Developmental trends in rational thinking: Implications for rational-emotive, school mental health programs

Abstract

Developmental trends in rational thinking, as defined by rational-emotive theory and measured by the degree of endorsement of Ellis' 11 irrational ideas, were investigated. Part 1 describes the development of the Idea Inventory, a 33-item Likert scale which yields a total irrationality score as well as scores for each of the 11 irrational ideas. High reliability and moderate validity co-efficients were obtained with a college sample. In Part 2 the Idea Inventory was used to assess irrational thinking in 435 students in grades four through twelve. Results indicated that while irrationality decreased with grade, the relation between each individual irrational idea and grade was variable. Across grade, irrational Idea 6 showed the greatest decrement in endorsement while the level of endorsement for Idea 5 was as great for high school seniors as it was for the fourth graders. Implications for the development of future rational-emotive, school mental health programs were discussed.

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