correlation between critical thinking and intelligence

• Emotional Intelligence

The Link Between Emotional Intelligence and Critical Thinking

Critical thinking requires self-regulation..

Posted December 1, 2022 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

• Leave emotion at the door when engaging in critical thinking.
• Emotional intelligence isn’t an emotion, it’s a way in which we process emotions.

In a recent entry on this blog, I discussed my interest in emotional intelligence (EI) and referred to it as an important psychological function. Some readers commented on links they saw between my discussion of EI and my generally sour view on emotion in scenarios that require critical thinking (CT). I'd like to clarify what EI is.

The generally sour view I have of emotion in the context of critical thinking is that it acts as a barrier to critical thought . I often advise that people should leave emotion at the door as much as they can when engaging in critical thinking. Of course, it is not possible to entirely eliminate emotion or its associated biases from thinking. However, by being aware of the impact of emotion and bias , we can work to account for such influences in the manner in which we draw conclusions and make decisions. Think of it as being particularly cautious. I know some great thinkers who have drawn rather poor conclusions regarding topic areas they feel passionate about and it’s likely a result of that passion (see a previous post about the concept of passion ).

How does emotional intelligence relate to this? To start, EI isn’t an emotion, rather, it’s a way in which we process emotions; for example, through appraising and regulating them. Think of a time when you have been insulted by something someone has said. Depending on the situation, it may be in your best interest to keep your true feelings about the insult to yourself. Your ability to appraise the situation and self-regulate consistent with the desired expression (or suppression of emotion in this case) is an example of emotional intelligence in action. This process is quite similar to other processes inherently involved in CT.

Through my work in developing a critical thinking framework (see, for example, Dwyer, 2017; Dwyer, Hogan & Stewart, 2014; 2015), a self-regulatory functions component was included, consisting of an array of (meta)cognitive mechanisms, like executive functioning , disposition, and motivation . The self-regulation comparison between EI and critical thinking is largely self-evident. That is, we need to self-regulate to think critically and EI is, simply, a form of self-regulation. Indeed, its self-regulatory function might even be more important than I initially gave it credit for when I started working on the framework. Only in recent years, as my focus turned towards factors that impede CT, have I realised how important EI might indeed be to CT.

I’ve been called out before for advising people to "leave emotion at the door" as if we can somehow flip the off switch on emotion. As I addressed above, we can’t eliminate all emotion. But, we can diminish its power if we make efforts to account for the influence of emotion on our thinking. Arguably, this could be half the battle. For example, before putting my foot down on an argument I feel passionate about (cue sensationalist headline, clickbait on social media ), simply pausing beforehand to ask myself whether or not my conclusion is a result of credible evidence alone or is potentially biased because of my feelings, is a great way of playing the necessary devil’s advocate to ensure the right conclusion is drawn and not just the conclusion I want to be right. In this way, EI works in a manner akin to reflective judgment , which is also a fundamental part of critical thinking.

In other words, engage your EI. If the impact of emotion on thinking is one of the biggest barriers to CT, as I believe it is, then the ability to self-regulate your thinking in a manner that accounts for such potential impact is of utmost importance. And so, we as individuals who place great value on critical thinking must in turn place great value on emotional intelligence.

Dwyer, C.P. (2017). Critical thinking: Conceptual perspectives and practical guidelines. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Dwyer, C. P., Hogan, M. J., & Stewart, I. (2014). An integrated critical thinking framework for the 21st century. Thinking Skills & Creativity, 12, 43–52.

Dwyer, C.P., Hogan, M.J., & Stewart, I. (2015). The evaluation of argument mapping-infused critical thinking instruction as a method of enhancing reflective judgment performance. Thinking Skills & Creativity, 16, 11-26.

Christopher Dwyer, Ph.D., is a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone, Ireland.

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Critical thinking, intelligence, and unsubstantiated beliefs: an integrative review.

1. Introduction

2. defining critical thinking and intelligence, 3. does critical thinking “go beyond” what is meant by intelligence, 4. dual-process theory measures and unsubstantiated beliefs, 5. assessing critical thinking and unsubstantiated beliefs, 6. dual-processing theory and research on unsubstantiated beliefs, 7. discussion, 8. conclusions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

Bensley, D.A. Critical Thinking, Intelligence, and Unsubstantiated Beliefs: An Integrative Review. J. Intell. 2023 , 11 , 207. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11110207

Bensley DA. Critical Thinking, Intelligence, and Unsubstantiated Beliefs: An Integrative Review. Journal of Intelligence . 2023; 11(11):207. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11110207

Bensley, D. Alan. 2023. "Critical Thinking, Intelligence, and Unsubstantiated Beliefs: An Integrative Review" Journal of Intelligence 11, no. 11: 207. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11110207

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Difference between intelligence and critical thinking

Some scientists have concluded that traditional intelligence tests don’t accurately test the critical thinking required in making real-life decisions. Hence, many people often consider intelligence and critical thinking as the same thing. However, they are two different concepts.

