AbstractsPsychology

Integrative Inquiry is a training program that seeks to facilitate student learning and development based on seminal research in neuroscience and psychology, in turn the training program hopes to remedy some of the fracturing issues in post-secondary education. Bresciani, et al. (In Press) reported that undergraduate and graduate students who had completed Integrative Inquiry, in its entirety, were able to decrease their stress and anxiety levels and increase their attention, emotion, and cognitive regulation, as well as their critical thinking dispositions. The present study sought to replicate Bresciani, et al. (In Press) among doctoral students, and additionally, extended its analysis using document analysis. Results indicate that doctoral students were able to learn emotion regulation and cognitive regulation. However, doctoral students did not improve in their critical thinking dispositions or attention regulation, further, reported anxiety levels did not decrease. However, it is important to note that critical thinking dispositions were well above the national average prior to engaging in Integrative Inquiry leaving little room for improvement. Similarly, attention regulation did not improve but the pre-assessment revealed already high levels and thus left little room for improvement. Anxiety levels did not significantly decrease, however they did not increase as well, which suggests Integrative Inquiry was able to prevent heightened levels of anxiety during students first semester. A qualitative assessment uncovered other student learning including a better ability to articulate their subjective and objective mental processes, a shift in their relationship with time, and heightened connectedness with their environment and others. Taken together, these results suggest that INIQ is partially effective among doctoral students.