Japanese College Students' Thinking Styles

Abstract

The Inquiry Mode Questionnaire by Harrison and Bramson was administered to 58 Japanese college students in the USA to measure their thinking styles. The analysis showed that these Japanese students scored higher on the idealist, analyst, and pragmatist styles than on the realist and synthesist styles. It was also observed that the 9 junior and 34 senior students scored as more idealistic than the 15 sophomores, and the 44 men scored higher than the 14 women on the synthesist style. A positive correlation was found between academic achievement (GPA) and scores on the analyst style. Negative correlations obtained between academic achievement and scores on the synthesist style and among scores on the thinking styles.