Structural Modeling of the Relationship between Deterministic Thinking, Cognitive Styles, and Emotional Creativity with the Mediating Roles of Self-Efficacy, Creativity, and Emotional-Social Competence in Students

There is a boundary between cognition and excitement, i.e., creativity. Different dimensions of fluidity, flexibility, expansion, originality, and complexity of thinking are the indicators and criteria of cognitive creativity. Self–efficacy creativity is derived from the term self–efficacy. Creative self–efficacy represents a self–judgment of the ability to influence choice, effort, goal, achievement, and outcome. Emotional–social competence is an individual’s ability to effectively cope with the demands and challenges of everyday life; accordingly, these measures include the ability to maintain wellbeing and manifest such ability in positive and adaptive behaviors in interaction with others, culture, and environment. In the educational system and concerning learning, there exist several factors that in turn affect learning. One of these characteristics is cognitive styles. A cognitive error type is a cognitive distortion, like definitive thinking. Definitive thinking distorts facts. The present study aimed to develop a structural model of deterministic thinking, cognitive styles, and studentschr('39') emotional creativity with the mediating role of creative self–efficacy and emotional–social competence in 11th–grade female students.

The present research method was descriptive and the correlation research design was structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this study included all 11th–grade female students in the academic year of 2018–2019 in Tehran City, Iran; of whom, 460 subjects were selected by cluster random sampling approach. Accordingly, 5 districts were randomly selected from the districts of Tehran. In each region, two public high schools for girls were randomly selected. Subsequently, in each high school, two experimental 11th grade classes were randomly selected. Next, the study participants individually completed the questionnaires. The inclusion criteria were female gender, 11th grade of secondary school education, satisfaction to participate in the study, and having adequate time to complete the questionnaires. The exclusion criteria were reluctance to participate in the research and failure to complete the research questionnaires. The required data were collected using the Emotional Creativity Inventory (Averill, 1999), the Deterministic Thinking Inventory (Younesi & Mirafzal, 2012), the Cognitive Styles Questionnaire (Witkin et al., 1977), the Creativity Self–Efficacy Scale (Lee, 2008), and the Social–Emotional Competence Questionnaire (Zhu & Ee, 2012). Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling were used in SPSS and AMOS to analyze the research data at the significance level of 0.05.

The obtained results suggested that conclusive thinking (β=–0.19, p=0.009) and independent cognitive style (β=0.34, p=0.001) presented a direct effect on emotional–social competence. Neutral cognitive style (β=0.12, p=0.045) and independent cognitive style (β=0.33, p=0.001) directly impacted creativity self–efficacy; emotional–social competence (β=0.55, p=0.001) and creativity self–efficacy (β=0.16, p=0.001) directly affected emotional creativity. Furthermore, the relationship between definitive thinking and emotional creativity (with the mediating role of emotional–social competence) was negative and significant (β=–0.104, p=0.002); there was a positive and significant relationship between independent cognitive style and emotional creativity with the mediating role of emotional–social competence (β=0.275, p=0.002). However, the relationship between definitive thinking and emotional creativity (β=–0.008, p=0.885); independent cognitive style and emotional creativity (β=0.054, p=0.196); dependent cognitive style and emotional creativity (β=0.014, p=0.125); neutral cognitive style and emotional creativity (β=0.021, p=0.234) (with the mediating role of creativity self–efficacy) was not significant.

Emotional–social competence plays a mediating role in the relationship between deterministic thinking, independent cognitive style, and emotional creativity. The present research results could be beneficial for specialists in the fields of psychology, education, and education administration.