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Which way should it be: The personal or the general?
Shulamith Kreitler
and Michal KreitlerSchool of Psychological Sciences, Tel-Aviv
University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
6th International Conference on Psychology Education
Flagstaff, Arizona, August 3-5, 2014
What is the Problem?Psychology: Negative Aspects
Psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate majors, and applications to graduate programs in psychology are on the rise
Yet, there are many common criticisms of psychology:
Low pay, few jobs, earning expertise requires long years of training, not considered as really evidence-based, competition from similar professions, e.g. coaching, social work, art therapy; many semi-professionals in the field
Psychology: Positive Aspects
Motives for Studying Psychology [Survey of Psychology Today, 2011]
The students' expectation that psychology will help them to get a better understanding of themselves, or even solve some personal problems. The students’ expectation that psychology will provide them with deeper insight into interpersonal relations and will help them in managing their contacts with people
The Dilemma
The students’ expectations suggest that it may be advantageous to engage the students personally in the studies so that they get a chance to present personal issues.
On the other hand, however, dealing with personal issues may restrict the students' ability to comprehend and learn the more general issues.
In other words….
Personal issues
increase motivation for learning Personal issues
increase distraction and limit
comprehension
The Questions of the Present Study
First, which way of studying psychology would be more advantageous for freshmen: the way in which the issues are presented in terms of personal issues or in a more general form?
Second, if personal issues are used as part of the curriculum, should they be used first preceding the general or after the general?
Method: Participants
The participants were 80 nursing students (63 women, 17 men) whose curriculum includes one year of basic psychology.
Design of the studyThe participants were divided randomly into four groups (20 in each group) in line with the number and placement of personal and general modules of teaching:
1.Personal module in first phase, followed by general module;
2.2. General module in first phase, followed by personal module;
3.3. In the first and the second phase only personal modules;
4.4. In the first and second phases only general modules.
The Curriculum There were three themes in the
curriculum: emotions, cognition: problem solving, and development.
Two modules were devoted to each theme. Each module lasted 2 lessons of 1.5 hours duration each. Total time devoted to each theme 3 hours.
Procedure Each group studied all three themes. The order of teaching the themes was
fixed: Emotions, cognition: problem solving, development
Examples of the contents of the themes: Emotions: manifestations kinds of (simple, complex) process of emergence
Cognition: problem solvingdefinitionfour models of problem solvingchoice of a solution
Examples of the contents of the themes Development: domains of developmentmodels of developmentDeterminants of development
Teaching by the personal and the general modes
Personal mode: After presentation of a thesis, write down or tell a neighboring classmate or tell the class a personal example of the studied theme
General mode: After presentation of a thesis, write down or tell a neighboring classmate or tell the class a general or abstract implication/result of the studied theme
Teaching by the personal and the general modesTeaching by the Personal Mode and the General Mode involved the students to the same extent in activities and communication with classmates and the class.
The two modes differed in the contents of the activities and communications.
Testing The results of the teaching were assessed
by a test administered after each set of two modules. Each test included 8 questions for the studied theme (range of evaluation: 1-4) and ratings of satisfaction. The ratings were on 5 point scales.
Each group of students responded to three tests: one for emotions, one for cognition: problem solving and one for development
;
Procedure in Group 1
For each theme:
Personal module in first phase, followed by general module;
Themes: emotions, cognition: problem solving, development
Procedure in Group 2
For each theme:
General module in first phase, followed by personal module;
Themes: emotions, cognition: problem solving, development
Procedure for Group 3
For each theme:
Personal module in first phase, followed by personal module;
Themes: emotions, cognition: problem solving, development
Procedure for Group 4:
For each theme:
General module in first phase, followed by general module;
Themes: emotions, cognition: problem solving, development
Teachers
The teachers were assistants in the department of psychology.
The teachers were trained together for the two kinds of modules: personal and general
Results: Information/knowledgeRange for resp. 8-32, range for satis: 1-5
Groups 1 2 3 4 Tot.EmotionsMean of correct resp. 20.2 18.5 15.4 16.3 17.6
Mean of satisfaction 4.1 4.0 2.9 2.2 3.3
.
Prob. Solving
Mean of correct resp. 16.5 19.4 12.2 14.5 15.6
Mean of satisfaction 3.5 3.9 2.4 2.0 2.9
.
Development
Mean of correct resp. 14.2 14.1 9.5 11.3 12.3
Mean of satisfaction 3.0 2.9 2.9 1.8 2.6
Results: Information/knowledgeRange for resp. 8-32, range for satis: 1-5
Groups 1 2 3 4 Tot.All themesMean of correct resp. 17.0 17.3 12.7 14.0 15.2
Mean of satisfaction 3.5 3.6 2.9 2.4 2.6
All themes Groups 1+2 3 4Mean of correct resp. 17.2 12.7 14.0
Mean of satisfaction 3.5 2.9 2.4
Results: Comparing themes Comparing groups
Themes: level of knowledge
Emotions > Prob. Solving > Development
Themes: Satisfaction
Emotions> Prob. Solving, Development Groups: Level of knowledge
Group 1, Group 2> Group 4> Group 3 Groups: Satisfaction Group 1, Group2> Group 3> Group 4
Summary There is a main effect in regard to both
knowledge and satisfaction for personal+general teaching versus only general or only personal teaching
There was no effect for the order in which the personal and general modules were applied, as long as both were applied.
Best results were obtained in the groups that got both personal and general teaching, worst in those that got only personal teaching..
Some further results that may be of interest The overall correlation between level of knowledge
and level of satisfaction is low (r=.23) There is a significant interaction between the themes
and groups: Knowledge level was higher for Prob. Solving in group 4 (General Mode) than for emotions and development
There is a significant interaction between the themes and groups: Knowledge level was higher for Emotions in Group 1 (Personal Mode-General Mode) than for Prob. Solving and development
Major Conclusion
The main conclusion is that it is advantageous for the teaching of psychology to involve the students in presenting personal issues and to combine this approach with the presentation of general knowledge.
