Thinking Styles and Identity Development among Chinese University Students

This study investigates the relationship between thinking styles and identity development among Chinese students. Students from Shanghai responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised, based on Sternberg’s theory of mental self-government, and to the Erwin Identity Scale-III, grounded in Chickering’s theory of psychosocial development. Not only were thinking styles strongly associated with identity development, but also the former had predictive power for the latter. Along with findings in the existing literature, results of this study call for a collaborative effort between teaching faculty and student development educators in fostering holistic student development.