The relation of rational and experiential information processing styles to personality, basic beliefs, and the ratio-bias phenomenon.

A new version of the Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI), which measures rational and experiential thinking styles and includes subscales of self-reported ability and engagement, was examined in two studies. In Study 1, the two main scales were independent, and they and their subscales exhibited discriminant validity and contributed to the prediction of a variety of measures beyond the contribution of the Big Five scales. A rational thinking style was most strongly and directly related to Ego Strength, Openness, Conscientiousness, and favorable basic beliefs about the self and the world, and it was most strongly inversely related to Neuroticism and Conservatism. An experiential thinking style was most strongly directly related to Extraversion, Agreeableness, Favorable Relationships Beliefs, and Emotional Expressivity, and it was most strongly inversely related to Categorical Thinking, Distrust of Others, and Intolerance. In Study 2, a rational thinking style was inversely related and an experiential thinking style was unrelated to nonoptimal responses in a game of chance. It was concluded that the new REI is a significant improvement over the previous version and measures unique aspects of personality. Language: en

[1]  Constructive thinking and mental and physical well-being. , 1992 .

[2]  Garth J. O. Fletcher.  Psychology and Common Sense. , 1984 .

[3]  R. Larsen,et al.  Affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic: A review , 1987 .

[4]  Richard A. Harshman,et al.  Factor analysis of a questionnaire on imagery and verbal habits and skills. , 1983 .

[5]  S. Epstein,et al.  Depressive realism from the perspective of cognitive-experiential self-theory. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  W. Swann,et al.  Hypothesis-Testing Processes in Social Interaction , 1978 .

[7]  Terri Gullickson,et al.  Annals of Child Development , 1995 .

[8]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  The need for cognition. , 1982 .

[9]  S. Epstein.  Integration of the cognitive and the psychodynamic unconscious. , 1994, The American psychologist.

[10]  J. Block,et al.  The Role of Ego-Control and Ego-Resiliency in the Organization of Behavior , 1980 .

[11]  L. Myaskovsky,et al.  The Easy Path From Many To Much: the Numerosity Heuristic , 1994, Cognitive Psychology.

[12]  Prentice Starkey,et al.  The early development of numerical reasoning , 1992, Cognition.

[13]  Seymour Epstein,et al.  Individual Differences in Intuitive-Exp eriential and Analytical-Rational Thinking Styles , 1996 .

[14]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  DISPOSITIONAL DIFFERENCES IN COGNITIVE MOTIVATION : THE LIFE AND TIMES OF INDIVIDUALS VARYING IN NEED FOR COGNITION , 1996 .

[15]  A. Paivio.  Imagery and verbal processes , 1972 .

[16]  P. Costa,et al.  Normal Personality Assessment in Clinical Practice: The NEO Personality Inventory. , 1992 .

[17]  R. Siegler.  Developmental Sequences within and between Concepts. , 1981 .

[18]  D. Gilbert.  How mental systems believe. , 1991 .

[19]  D. A. Smith,et al.  Individual differences in dispositional expressiveness: development and validation of the Emotional Expressivity Scale. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[20]  Constructive thinking: a broad coping variable with specific components. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  J. Block,et al.  IQ and ego-resiliency: conceptual and empirical connections and separateness. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches , 1981 .

[23]  S. Epstein,et al.  Conflict Between Intuitive and Rational Processing: When People Behave Against Their Better Judgment , 1994 .

[24]  L. Abramson,et al.  Judgment of contingency in depressed and nondepressed students: sadder but wiser? , 1979, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[25]  C. Gallistel,et al.  Preverbal and verbal counting and computation , 1992, Cognition.

[26]  C. Gallistel.  Animal cognition: the representation of space, time and number. , 1989, Annual review of psychology.

[27]  D. Geary,et al.  Reflections of evolution and culture in children's cognition. Implications for mathematical development and instruction. , 1995, The American psychologist.

[28]  C. Gallistel.  The organization of learning , 1990 .

[29]  S Epstein,et al.  Cognitive-experiential self-theory and subjective probability: further evidence for two conceptual systems. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[30]  S. Sloman.  The empirical case for two systems of reasoning. , 1996 .

[31]  S. Chaiken,et al.  Dual-process theories in social psychology , 1999 .

[32]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1993 .

[33]  S. Epstein,et al.  Unforgettable Experiences: The Relation of Life Events to Basic Beliefs About Self and World , 1992 .

[34]  R. Holden,et al.  Structured psychopathological test item characteristics and validity , 1990 .