Com Parison Affec Tive Dis Po Si Tions toward Crit I Cal Thinking across Chi Nese and Amer I Can Bac Ca Lau Re Ate Nursing Stu Dents Intro Duc Tion

AB STRACT: The pur pose of this cross-cultural study is to under stand and com pare affec tive dis po si tions toward crit i cal think ing across Chi nese and Amer i can cul tures. Two con ve nience sam ples of 214 and 196 under grad u ate nurs ing stu dents were obtained in Tai wan and the USA, respec tively. The Cal i for nia Crit i cal Thinking Dis po si tions Inven tory (CCTDI) was used to mea sure crit i cal think ing dis po si tions. The ages of the stu dents in these sam ples ranged from 19 to 28 (M = 22, SD = 1.87) for the Chi nese sam ple, and from 20 to 51 (M = 28, SD = 6.08) for the Amer i can. For the Chi nese sam ple, all means of the seven subscale scores were above 40, except for truth seek ing, systematicity and matu rity. For the Amer i can sam ple, all means of the seven subscale scores were above 40, except for truth seek ing. The mean item responses for each subscale were sig nif i cantly dif fer ent between the two sam ples [F(1, 408) = 54.11, p < .01] and across the subscales [F(6, 2448) = 905, p < .01]. Sig nif i cant dif fer ences between the two sam ples were also found in truth-seeking, t (408) = 14.70 (p < .001), open-mindedness, t(408) = 6.17 (p < .001), systematicity, t (408) = 4.73 (p < .001) and matu rity, t(408) = 10.46 (p < .001). The find ings pro vide infor ma tion to under stand affec tive dis po si tions toward crit i cal think ing in either Chi nese or Amer i can stu dents. The dif fer ences may con trib ute to the cul tural dif fer ences shown in their dis po si tions.