The Impact of Resistance to Change on the Implementation of Quality Management System in the Ministry of Education (General Directorate of Education in South Batinah Governorate as a Model)

This study is investigating the reality of resistance to change in the light of Quality Management System (QMS) implementation in the Ministry of Education (South Batinah Directorate as a model of the study). It tries to answer some questions related to the main factors that lead to resistance to change with correlations of gender, years of experience and educational level. The method of collecting data of this study was conducting quantitatively through an electronic questionnaire including 59 participants of directors in different administrative level. The data has been analyzed statistically through SPSS. The result shows that the performance of the employees was impacted through the lack of awareness of the QMS requirements. Although, the all four factors recorded close level of resistance, the cognitive rigidity factor recorded the highest factor that lead to resistance to change. The study results can be generalized to other directorates in the Ministry of Education because the similar work environment. This study can be used to make some very crucial amendments in the future in managing QMS in the organization.

Testing cognitive and interpersonal asymmetry vs. symmetry among voters in the 2020 Presidential primaries

During the 2020 U.S. Presidential primary season, we measured candidate support and cognitive and interpersonal variables associated with political ideology among 831 U.S. participants. Cognitive style variables included openness to experience, active open-minded thinking, dogmatism, and preference for one right answer. Interpersonal variables were compassion and empathy. We modeled candidate support across the political spectrum, ranging from the most conservative to the most liberal (Trump, Bloomberg, Biden, Warren, Sanders), testing competing pre-registered predictions informed by the symmetry and asymmetry perspectives on political ideology. Specifically, we tested whether mean levels on the variables of interest across candidate supporters conformed to patterns consistent with symmetry (i.e., a curvilinear pattern with supporters of relatively extreme candidates being similar to each other relative to supporters of moderate candidates) vs. asymmetry (e.g., linear differences across supporters of liberal vs. conservative candidates). Results broadly supported the asymmetry perspective: Supporters of liberal candidates were generally lower on cognitive rigidity and higher on interpersonal warmth than supporters of conservative candidates. Results and implications are discussed.

Cognition and Emotion in Extreme Political Action: Individual Differences and Dynamic Interactions

Who is most likely to join and engage in extreme political action? Although traditional theories have focused on situational factors or group identity, an emerging science illustrates that tendencies for extreme political action may also be rooted in individuals’ idiosyncratic cognitive and affective dispositions. This article synthesizes cutting-edge evidence demonstrating that individuals’ cognitive and affective architecture shapes their willingness to support ideological violence. In the cognitive domain, traits such as cognitive rigidity, slow perceptual strategies, and poor executive functions are linked to heightened endorsement for ideological violence. In the emotion domain, characteristics associated with emotional reactivity and impaired emotional regulation, such as sensation seeking and impulsivity, can facilitate readiness for extreme political action. The review homes in on the roles of cognitive rigidity and sensation seeking as traits heightening proclivities for extreme pro-group behavior and recommends that future research should assess cognition-emotion interactions to reveal different subprofiles of political actors. A theoretical framework focused on cognitive and affective information-processing traits—and their interactions—opens up tractable empirical questions and a future research agenda. Identifying subsets of ideologues is an endeavor with potential to inform the design of evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing ideological extremism and fostering social understanding.

Set-shifting-related basal ganglia deformation as a novel familial marker of obsessive–compulsive disorder

The symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) are suggestive of cognitive rigidity, and previous work identified impaired flexible responding on set-shifting tasks in such patients. The basal ganglia are central to habit learning and are thought to be abnormal in OCD, contributing to inflexible, rigid habitual patterns of behaviour. Here, we demonstrate that increased cognitive inflexibility, indexed by poor performance on the set-shifting task, correlated with putamen morphology, and that patients and their asymptomatic relatives had common curvature abnormalities within this same structure. The association between the structure of the putamen and the extradimensional errors was found to be significantly familial in OCD proband–relative pairs. The data implicate changes in basal ganglia structure linked to cognitive inflexibility as a familial marker of OCD. This may reflect a predisposing heightened propensity toward habitual response patterns and deficits in goal-directed planning.

Going Viral: How Fear, Socio-Cognitive Polarization and Problem-Solving Influence Fake News Detection and Proliferation During COVID-19 Pandemic

In times of uncertainty, people often seek out information to help alleviate fear, possibly leaving them vulnerable to false information. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we attended to a viral spread of incorrect and misleading information that compromised collective actions and public health measures to contain the spread of the disease. We investigated the influence of fear of COVID-19 on social and cognitive factors including believing in fake news, bullshit receptivity, overclaiming, and problem-solving—within two of the populations that have been severely hit by COVID-19: Italy and the United States of America. To gain a better understanding of the role of misinformation during the early height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we also investigated whether problem-solving ability and socio-cognitive polarization were associated with believing in fake news. Results showed that fear of COVID-19 is related to seeking out information about the virus and avoiding infection in the Italian and American samples, as well as a willingness to share real news (COVID and non-COVID-related) headlines in the American sample. However, fear positively correlated with bullshit receptivity, suggesting that the pandemic might have contributed to creating a situation where people were pushed toward pseudo-profound existential beliefs. Furthermore, problem-solving ability was associated with correctly discerning real or fake news, whereas socio-cognitive polarization was the strongest predictor of believing in fake news in both samples. From these results, we concluded that a construct reflecting cognitive rigidity, neglecting alternative information, and black-and-white thinking negatively predicts the ability to discern fake from real news. Such a construct extends also to reasoning processes based on thinking outside the box and considering alternative information such as problem-solving.

