Measuring Wishful Thinking among Orphaned Students in Secondary Stage

The current research aims to measure wishful thinking and the gender differences in wishful thinking among orphaned students in secondary school. The researchers adopted the descriptive correlational method and developed a scale based on the definition of the concept of wishful thinking. The researcher defined wishful thinking and identified the behavioral components of this concept based on the theoretical framework of the current research following the theory of Woodworth (1990). The scale consisted of 30 items, and its validity and reliability were verified. The research sample consisted of 265 students distributed among secondary schools in the Shatt Al-Arab district. The results showed that orphaned secondary school students exhibit wishful thinking, with no differences between genders in this variable.