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Published on: May 4, 2020
Title: Cognitive Flexibility as a Mediator Between Critical Thinking Disposition and Life Satisfaction in Pharmacy
Elif Ulutas Deniz1, Rumeysa Eren Keskin1, Feyza Elveren2
1Department of Pharmacy Management Faculty of Pharmacy, Atatürk University, Yakutiye-Erzurum, Türkiye.
Objective:
This study aimed to examine the relationships between critical thinking disposition, cognitive flexibility, and life satisfaction and to investigate whether cognitive flexibility mediates the association between critical thinking and life satisfaction in pharmacy students.
Methods:
A cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study was conducted with undergraduate pharmacy students in Türkiye recruited through convenience sampling via the pharmacy faculty student groups of the Turkish Pharmacists' Association Youth Commission (N = 468; responses from 10 pharmacy faculties). Participants completed validated self-report measures of critical thinking disposition, cognitive flexibility, and life satisfaction. Data were analyzed using correlation analyses and a regression-based mediation model with bootstrapped confidence intervals to test the indirect effect of critical thinking on life satisfaction via cognitive flexibility.
Results:
Critical thinking disposition was positively associated with both cognitive flexibility and life satisfaction, and cognitive flexibility was positively associated with life satisfaction. When critical thinking and cognitive flexibility were entered simultaneously into the model, the direct association between critical thinking and life satisfaction was not statistically significant, whereas the indirect association through cognitive flexibility was statistically significant.
Conclusion:
Cognitive flexibility may be an important factor linking higher critical thinking disposition with greater life satisfaction in pharmacy students. These findings suggest that educational efforts addressing critical thinking could also consider fostering flexible cognitive processing, such as generating alternative perspectives, tolerating ambiguity, and adaptively reframing academic and clinical challenges. This study may inform curriculum strategies that aim to enhance the professional competencies and psychological well-being of future pharmacists.
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