: A longitudinal investigation.
Unpublished master’s thesis, Middle East Technical University, Ankara.

Balgalmış, E. (2007). Eğitim yöneticilerinin düşünme stilleri ile başa çıkma

davranışları arasındaki ilişki [The relationship between thinking styles and
coping behaviors among educational administrators]. Unpublished master’s
thesis, Gaziosmanpaşa University, Tokat.

Balkıs, M. & Işıker, G. B. (2005). The relationship between thinking styles and
personality types. Social Behavior and Personality, 33 (3), 283-294.

Basso, M. R., Schefft, B. K., Ris, M. D., & Dember, W. N. (1996). Mood and global-
local visual processing. Journal of the International Neuropsychological
Society, 2, 249-255.

Blanchflower, D. G. & Oswald, A. J. (2008). Is well-being U-shaped over the life

cycle? Social Science & Medicine, 66 (8), 1733-1749.

Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The structure of psychological well-being. Chicago: Aldine

Publishing Company.

Brown, K. W. & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: mindfulness and
its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 84, 822-848.

Buluş, M. (2005). İlköğretim bölümü öğrencilerinin düşünme stilleri profili açısından

incelenmesi. Ege Eğitim Dergisi, 6, 1-24.

Cenkseven, F. (2004). Üniversite öğrencilerinde öznel ve psikolojik iyi olmanın

yordayıcılarının incelenmesi [Examining the predictors of subjective and
psychological well-being of university students]. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Çukurova University, Adana.

Cihinlioğlu, F. G. (2006). Üniversite öğrencilerinde utanç eğilimi, dini yönelimler,

benlik kurguları ve psikolojik iyilik hali arasindaki ilişkiler [The relationships
among shame proneness, religious orientations, self-construals,
psychological well-being within a university student group]. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, Hacettepe University, Ankara.

Cloninger, C. R. (2008). On well-being: Current research trends and future

directions. Medicine, Mental Health, Science, Religion, and Well-Being,
MSM, 6 (1), 3-9.

48
Çubukçu, Z. (2004). Öğretmen adaylarının düşünme stillerinin öğrenme biçimlerini
tercih etmelerindeki etkisi [The effect of thinking styles on preferring learning
styles of student teachers]. XIII.Ulusal Eğitim Bilimleri Kurultayı, Malatya.

Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: An

introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 1-11.

Derryberry, D. & Reed, M. A. (1998). Anxiety and attentional focusing: Trait, state
and hemispheric influences. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 745-
761.

Diener, E. & Diener, M. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self-
esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68 (4), 653-663.

Diener, E. & Lucas, R. E. (2003). Personality and subjective well-being. In D.

Kahneman, E. Diener & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-Being: The Foundations of
Hedonic Psychology (pp. 213-229). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Diener, E., Sapyta, J. J., & Suh, E. (1998). Subjective well-being is essential to well-
being. Psychological Inquiry, 9 (1), 33-37.

Dierendonck, D. (2005). The construct validity of Ryff’s Scales of Psychological

Well-Being and its extension with spiritual well-being. Personality and
Individual Differences, 36, 629-643.

Downey, R. G. & King, C. V. (1998). Missing Data in Likert Ratings: A Comparison

of Replacement Methods. Journal of General Psychology, 125 (2), 175-192.

Easterlin, R. A. (2006). Life cycle happiness and its sources: Intersections of

psychology, economics, and demography. Journal of Economic Psychology,
27 (4), 463-482.

Fer, S. (2005). Düşünme stilleri envanterinin geçerlik ve güvenilirlik çalışması

[Validity and reliability study of the thinking styles inventory]. Kuram ve
Uygulamada Eğitim Bilimleri, 5 (2), 433-461.

Fer, S. (2007). What are the thinking styles of Turkish student teachers? Teachers
College Record, 109 (6), 1488-1516.

Gasper K. & Clore, G. L. (2002). Attending to the big picture: Mood and global
versus local processing of visual information. Psychological Science, 13 (1),
34-40.

Gençöz, T. & Özlale, Y. (2004). Direct and indirect effects of social support on
psychological well-being. Social Behavior and Personality, 32 (5), 449-458.

Greco, V. & Roger, D. (2003). Uncertainty, stress, and health. Personality &
Individual Differences, 34 (6), 1057-1069.

