شبكة المعلومات العربية التربوية

The current research aims at identifying the need for cognition and the future anxiety of Diyala University students. Furthermore, this paper is to recognize the significance of differences in the need for cognition and the future anxiety according to the gender variant (male-female). To achieve research objectives, the scale of Cacioppo and Petty (need for cognition scale (Cacioppo and Petty:1982) was adopted in this paper. The future anxiety scale was built by the researchers based on Ellis’s theory. The researchers have verified the psychometric properties by eliciting the face validity, and reliability of both scales along with the construct validity of the future anxiety scale. The scale consisted of (39 items) in its final form. The scale was then applied on the basic research sample of 400 male and female students, who were randomly selected from Diyala University students. After that, data were analyzed and statistically processed of by using the following statistical means: t- test for one sample, t- tests for two samples, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Researchers have found that university students have the real need for cognition, and there is no statistically significant difference between male and female university students. This paper found that university students suffer from the future anxiety, and there is a statistically significant difference between male and female university students in the future anxiety and was more intelligible and in favor of the most anxious females. (Published abstract)