This finding means that critical thinkers are more likely to practice healthy habits that lead to better physical and mental outcomes and live longer than intelligent people. According to Dr. Heather Butler, individuals with a strong critical thinking capacity encounter fewer negative life experiences than those who are only intelligent.

So what’s the difference between intelligence and critical thinking?

On the other hand, intelligence has several definitions in psychology; some scientists believe it is a distinct ability while others believe it to be a collection of capabilities. However, it is generally known as the capability to discern, deduce, and react to information while still applying knowledge. Intelligence is often associated with adaptive behavior whereby a person uses experience to respond to a specific situation.

The techniques used to measure these two abilities also vary. When measuring intelligence, you will use an intelligence quotient (IQ) test to assess the individual. Such tests involve several sub-tests that measure a person’s spatial skills, such as understanding, reasoning, and memory.

There is also a variation between intelligent individuals and critical thinkers when it comes to personality traits. For instance, smart people are often highly adaptable to new environments, curious, and individualistic. By contrast, creative thinkers are objective-driven, critical analyzers, creative thinkers, and effective communicators.

Is critical thinking more essential than intelligence?

When it comes to hiring, many firms look at potential workers’ intelligence and even administer IQ tests as part of the interview process. However, Scientific research shows that critical thinking skills may be more necessary in making sound decisions.

To help you understand the variations between these two abilities, kindly consider the following scenario. Picture this; you’ve purchased a brand new, top-notch PC with optimal processing power and storage but decide to install an old, outdated operating system software. What is likely to happen?

To further support this claim, Dr. Heath Butler, an assistant professor at California State University, conducted a study involving 244 participants. Her research aimed to determine whether critical thinking or intelligence helped people make better future decisions on real-life events.

This psychological study found out that individuals with high critical thinking and IQ scores encountered less undesirable life events such as credit card debt, criminal arrests, and STDs. However, it is essential to note that Dr. Heath also concluded that purely between intelligence and critical thinking, the latter helped people predict life experiences and helped them avoid bad ones more significantly.

These findings deduce that you can be intelligent and still make bad life decisions without knowing it. What most intelligent people encounter when making unwise decisions are logical fallacies.

Other issues prevalent among intelligent individuals that aren’t common among critical thinkers are heuristics. A heuristic is a form of psychological shortcut that helps individuals to resolve problems quickly and efficiently. Heuristics serve as rule-of-thumb techniques that rely on memory to make quicker day-to-day decisions, such as deciding what to eat and where to go after work.

Intelligence and critical thinking are essential abilities used in daily activities such as learning, working, and solving life issues. However, they are two different concepts and comprise varying skills. Finally, scientific research shows that you can learn both intelligence and critical thinking abilities over time. If you open your mind to new learning possibilities, you can start improving on them today

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10 essential skills for effective critical thinking: mastering analytical techniques, enhancing critical listening skills: techniques for effective comprehension, best approach to problem solving: efficient strategies for success, effective argumentation techniques: mastering persuasive communication, download this free ebook.

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Is critical thinking associated with IQ?

I consider myself a person with reasonable intelligence. In my job, I require a lot of critical thinking. I am good at think laterally, but sometimes I feel I missed important critical evaluations of a simple problem. Then, I start to doubt my own intellect and rationality.

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• 1 $\begingroup$ Welcome to CogSci! Your question is currently unclear to me. Is it about critical thinking or logical thinking, and do you mean IQ by "degree of intelligence"? $\endgroup$ –  Christian Hummeluhr Commented Apr 30, 2015 at 11:31
• 2 $\begingroup$ There are two questions here, which should probably be separate: (1) Is there a correlation between IQ and critical thinking, and (2) Can critical thinking be trained? $\endgroup$ –  Josh Commented Apr 30, 2015 at 13:29
• 1 $\begingroup$ 2) is probably a duplicate of cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/1415/… $\endgroup$ –  Christian Hummeluhr Commented Apr 30, 2015 at 14:06

Critical thinking is an ill-defined concept in the cognitive sciences, so this question most likely has as many answers as there are measures of IQ and critical thinking. An accessible introduction to the literature is available here , with the general cognitive conception of critical thinking given as follows:

... the mental activities that are typically called critical thinking are actually a subset of three types of thinking: reasoning, making judgments and decisions, and problem solving. I say that critical thinking is a subset of these because we think in these ways all the time, but only sometimes in a critical way. Deciding to read this article, for example, is not critical thinking. But carefully weighing the evidence it presents in order to decide whether or not to believe what it says is.