49
Hatch, S., Huppert, F. A., Abbott, R., Croudace, T., Ploubidis, G., Wadsworth, M.,
Richards, M., & Kuh, D. (2007). A life course approach to well-being. In J.
Hawoth & G. J. Hart (Eds.), Well-Being: Individual, Community and Social
Perspectives (pp. 187-205). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Henry, J. (2007). Positive psychology and the development of well-being. In J.

Hawoth & G. J. Hart (Eds.), Well-Being: Individual, Community and Social
Perspectives (pp. 25-40). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hommerding, L. (2002). Thinking style preferences among the public library

directors of Florida (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Nebraska,
2003). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, DAI-B 63/11, 5545.

Huppert, F.A., Baylis, N., & Keverne, B. (2004). Introduction: Why do we need a
science of well-being. Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society B, 359,
1331-1332.

Jackson,C. J., Furnham, A., & Lawty-Jones, M. (1999). Relationship between

indecisiveness and neuroticism: the moderating effect of a tough-minded
culture. Personality and Individual Differences, 27 (4), 789-800.

Kadivar, P. & Shokri, O. (2008). A structural model of personality factors, learning

approaches, thinking styles and academic achievement. Proceedings of the
WSEAS International Conference on Applied Computing Conference, 233-
241.

Kao, G. YM., Lei, PL., & Sun, CT. (2007). Thinking style impacts on web search
strategies. Computers in Human Behavior, 24 (4), 1330-1341.

Kaufman, J. C. (2001). Thinking styles in creative writers and journalists (Doctoral

dissertation, Taiwan University, 2001). Dissertation Abstracts International,
62-03B, 1609.

Keyes, C. L. M. & Ryff, C. D. (1998). Psychological well-being in midlife. In S. L.

Willis & J. D. Reid (Eds.), Life in the middle: psychological and social
development in middle age (pp. 161-181). USA: Academic Press.

Keyes, C. L. M., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing well-being: The
empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 82 (6), 1007-1029.

Keyes, C. L. M. & Waterman, M. B. (2003). Dimensions of well-being and mental

health in adulthood. In M. H. Bornstein, L. Davidson, C. L. M. Keyes, & K.
A. Moore (Eds.), Well-Being: Positive Development across the Life Course
(pp. 477-498). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kuzucu, Y. (2006). Duyguları fark etmeye ve ifade etmeye yönelik bir psiko-eğitim
programının, üniversite öğrencilerinin duygusal farkındalık düzeylerine,
duyguları ifade etme eğilimlerine, psikolojik ve öznel iyi oluşlarına etkisi
[The effects of psycho-education program of emotinal awareness and

50
 expression on levels of emotional awareness, tendency to express of
emotions, psychological well-being and subjective well-being]. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, Ankara University, Ankara.

Kwan, V. S., Bond, M. H., & Singelis, T. M. (1997). Pancultural explanations for life
satisfaction: Adding relationship harmony to self-esteem. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 73 (5), 1038-1051.

Mills, R. J., Grasmick, H. G., Morgan, C. S., & Wenk, D. (1992). The effects of
gender, family satisfaction, and economic strain on psychological well-being.
Family Relations, 41 (4), 440-445.

Moore, C. A. & Keyes, C. L. M. (2003). A brief history of the study of well-being in

children and adults. In M. H. Bornstein, L. Davidson, C. L. M. Keyes & K.
A. Moore (Eds.), Well-Being: Positive Development across the Life Course
(pp. 1-11). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Myers, D. G. & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? American Psychological Society, 6

(1), 10-17.

Pallant, J. (2007). SPSS survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using
SPSS for Windows (Version 15). Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University
Press.

Palut, B. (2003). İlköğretim birinci ve ikinci kademe öğretmenlerinin kişisel ve

öğretmen rolündeki düşünme stillerinin incelenmesi [Investigation of
personal and as teacher thinking styles of primary school teachers].
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Marmara University, İstanbul.

Palut, B. (2008). The relationship between thinking styles and level of externality: A
study of Turkish female preschool student teachers. Social Behavior and
Personality, 36 (4), 519-528.

