Validity Study of the Thinking Styles Inventory

This article examines the psychometric properties of the 104-item Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI; Sternberg & Wagner, 1992) using responses from 789 students from 4 high schools in Connecticut. Twelve of the 13 subscales identified in mental self-government (MSG) theory (Sternberg, 1988, 1997) were included in all analyses. Both subscale- and item-level confirmatory factor analysis failed to confirm the theory-proposed 5-factor structure as well as 3 other structural models identified in previous studies. Post hoc item-level exploratory factory analysis and subscale score reliability analysis resulted in the omission of 64 original items due to weak psychometric properties. Thirty-two original items were retained, comprising 5 subscales, Liberal/Progressive, External, Hierarchic, Judicial, and Legislative/Self-Reliant, largely consistent with those identified in MSG theory. Implications of the results are discussed.