With that said, there appears to be some empirical support for a relation between cognitive ability/IQ and critical thinking ability, at least within a dual-process theoretic framework. Sá, West and Stanovich (1999) reported:

Participants high in cognitive ability were able to flexibly use prior knowledge, depending upon its efficacy in a particular environment. They were more likely to project a relationship when it reflected a useful cue, but they were also less likely to project a prior belief when the belief was inefficacious.

I've provided a link to the PDF my references, since they refer directly to cognitive ability rather than IQ, and the equivalence is only made clear in their Method section.

• Sá, W. C., West, R. F., & Stanovich, K. E. (1999). The domain specificity and generality of belief bias: Searching for a generalizable critical thinking skill. Journal of educational psychology, 91(3), 497.

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The correlation between emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills with different learning styles in science learning

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Marleny Leasa; The correlation between emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills with different learning styles in science learning. AIP Conf. Proc. 21 September 2018; 2014 (1): 020135. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5054539

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The previous research reports suggest that the learning model of NHT combined with metacognitive strategies has a significant effect on emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills. This study aims to reveal the correlation between emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills of students with different learning styles in science learning using the NHT model combined with metacognitive strategies. Emotional intelligence questionnaires are used to measure students’ emotional intelligence. Data of critical thinking skills are obtained through critical thinking skills tests in both pretest and posttest forms. Data analysis was done by linear regression. The results revealed that there was no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills in students with auditory, read, and kinesthetic learning styles. The resulted regression equations for auditory, read, and kinesthetic learning styles are Y = 45.203 + 0.027, Y = 49.021 - 0.127, and Y = 39.314 + 0.059. The information reveals that the level of emotional intelligence is not a determinant factor in increasing the critical thinking skills of students in terms of learning styles. Allegedly, learning model is more influential on improving emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills. Further research is needed to examine the influence of learning style factors on emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills in other subjects at various levels of education.

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The relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills in Iranian nursing students

Marzieh hasanpour.

1 School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Maryam Bagheri

2 Student Research Committee, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

Fatemeh Ghaedi Heidari

Background: Critical thinking skills are one of the most important competencies in successful clinical performance of nursing students. Emotional intelligence is also one of the concepts related to critical thinking and can play an important role in the ability to think. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking in nursing students.

Methods: This was a quantitative, descriptive–correlative Study. Participants were nursing students in different levels. To collect data, California Critical Thinking Test (form B) and Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire were used. Then, data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS 16 software.

Results: Pearson correlation test showed no significant correlation between the total score of critical thinking skills and each of its components with the total score of emotional intelligence and its component, except for empathy (p=0.001), in nursing students.

Conclusion: The findings revealed a significant relationship between empathy and critical thinking skills in nursing students. Using these elements as teaching techniques for nursing education courses can be very helpful in developing good nurse-patient relationships and improving patient care.

↑ What is “already known” in this topic:

Critical thinking and emotional intelligence are acquirable and measurable.

→ What this article adds:

According to the results, empathy and critical thinking skills should be incorporated into the nursing curriculum to enhance nurse-patient relationship and patient care.

Introduction

Thinking and the skill of how to think are important concepts that have attracted the attention of many scholars for several years, and nowadays improving thinking skills is one of the fundamental goals of education systems. Critical thinking is one method of thinking ( 1 ). Also, it is one of the most important principles of education in every country, and each country needs people with high critical thinking ability for its development ( 2 ). Critical thinking has complex mental process and activity. Thus, there is no single definition for it, and the numbers of definitions of critical thinking are as equal as those of experts in this area ( 3 , 4 ). Many efforts have been made to reach a consensus for concepts present in the definitions of critical thinking, such as the effort of American Psychological Association (APA) that conducted a Delphi study under the supervision of Facione in 1990, whose results led to the following definition of critical thinking ( 5 ):

“Purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which judgments are based.”( 6 ).