Patrick, H., Knee, C. R., Canevello, A., & Lonsbary, C. (2007). The role of need
fulfillment in relationship functioning and well-being: A self-determination
theory perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92 (3),
434-457.

Rassin, E. & Muris, P. (2005). To be or not to be…indecisive: Gender differences,

correlations with obsessive–compulsive complaints, and behavioural
manifestation. Personality and Individual Differences, 38 (5), 1175-1181.

Rastegary & Landy (1993). Time urgency, uncertainty and time pressure. In O.
Svenson & A. J. Maule (Eds.), Time pressure and stress in human judgment
and decision making (pp. 218-240). New York: Springer.

Roothman, B., Kirsten, D., & Wissing, M. (2003). Gender differences in aspects of
psychological well-being. South African Journal of Psychology, 33 (4), 212-
218.

51
Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of
research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of
Psychology, 52, 141-166.

Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of

psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57
(6), 1069-1081.

Ryff, C. D. (1995). Psychological well-being in adult life. Current Directions in

Psychological Science, 4 (4), 99-104.

Ryff, C. D. (2005). Scales of psychological well-being. Retrieved May 21, 2008,

from www.unc.edu/peplab/documents/PWB.doc

Ryff, C. D. & Singer, B. H. (2008). Know thyself and become what you are: A
eudaimonic approach to psychological well-being. Journal of Happiness
Studies, 9 (1), 13-39.

Saracaloğlu, A. S., Yenice, N., & Karasakaloğlu, N. (2008). Eğitim fakültesi

öğrencilerin düşünme stillerinin çeşitli değişkenler açısından karşılaştırılması
[The comparison of education faculty student's thinking styles in terms of
various varieties]. The Journal of International Social Research, 1 (5), 732-
751.

Sarı, H. & Sünbül, A. M. (2004). A Comparative Analysis of Gifted and Other High
School Students’ Thinking Styles in Turkey, International Conference on
Quality in Education in the Balkan Countries, 1, 546-565.

Seligman, M. E. P. (1998). Building human strength: Psychology’s forgotten

mission. APA Monitor, 29 (1), 2.

Seligman, M. E. P. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive Psychology: An

introduction. American Psychologist, 55 (1), 5-14.

Sheldon, K. M. & Neimeic, C. P. (2006). It’s not just the amount that counts:
Balanced need satisfaction also affects well-being. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 91 (2), 331–341.

Sheldon, K. M., Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L., & Kasser, T. (2004). The independent
effects of goal contents and motives on well-being: It's both what you pursue
and why you pursue it. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30 (4),
475-486.

Shields, M. A. & Price, S. W. (2005). Exploring the economic and social

determinants of psychological well-being and perceived social support in
England. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, 168 (3), 513-537.

Snyder, C. R. & Lopez, S. J. (2007). Positive psychology: The scientific and

practical explorations of human strengths. California: SAGE Publications.

52
Sternberg, R. J. (2009). Thinking styles. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Tuzgöl, D. M. (2004). Üniversite öğrencilerinin öznel iyi oluş düzeyleri [Subjective

well-being levels of university students]. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
Hacettepe Universitesi, Ankara.

Waterman, A. S., Schwartz, S. J., & Conti, R. (2008). The implications of two
conceptions of happiness (hedonic enjoyment and eudaimonia) for the
understanding of intrinsic motivation. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 41-79.

Well-Being (n.d.) Retrieved on June 15, 2009 from http://www.google.com/

search?hl=en&lr=&defl=en&q=define:well-being&sa=X&oi=glossary_
definition&ct=title.

Wissing, M. & Van Eeden, C. (2002). Empirical clarification of the nature of

psychological well-being. South African Journal of Psychology, 32 (1), 32-
44.

Zhang, LF. (2000). Relationship between thinking styles inventory and study process
questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 29 (5), 841-856.

Zhang, LF. (2001). Do styles of thinking matter among Hong Kong secondary school
students? Personality and Individual Differences, 31 (3), 289-301.

Zhang, LF. (2002a). The role of thinking styles in psychosocial development.

Journal of College Student Development, 43 (5), 696-711.

Zhang, LF. (2002b). Thinking styles and cognitive development (Statistical data
included). The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 163 (2), 179-195.

Zhang, LF. (2003). Do university students’ thinking styles matter in their preferred
teaching approaches? Personality and Individual Differences, 37 (8), 1551-
1564.