Cognitive Rigidity in Adolescence with a Tendency to Autoregressive Behavior Model

The history of studying autoaggressive behavior model and cognitive rigidity is quite extensive and diverse. Nevertheless, the relevance of studying the problem of autoaggression among adolescents has increased significantly in recent decades. Self-harming and self-destructive behavior has become a fashion trend among the younger generation. The aim of the research is studying of features cognitive rigidity in adolescence with a tendency to autoregressive behavior model. the study involved 65 students of secondary school aged 14-15 years (M=14,4; SD=0,8). The following methods were used: «Tendencies to deviant behavior» (A.N. Orel), The Stroop Color and Word Test, besides statistical techniques (descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U test, Spearman rank correlation coefficient). As the result of the research it was proved that adolescents who are prone to autoaggressive behavior model, the level of cognitive rigidity is higher, in comparison with adolescents who are not inclined to self-destructive behavior. There was also discovered a positive relationship between the degree of propensity for autoaggressive behavior model and the level of cognitive rigidity. The prospects of the research cover the study of the personal characteristics of children and parents, the styles of family education that contribute to the formation and development of cognitive rigidity, the tendency to auto-aggressive behavior. The results of the research can be used in the organization of psychological and pedagogical support of adolescents and their families.

“I Know that I don’t Know Anything”. Socio-Cognitive Antecedents of the Radicalization

Objective. Analysis of the relationship between loss of personal significance, intellectual humility, the need for cognitive closure, and support for radicalisation. Background. Psychological studies of the process of radicalization make a significant contribution to the explanation of this negative socio-political phenomenon. One of the questions from these studies is how cognitive rigidity is related to ideological extremism. Study design. The study examined the relationship between loss of personal significance, intellectual humility, and support for radical views mediated by the need for cognitive closure. The presence and nature of the relationship were checked using a path analysis performed in the AMOS 23 program. Participants. 365 residents from Russia (78.5% women), age from 20 to 66 years (M=42.11; SD=11.62). The majority of the sample has a higher education (94.1%), the rest have secondary or specialized secondary education. 41.8% of the respondents identified themselves as Christians, 17.8% as Agnostics, 11.7% as atheists, 10.1% as Muslims, the rest-as other faiths or chose to skip this item of the questionnaire. Measurements. Russian-language versions of the short scale of scales of the need for cognitive closure by D. Webber and A. Kruglansky; the scale of intellectual humility by M. Leary et al. and the scale of loss of personal significance. A questionnaire for assessing support for radical violence. Results. The direct effect of loss of personal importance on the support of radical views is mediated by the need for cognitive closure. The reverse effect of intellectual humility on the support of radical views is mediated by the need for cognitive completeness. Conclusions. The study demonstrates the significance of the “cognitive vulnerability” of supporting extremist ideology, which is extremely important for understanding the personal aspects of both radicalization and deradicalization.

Placing Cognitive Rigidity in Interpersonal Context in Psychosis: Relationship With Low Cognitive Reserve and High Self-Certainty

Introduction: People with psychosis show impairments in cognitive flexibility, a phenomenon that is still poorly understood. In this study, we tested if there were differences in cognitive and metacognitive processes related to rigidity in patients with psychosis. We compared individuals with dichotomous interpersonal thinking and those with flexible interpersonal thinking.Methods: We performed a secondary analysis using two groups with psychosis, one with low levels of dichotomous interpersonal thinking (n = 42) and the other with high levels of dichotomous interpersonal thinking (n = 43). The patients were classified by splitting interpersonal dichotomous thinking (measured using the repertory grid technique) to the median. The groups were administered a sociodemographic questionnaire, a semi-structured interview to assess psychotic symptoms [Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS)], a self-report of cognitive insight [Beck Cognitive Insight Scale (BCIS)], neurocognitive tasks [Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)], and the repertory grid technique. We used a logistic regression model to test which factors best differentiate the two groups.Results: The group with high dichotomous interpersonal thinking had earlier age at onset of the psychotic disorder, higher self-certainty, impaired executive functioning, affected abstract thinking, and lower estimated cognitive reserve than the group with flexible thinking. According to the logistic regression model, estimated cognitive reserve and self-certainty were the variables that better differentiated between the two groups.Conclusion: Cognitive rigidity may be a generalized bias that affects not only neurocognitive and metacognitive processes but also the sense of self and significant others. Patients with more dichotomous interpersonal thinking might benefit from interventions that target this cognitive bias on an integrative way and that is adapted to their general level of cognitive abilities.