Studies have indicated that in response to rapid changes of health settings, nurses should have critical thinking skills to provide effective care to the patients and prepare themselves for accepting roles and tasks of health care systems ( 7 ). However, several studies revealed low critical thinking skills among nursing students ( 8 - 11 ).

Critical thinking in nursing has at least 2 emotional and cognitive dimensions ( 12 ). According to Elder (1996), critical thinking is the key to emotional intelligence. She believed that, “critical thinking is the only plausible vehicle by which we could bring intelligence to bear upon our emotional life." ( 13 ). Emotional intelligence is an important concept in nursing and is defined as “the ability to perceive emotions, access and generate emotions to assist thought, understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and reflectively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.”( 14 ). Evidence has shown that emotional intelligence associates with individual success or failure in different areas of life ( 15 ). Based on the view of Bar-On, emotional intelligence is a set of capacities, beliefs, and non-cognitive skills and increases individual capabilities to successfully face challenges and environmental pressures ( 16 ). Several studies on emotional intelligence have indicated that individuals with higher emotional intelligence have more spiritual well-being( 17 ), lower mental disorders ( 18 ), lower possibility of suicide ( 19 ), higher self-efficacy ( 20 ), higher motivation ( 21 ), better problem-solving ( 22 ), and higher socio emotional adjustment ( 23 ). Also, several studies have been conducted on the relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking in baccalaureate nursing students and nurses, and some indicated a positive correlation between these 2 variables ( 24 - 27 ). Other studies found no relationship between critical thinking and emotional intelligence ( 28 , 29 ). Thus, considering the importance of these 2 fundamental concepts and their positive effects on the care provided by nursing students and nurses and taking into account the contradictory findings, we aimed at studying the relationship between these 2 variables. We conducted this study to emphasize the importance of simultaneous growth of emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills in nursing and improve social health and performance of nurses.

This was a descriptive-correlative study. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Then, participants were selected among B.S. students using systematic random sampling and among M.S and Ph.D students using convenience sampling due to lack of availability. Students who had physical and mental capabilities to answer the questions were allowed to enter the study, and exclusion criterion was having an educational failure in the past educational semester. Sample size was determined to be 150 using the formula with 95% confidence level. In total, 169 nursing students participated in the study. After explaining the aim of the study to the participants and obtaining their informed consent, they were asked to complete the questionnaires.

Data gathering instruments included a questionnaire with 3 parts: The first part was related to demographic characteristics, the second to questions of California Critical Thinking Skills Test (form B), and the third included items on Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. The second part was related to items of California Critical Thinking Skills Test (form B), which included 34 itemsin5cognitive skills, such as evaluation, inference, inductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning. In this test, 9 items were related to analysis subscale, 14 to evaluation, and11toinference. Each item has4 or5options, among which 1 is the correct answer. Score 1 is given to each correct option. In this study, the mean scores of subscales have been stated as percentage to facilitate reporting results. Therefore, the lowest score for this test is 0 and the highest 34. Maximum time to complete the test was 45 minutes. The 34-item test was extracted from 200 items and arranged considering the complexity and discipline of critical thinking( 3 ). The test was normalized in different countries and had good validity and reliability. The test has been validated and arranged based on our culture. In the study by Khodamoradi (2006), content and face validity of the test was confirmed. To determine the reliability of the test, internal and external consistencies were used. The internal correlation coefficient for the subtests was between 0.71 and 0.77, showing that the subscales had a significant positive correlation with the total score of the test (r = 0.86). Also, results of test-retest showed the correlation coefficient of 90% and Kappa coefficient of 0.81( 30 ).

The third part was associated with items of Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, which includes 90 items that measures emotional intelligence by 15 subscales, including problem-solving, pleasure, independence, resistance against mental pressure, self-actualization, emotional self-awareness, realism, interpersonal relationship, optimism, self-esteem, impulse control, resiliency, responsibility, empathy, and self-expression. Total score of each subscale is equal to sum of scores of all items of the subscale. Moreover, the total score of the questionnaire is equal to sum of the scores of 15 subscales. Items were scored by 5-point Likert scale as follow: completely agree ( 5 ), agree ( 4 ), often ( 3 ), disagree ( 2 ), and completely disagree ( 1 ). Scoring was done inversely for some questions with negative contents, ranging from completely agree (score of 1) to completely disagree (score of 5). The maximum total score of the questionnaire was 450 and the minimum was 90; and in each subscale, the maximum score was 30 and the minimum was 6. Primary Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, which has been standardized in Iran, includes 117 items. It has an acceptable content validity, and its reliability has been reported to be 0.93 using Cornbrash’s alpha coefficient ( 31 ).

