الملخص الإنجليزي
This study aimed to identify the status of social and ideological identity Statuses (achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, diffusion) among the sample members, discover their level of critical thinking, know the relationship between the levels of social and ideological identities and the level of critical thinking, recognize the differences between the status of both social and ideological identities among the sample members according to the age variable, and discover the differences in the level of critical thinking among the sample members attributed to the age variable. This study used the descriptive correlative approach and applied the study tools to a sample of (204) students who were chosen intentionally arbitrarely from different governorates in the Sultanate of Oman. The tools included two scales; first: the scale of social and ideological identity prepared by Benon and Adams, which was translated into Arabic by Abd al-Rahman (1998). Second: Watson Glaser critical thinking scale. The study concluded that the highest prevailing Status among the sample members in the social and ideological identities is the status of "achievement" followed by "moratorium", while the Status of both "diffusion" and "foreclosure" ranked third and fourth respectively in social identity, unlike the ideological identity, where "foreclosure" ranked third and followed "diffusion". With regard to the level of critical thinking, the study found that the sample members got "high" rate in the total sum. The results also showed a positive correlation between the Status of "achievement" in the social identity with the field of "conclusion" and the total sum of critical thinking, as well as a negative correlation between "foreclosure" in the social and ideological identities with "deduction" in the critical thinking. Moreover, there is an inverse correlation between "diffusion" in both identities with all fields of critical thinking, and between "foreclosure" in ideological identity with "conclusion" and the total sum of the critical thinking scale. However, there is no correlation between the rest of the identities-status with other fields of critical thinking. Through the results of the study, there were no statistically significant differences between both social and ideological identities attributed to the age variable excluding "moratorium" and "diffusion" in social identity; both in which differences were in favor of the age group (13-15). The results also showed that there are no statistically significant differences between the areas of critical thinking attributed to the age variable excluding "evaluation of arguments, classification, and the total sum" where in which differences were in favor of the age group (16-21).
