Individual Differences in Analytic Versus Holistic Thinking

• Published in: Personality & social psychology bulletin Vol. 33; no. 5; pp. 691 - 705
• Main Authors: Choi, Incheol, Koo, Minkyung, Jong An Choi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-05-2007; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adult; Analytic induction; Cognition; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Cultural Characteristics; Cultural differences; Discriminant analysis; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Holistic approach; Holistic medicine; Humans; Individual differences; Korea; Male; Philosophy; Psychological Tests; Reproducibility of Results; Social psychology; Thinking; United States; United States; Korea; United States > US; South Korea; cognition; culture; analytic-holistic thinking
• ISSN: 0146-1672; 1552-7433
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167206298568

The authors constructed the Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS) to measure analytic versus holistic thinking tendency. In Study 1, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, a 24-item scale was developed. In Study 2, convergent and discriminant validities were tested. In Studies 3 and 4, the known-group difference validity was examined by comparing scores on the AHS of Americans and Koreans (Study 3) and of Korean students of Oriental medicine and Korean students of non-Oriental medicine majors (Study 4). Results of Studies 3 and 4 show that Koreans and Korean students of Oriental medicine scored higher on the AHS than did Americans and Korean students of non-Oriental medicine majors, respectively. Studies 5 and 6 tested predictive validity by examining associations of the AHS with performances on two cognitive tasks (categorization and causal reasoning). Data analysis shows that those with high scores on the AHS displayed the holistic pattern of performances on each task more than did those with low scores.