Zhang, LF. (2006). Thinking styles and the big five personality traits revisited.
Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 1177-1187.

Zhang, LF. (2008a). Teachers' styles of thinking: An exploratory study. Journal of

Psychology, 142 (1), 37-55.

Zhang, LF. (2008b). Thinking styles and identity development among Chinese
university students. American Journal of Psychology, 121 (2), 255-272.

Zhang, LF. (2008c). Thinking styles and emotions. Journal of Psychology, 142 (5),
497-515.

Zhang, LF. (2009). Anxiety and thinking styles. Personality and Individual
Differences, 47 (4), 347-351.

53
Zhang, LF. & Postiglione, G. A. (2001). Thinking styles, self-esteem, and socio-
economic status. Personality and Individual Differences, 31 (8), 1333-1346.

Zhang, LF. & Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Are learning approaches and thinking styles
related? A study in two Chinese populations. Journal of Psychology, 134 (5),
469-490.

Zhang, LF. & Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Perspectives on thinking, learning and

cognitive styles. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Zhang, LF. & Sternberg, R. J. (2006). The nature of intellectual styles. London:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

54
 APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FORM

Bu çalışma, ODTÜ Eğitim Bilimleri Bölümü, Psikolojik Danışma ve Rehberlik
Anabilim dalında Prof. Dr. Ayhan Demir danışmanlığında Yüksek Lisans Öğrencisi
Nergis Ayşe Gürel tarafından yapılan "Düşünme düzeylerinin (bütünsel ve ayrıntısal)
psikolojik iyi olma haline etkisi" başlıklı yüksek lisans tezi kapsamında
yürütülmektedir.
Çalışmanın amacı, bütünsel ve ayrıntısal düşünmenin psikolojik iyi olma haline
etkisi olup olmadığını incelemek, hangi düşünme stilinin psikolojik iyi olma halini
olumlu yönde etkilediğini belirlemektir. Ayrıca yaş, cinsiyet, akademik başarı, bölüm
ve sınıfa göre düşünme düzeyi ve psikolojik iyi olma hali incelenecektir.
Bu çalışmada veri toplamak için katılımcı bilgi formu, 16 maddelik Düşünme Stilleri
Envanteri ve 39 maddelik Psikolojik İyi Olma Envanteri kullanılacaktır. Lütfen
bütün sorulara cevap vermeye çalışınız.
Araştırma kapsamında elde edilen bulgular kimlik belirtilmeden grup olarak
inceleneceğinden sizden kimliğinizi belirtecek bilgiler istenmemektedir. Elde edilen
tüm bilgiler tamamıyla gizli tutularak yüksek lisans tezi kapsamında ve bilimsel
yayınlarda kullanılacaktır. Çalışmaya katılım gönüllülük esasına dayanmaktadır ve
uygulama sırasında herhangi bir nedenden ötürü kendinizi rahatsız hissederseniz
soruları cevaplamadan ayrılmakta serbestsiniz.
Bu çalışmaya katıldığınız için şimdiden teşekkür ederiz.
Çalışma hakkında daha fazla bilgi almak için Nergis Ayşe Gürel ile (Tel: 210 3571;
E-posta: nergis@metu.edu.tr) iletişim kurabilirsiniz.

Yaş : ______
Cinsiyet : Kadın : ___ Erkek : ___
Bölüm : _____________________
Sınıf : ___
Genel Akademik Ortalamanız (GPA) :

55
 APPENDIX B

PSİKOLOJİK İYİ OLMA ENVANTERİ

Aşağıda kendiniz ve yaşamınız hakkında hissettiklerinizle ilgili bir dizi ifade yer
almaktadır.
Her bir cümleye katılma ya da katılmama durumunuzu en iyi şekilde gösteren
numarayı işaretleyiniz. Lütfen doğru veya yanlış cevap olmadığını unutmayınız.
Lütfen hiç boş madde bırakmayınız ve her madde için yalnızca bir rakam
işaretleyiniz.

