THE ROLE OF INTUITIVE LEARNING STYLES IN THE ADAPTATION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TO UNCERTAIN CONDITIONS

Abstract

The study addresses the relationship between rational-intuitive decision-making styles and socio-psychological adaptation among university students – a population for whom the capacity to navigate conditions of academic and social uncertainty constitutes a core developmental challenge. Contemporary higher education environments are characterized by structural ambiguity: variable learning trajectories, unclear professional prospects, and the constant demand for self-directed decision-making under informational constraints. Within this context, individual differences in cognitive information-processing styles may constitute a meaningful psychological predictor of adaptive functioning.
The theoretical framework integrates Seymour Epstein's Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST), which conceptualizes information processing as occurring in two parallel and relatively independent systems – a rational system (deliberate, analytic, rule-based) and an experiential system (automatic, associative, affect-laden) – with dual-process models of reasoning (Evans & Stanovich, 2013; Kahneman, 2011) and Rotter's locus of control theory (Rotter, 1966). Adaptation is operationalized within the phenomenological framework of Carl Rogers, wherein adaptive functioning reflects the congruence between the real self and the ideal self, as well as between personal needs and environmental demands.
An empirical study was conducted on a convenience sample of 50 young adults (age range: 18–23 years; Mage = 20.4). The Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI; Pacini & Epstein, 1999) was used to assess four dimensions of cognitive style: rational ability, rational engagement, intuitive ability, and intuitive engagement. Socio-psychological adaptation was assessed using the Rogers–Dymond Social-Psychological Adaptation scale (SPA), yielding fourteen subscale scores including adaptability, maladaptivity, self-acceptance, other-acceptance, emotional comfort, internal and external control, dominance, conformity, and escapism. Pearson correlational analysis was conducted following confirmation of distributional normality (Shapiro–Wilk, all p >.05).
Results revealed 16 statistically significant correlations out of 28 possible pairs, indicating a systematic rather than incidental pattern of association between cognitive style and adaptive functioning. Rational engagement showed negative correlations with maladaptivity (r = −.364, p <.01), self-rejection (r = −.360, p <.05), external control (r = −.426, p <.05), and escapism (r = −.381, p <.01). Intuitive engagement demonstrated the strongest positive associations in the matrix, particularly with external control (r =.508, p <.01, accounting for approximately 26% of shared variance), maladaptivity (r =.429, p <.01), self-rejection (r =.416, p <.01), and escapism (r =.440, p <.01). The absence of significant correlations with other-acceptance and emotional comfort suggests domain specificity: cognitive style appears to be a selective predictor of cognitive-attributional and behavioral-regulatory components of adaptation rather than its interpersonal or affective dimensions.
The findings are consistent with CEST predictions and extend dual-process accounts of adaptation by specifying which components of socio-psychological functioning are associated with each processing style in a non-clinical young adult sample. The correlational design precludes causal inference; bidirectional effects remain plausible, as maladaptive states may themselves reduce reflective processing capacity (Baumeister et al., 1994). Practical implications concern the design of psychological support programs for university students that target metacognitive flexibility – the capacity to situationally calibrate rational and intuitive strategies – as a proximal intervention target in conditions of educational uncertainty.