Intercurrical Differences in Epistemic Thinking andIndividual Thinking Styles of Students in The HigherEducation Process

This article empirically analyzes the interdisciplinary differences between epistemic thinking and students' individual styles of thinking in the process of higher education. The main objective of the study is to identify the level of manifestation of synthetic, idealistic, pragmatic, analytical, and rationalistic thinking styles in 2nd and 4th-year students, and to interpret them as psychological indicators of epistemic thinking development. The study involved 149 students, of whom 67 were in the 2nd year and 82 were in the 4th year. Empirical data were collected using the "Individual Thinking Style" methodology and statistically processed based on the U-Mann-Whitney criterion. The results showed that for all studied thinking styles, the indicators of 4th-year students are higher compared to 2nd-year students. In particular, statistically significant differences were identified in synthetic, idealistic, pragmatic, analytical, and rationalistic styles of thinking. The results obtained indicate that in the process of higher education, students' epistemic thinking is gradually developed through the analysis and generalization of knowledge, relying on evidence, and making rational decisions in practical situations.