Hiç Tamamen
katılmıyorum katılıyorum

1. Genellikle yaşadığım durumlardan sorumlu

1 2 3 4 5 6
olduğumu hissederim.
2. Geçmişte yaptıklarımı ve gelecekte
yapacaklarımı düşündüğümde kendimi iyi 1 2 3 4 5 6
hissederim.
3. Yaşamımı gözden geçirdiğimde, yaşamımdaki
olayların sonuçlanış şeklinden memnunluk 1 2 3 4 5 6
duyarım.
4. Birçok insanın görüşlerinin tersi olduğu zaman
1 2 3 4 5 6
bile görüşlerimi ifade etmekten korkmam.
5. Günlük yaşamın talepleri karşısında genellikle
1 2 3 4 5 6
kendimi mutsuz hissederim.
6. Genellikle her geçen gün kendimle ilgili daha
1 2 3 4 5 6
fazla şey öğrendiğimi hissediyorum.
7. Genellikle kendimi güvenli ve olumlu
1 2 3 4 5 6
hissederim.
8. Sorunlarımı paylaşabileceğim az sayıda yakın
arkadaşım olmasından dolayı çoğunlukla kendimi 1 2 3 4 5 6
yalnız hissederim.
9. Diğer insanların benimle ilgili düşünceleri
1 2 3 4 5 6
hakkında endişe duyarım.
10. Günlük yaşamımdaki sorumlulukların
çoğunun üstesinden gelmekte oldukça 1 2 3 4 5 6
başarılıyımdır.
11. Yaptığım şeylerde yeni yolları denemeyi
1 2 3 4 5 6
istemem. Yaşamım bu şekilde güzeldir.
12. Yaşamımın yönünü ve amacını belirledim. 1 2 3 4 5 6
13. Fırsat olursa kendimle ilgili değiştirmeyi
1 2 3 4 5 6
düşündüğüm birçok şey var.

56
14. Kendim ve yaşam hakkındaki düşüncelerime
meydan okuyan yeni deneyimler yaşamanın 1 2 3 4 5 6
önemli olduğunu düşünürüm.
15. Kişiliğimin pek çok yönünden hoşlanırım. 1 2 3 4 5 6
16. Konuşmaya ihtiyacım olduğunda çevremde
1 2 3 4 5 6
beni dinlemek isteyecek çok insan yoktur.
17. Güçlü fikirleri olan insanlardan etkilenmeye
1 2 3 4 5 6
yatkınım.
18. Yaşadığım durumdan mutsuz olsaydım, onu
1 2 3 4 5 6
değiştirmek için etkili önlemler alırdım.
19. Bir birey olarak yıllardır gerçekten ilerleme
1 2 3 4 5 6
kaydetmediğimi düşünüyorum.
20. Yaşamda başarmaya çalıştığım şeylerle ilgili
1 2 3 4 5 6
olarak akılcı davranma yetisine sahip değilim.
21. Arkadaşlıklarımdan çok şey öğrendiğimi
1 2 3 4 5 6
düşünüyorum.
22. Birçok yönden yaşamımdaki kazançlarıma
1 2 3 4 5 6
ilişkin hayal kırıklığı hissediyorum.
23. Diğer insanların çoğunun benden daha fazla
1 2 3 4 5 6
arkadaşı olduğunu düşünüyorum.
24. Gelecek için planlar yapmaktan ve onları
1 2 3 4 5 6
gerçekleştirmeye çalışmaktan hoşlanırım.
25. Birçok açıdan kim olduğumla ve
1 2 3 4 5 6
sürdürdüğüm yaşamla gurur duyarım.
26. Genel fikirlere ters düşse bile kendi
1 2 3 4 5 6
görüşlerime güvenirim.
27. Zamanla bir birey olarak çok geliştiğimi
1 2 3 4 5 6
düşünüyorum.
28. Kendim için yaptığım planları
1 2 3 4 5 6
gerçekleştirmede etkinimdir.
29. Başkalarıyla çok sıcak ve güvenli ilişkilerim
1 2 3 4 5 6
olmadı.
30. Tartışmalı konularla ilgili düşüncelerimi ifade
1 2 3 4 5 6
etmek benim için güçtür.
31. Eğer ailem veya arkadaşlarım kararlarıma
1 2 3 4 5 6
katılmıyorsa genellikle fikrimi değiştiririm.
32. Benim için yaşam devam eden bir öğrenme,
1 2 3 4 5 6
değişme ve büyüme sürecidir.
33. Arkadaşlarıma güvenebileceğimi biliyorum,
1 2 3 4 5 6
onlar da bana güvenebileceklerini bilirler.
34. Yaşamdaki amaçlarım benim için hayal
kırıklığı yaratmaktan çok doyum kaynağı 1 2 3 4 5 6
olmuştur.
35. Yaşamımda yaptığım seçimlerin başkaları
1 2 3 4 5 6
tarafından nasıl değerlendirildiğini önemserim.
36. Yaşamımı beni tatmin edecek biçimde
1 2 3 4 5 6
düzenlemekte zorlanırım.