Data were analyzed using SPSS Version16 and descriptive statistical methods (mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient).

In the present study, 124 B.S students, 24 M.S students, and 21 Ph.D. students participated, of whom 64.5% were female and 35.5% were male, with the mean± SD age of 24.58±55.6 years (age range: 18-50 years). Also, 127 (75%) participants were single and 42 (25%) were married.

The results revealed that the mean score of critical thinking skills of nursing students was 11.15(SD=3.46). Also, the mean total score of emotional intelligence was reported to be 336.53(SD=33.08).The results showed no significant correlation between critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence using Pearson correlation test (p=0.62, r=0.038).

Also, Table 1 demonstrates the relationship between scores of emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills of nursing students. Using Pearson test, a significant relationship was found between critical thinking skills and empathy as a component of emotional intelligence (p=0.001).

*P-value< 0.05 is significant. ES: Emotional Self-awareness, A: Assertiveness, S-R: Self-regard, SA: Self-actualization, I: Independence, E: Empathy, SR: Social responsibility, IR: Interpersonal relationship, RT: Reality testing, F: Flexibility, PS: Problem- solving, ST: Stress tolerance, IC: Impulse control, O: Optimism, H: Happiness

This study revealed that the mean total score of critical thinking skills was less than half of the maximums core, indicating weakness of these skills in nursing students. However, the average total score of emotional intelligence was higher than half of the maximum questionnaire score. Thus, it can be inferred that emotional intelligence is relatively favorable or that the overestimation of the score of emotional intelligence is due to the self-report nature of the questionnaire. The results of critical thinking in the present study agreed with those obtained from studies on nursing students with B.S degree ( 10 , 11 , 25 , 32 ). Furthermore, the score of critical thinking skills in this study was low. Thus, it is highly important to enhance critical thinking skills in nursing students through active teaching methods, such as concept mapping, simulation, and clinical research ( 33 ). Therefore, it is proposed to revise teaching methods for nursing students.

With respect to the mean total score of emotional intelligence, the results of studies conducted by Salehi et al.(2012) ( 34 ) and Namdar et al.(2008) ( 35 )on nursing students were similar to this study.

This study found no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills of nursing students(r=0.038, p=0.62). This finding is congruent with that of the study of Haghani et al. (2011)( 36 ), but it is incongruent with findings of several other studies ( 13 , 25 , 27 , 28 ). Also, the findings indicated that among the components of emotional intelligence, there was only a significant relationship between critical thinking skills and empathy. Such differences can be attributed to the methodological differences between the studies, including the type of sample, sampling method, and the tools used for measuring the variables.

The present study had some limitations. First, in this study, data collection merely relied on nursing students (self-report). This may have produced socially desirable responses because the researchers used the Bar-On Questionnaire as a self-report tool. Second, the design of this study was correlational, and thus causal relationship could not be established. We hope that the results of this study could provide a basis for those studies that aim at determining a causal relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills in Iranian nursing students.

In this study, the total score of critical thinking was lower than the average score, and the total score of emotional intelligence was relatively good. Also, there was a weak relationship between the components of emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills. There was only a significant correlation between critical thinking skills and empathy component of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence skills and critical thinking skills can be learned, so other components of emotional intelligence and subscales of critical thinking should be improved by active learning-teaching methods and new student-centered methods, such as brain-storming, concept mapping, mind map, and team teaching, self-learning, Socratic questioning and answering, problem-solving, and role modeling of teachers in nursing education. Finally, by training thoughtful and critical thinker nurses with high emotional intelligence, it is hoped to develop core concepts in nursing, i.e., proper communication with patients and provide optimal care resulting in improved community health.

Acknowledgement

This study was the product of a research project (No: 290195) that was financially approved and supported by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) and Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center. Authors also appreciate B.S, M.S, and Ph.D. nursing students in Nursing and Midwifery Faculty of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences for their participation.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Cite this article as: Hasanpour M, Bagheri M, Ghaedi Heidari F. The relationship between emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills in Iranian nursing students. Med J Islam Repub Iran . 2018(18 May); 32:40. https://doi.org/10.14196/mjiri.32.40

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2018.05.024
• Corpus ID: 47013988

The relationship between critical thinking and emotional intelligence in nursing students: A longitudinal study.

• H. Kaya , Emine Şenyuva , Gönül Bodur
• Published in Nurse Education Today 1 September 2018
• Education, Medicine, Psychology

44 Citations

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