Measuring Twisted Thinking among Young University Students

Research Purpose: Measuring twisted thinking among young university students.
Background: The research aimed to reveal the level of twisted thinking among young students at the University of Mosul.
Methodological approach: This study used the descriptive approach on a stratified random sample of 400 male and female students in the second year and different specializations for the academic year (2023-2024). The researchers designed a test to measure twisted thinking and extracted the psychometric properties of the test (validity and reliability)
Findings: The results indicated that the student's scores on the twisted thinking test were high. The arithmetic mean of the research sample on the test was 64.45 with a standard deviation of 3.45. When compared to the hypothetical mean of the test of 60, it became clear that the arithmetic mean was higher and the calculated t value was 9.54, exceeding the tabular t value of 1.96 at a significance level of 5% with 399 degrees of freedom.
Implications: The study highlights the impact of negative thinking patterns represented by twisted thinking patterns on students' academic and social lives and the need to develop positive thinking skills to confront these negative patterns.

Twisted thinking; Catastrophic thoughts; Negative filtering thoughts; White or black thoughts; Mind reading.

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