Adaptation of Cognitive Style Indicator: Validity and Reliability Studies of the Indicator

IntroductionIn today's world, an individual's cognitive styles play a very significant role in shaping their attitudes, emotions and lives. Thus, individuals need to raise their awareness about their cognitive styles. The cognitive style literature review shows that there is no meaningful correlation between intuitive thinking and cognitive style. Meanwhile, it was found that there is no positive or negative relationship between cognitive style and decision-making indicator style (Simuth & Sarmany-Shuller, 2010). Cools, Van den Broeck and Bouckenooghe (2009) found that there is a correlation between individuals' cognitive styles and job attitudes such as job satisfaction, job seeking behaviors and job leaving tendencies.It has been observed that the amount of research into scale studies concerning the cognitive style indicators of university students is limited in Turkey. Therefore, a measurement tool is needed in order to determine the cognitive styles of university students. In this study it is believed that the Cognitive Style Indicator (CoSI) developed by Cools and Van den Broeck (2007) will contribute to the field in terms of carrying out validity and reliability studies. In addition, this study will also be beneficial in further research aiming to determine the cognitive style indicators of university students.Since there are no tools to assess the cognitive styles of university students (late adolescents) in Turkey, in this study, it is thought that conducting studies on reliability and validity of Cognitive Style Indicators, developed by Cools and Van den Broeck (2007), would contribute to the field.MethodParticipantsThe sampling group consisted of 1851 first- fourth year students studying at 63 universities during the fall 2012- 2013 academic year. However, the data gathered from 331 respondents were excluded from the analysis due to incorrect or missing marking; therefore, the analysis was conducted using a 1520-person data set. The number of female students participating in the study was 885 and the number of male students participating in the study was 635.Research InstrumentsCognitive Style Indicator (CoSI). The indicator developed by Cools and Van Den Broeck (2007). Cognitive Style Indicator (CoSI) is a five point Likert- type scale consisting of 3 subscales and 18 items. CoSI subscales are as follows: Planning, knowing, and creating. The CoSI distinguishes between three cognitive styles: a planning style (seven items, e.g., I prefer clear structures to do my job), a knowing style (four items, e.g., I like to analyze problems), and a creating style (seven items, e.g., I like to extend the boundaries) Cools and Van den Broeck (2007). CoSI factor loadings in study 1, study 2 and study 3 respectively are for planning 0.44-0.71, 0.54-0.77, 0.44- 0.74; for creativity 0.44-0.72, 0.50-0.81, 0.36-0.71 and for knowing -0.57- - 0.68, -0.56- -0.90, -0.53- -0.63. Meanwhile, Cronbach Alpha Coefficient is respectively in study 1, study 2 and study 3 for planning 0.81, 0.84, 0.85; for creativity 0.79, 0.82, 0.78 and for knowing 0.73, 0.79, and 0.76. ProcedureCoSI draft was implemented on students in a classroom environment as a group. Prior to the implementation, the students were informed of the aim of the study and they were assured that their responses would be kept secret.Data AnalysisData analysis was carried out through Lisrel 8.54 ver. SPSS 18.0 package programmes. The upper limit of the margin error was determined as 0.05. In the frame of construct validity, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was carried out for the data gathered from the first group in order to determine to what extent the items are included in the three factors. After this procedure, the construct validity was tested by conducting Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) for the data obtained from this group. Meanwhile, the model was tested, test-retest was carried out and Cronbach's Alpha was obtained for the data gathered from the second study group (Buyukozturk, 2005; Sumer, 2000). …