Cognitive empowerment among university students

Abstract

The current research aims to investigate:

• The cognitive empowerment among university students.
• The difference in the relationship in cognitive empowerment according gender (males - females) and specialization (scientific – humanities) The research sample consisted of 400male and female students from Al-Mustansiriya University (morning studies) for the academic year 2023-2024, representing both genders (males - females) and specializations (scientific – humanities(.To achieve the objectives of the current research, the researcher adopted the Cognitive Empowerment Scale developed by Khudair (2022), based on the model of Thomas and Velthoues (1990), consisting of 20hypothetical situations distributed across cognitive empowerment domains (influence, efficiency, meaning, choice). Each hypothetical situation has three alternatives, After applying the research tools to the research sample of 400 students selected using a multi-stage random sampling method, data were statistically processed using Pearson correlation coefficient, Cronbach's alpha, one-sample t-test, chi-square test, and confirmatory factor analysis. Statistical analysis revealed the following results:

1-The research sample showed cognitive empowerment.

2-There is no statistically significant difference in cognitive empowerment based on gender, but there is a significant difference based on specialization, favoring practical specialization.