57
37. Yaşamımda büyük gelişmeler ya da
değişiklikler yapmayı denemekten uzun zaman 1 2 3 4 5 6
önce vazgeçtim.
38. Kendimi başkalarının önem verdiği değerlerle
değil, kendi önem verdiğim şeylerle 1 2 3 4 5 6
değerlendiririm.
39. Zevklerime uygun bir ev ve yaşam tarzı
1 2 3 4 5 6
oluşturabildim.

58
 APPENDIX C

DÜŞÜNME STİLLERİ ENVANTERİ

Bu ölçek, problem çözme, proje, iş ya da işlemleri yürütme ve karar verme gibi

durumlarda kullandığınız farklı stratejileri ortaya koymaya yöneliktir. Lütfen aşağıda
verilen her bir durumu dikkatle okuyarak, okulda, evde ya da işte bu stratejilerin her
birini ne derece kullandığınızı, diğer bir deyişle size ne kadar uygun olduğunu, size
uyan rakamı işaretleyiniz. Lütfen, hiç boş madde bırakmayınız ve her durum için
yalnızca tek rakam işaretleyiniz.

1. Hiç bana 2. Pek bana 3. Çok az bana 4. Biraz bana

uygun değil uygun değil uygun uygun
5. Bana oldukça 6. Bana çok 7. Mükemmel biçimde (Tamamen)
uygun uygun bana uygun

DİKKAT: Lütfen aşağıdaki formu doldururken sözcükleri belirtilen

anlamlarda kullanınız.
• Problem çözme, sorun çözme anlamında kullanılmıştır, matematik problemi değil.
• İş, çalışma, proje, durum, konu, şey gibi terimler, hem okulda, hem de okul dışında
karşılaşabileceğiniz her türlü durum/olay/olgu anlamında kullanılmıştır.

Detaylara odaklanmayacağım durum ve işleri

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
tercih ederim.
Yapmam gereken işin detaylarıyla değil, genel
2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
etkileriyle ve sonuçlarıyla ilgilenirim.
Bir işi yaparken, tamamladığım kısmın bütün
3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
içinde nasıl yer aldığını görmek isterim.
Bir projede konuların genel görünümünü ya da
4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
bütünsel etkisini vurgulamaya eğilimliyim.
Spesifik ya da özel yerine, genel konulara
5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
odaklanabileceğim durumları tercih ederim.
Fikirlerimi konuşurken ya da yazarken,
6 kapsamını ve sınırlarını bütün içinde 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
göstermeyi severim.
7 Detaylara az dikkat etmeye eğilimliyim. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Gereksiz detaylar yerine, genel konuları içeren
8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
projelerle çalışmayı tercih ederim.
Genel sorular yerine ayrıntılı problemlerle
9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
uğraşmayı tercih ederim.
Genel ya da birçok problem yerine, somut olan
10 tek bir problemle ayrıntılı olarak ilgilenmeyi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
isterim.

59
 Probleme bütün olarak bakmak yerine,
11 çözebileceğim küçük parçalara ayırmaya 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
eğilimliyim.
Üstünde çalıştığım proje ile ilgili tüm detayları
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
ve bilgileri toplamayı severim.
Detaylara dikkat etmem gereken problemleri
13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
tercih ederim.
Bir işin genel görünümünden ya da etkisinden
14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
çok, işin ayrıntılarına dikkat ederim.
Bir konuyu/ durumu tartışırken ya da
15 yazarken, ayrıntıları bütünden daha önemli 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
görürüm.
Belirli bir özel kapsam gözetmeden, bilgileri
16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
ve olguları ezberlemeyi severim.

60