Contrasting Student and Instructor

Views of Psychology

Jeffrey HolmesICTP: July 15, 2008

Introduction

Calls for critical thinking skills Students who “hate math and science” Potential differences between students

and instructors Scientist-Practitioner Model Current Objective:

Compare students and instructors on interests and views of psychology

Method

Participantsundergraduate students (N = 282) college and high-school psychology instructors

(N = 160) (119 college instructors) Instruments

Scientist-Practitioner Inventory (Leong & Zachar, 1991)

Psychology as Science Scale (Friedrich, 1996) Procedure

online administration

Results Professors tended more toward viewing

psychology as a science than did students M(prof) = 89.55, SD = 8.28 M(students) = 75.63, SD = 8.89

Professors had higher scientific interests than students

M(prof)= 74.23, SD = 18.65 M(students) = 53.99, SD = 14.59

Students had higher practitioner interests than professors

M(students) = 69.91, SD = 15.03 M(prof) = 53.45, SD = 23.68

Item Level PAS Data “Carefully controlled research is not likely

to be useful in solving psychological problems.” (neutral or agree)college professors: 7.6%, college students: 28.4%

“Our ability as humans to behave in any way we choose makes our attempts to predict behavior ineffective.” (neutral or agree)college professors: 10.9%, college students: 35.4%

“Psychological advice given in popular books and magazines is often as useful as more research-based claims.” (neutral or agree) college professors: 11.7%, college students: 34.4%

Item Level PAS Data “Courses in psychology place too much

emphasis on research and experimentation.” (neutral or agree) college professors: 5.9%, college students: 36.9%

“Students get little benefit from learning about procedures for conducting psychology experiments.” (neutral or agree) college professors: 0 (0%), college students: 20.1%

“The Study of Psychology Should be seen primarily as a science.” (neutral or disagree)college professors: 6.7%, college students: 36.9%

Conclusions and Implications

Disconnect between instructors and (at least some) students?

Context provided by previous findings Solution is elusive – dissonance is

powerful Students are not blank slates

Contact Info

Jeffrey Holmes – jholmes@ithaca.edu