the development of desired characteristics of psychologists in undergraduate psychology students...
TRANSCRIPT
The development of desired characteristics of psychologists in
undergraduate psychology students
Julia Suleeman Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia
ICOPE 6, Northern Arizona University, August 3-5, 2014
Introduction • A competence-based curriculum, replacing the knowledge-based, is
applied in Universitas Indonesia since the year 2012, focusing on specific competencies of the students rather than just a transfer of knowledge from lecturers to the students.
• Since psychology is one of the helping professions, those studying psychology should be equipped to have the needed competencies and qualities. A label wounded healer is given to those who learn about their own problems through helping others solving their problems (Waterman, 2002; see also Dicaccavo, 2002).
• This on-going study is carried out as part of an internal curriculum evaluation to identify how the students grow through the psychology education. For this report, the focus is on what qualities are perceived as good for psychologists, and how the students rate themselves on those qualities.
Introduction (2)• According to Tillet (2003), people who take psychology were triggered by
their own problems in early life, hoping that they would be able to help others who have similar problems.
• Tillet’s concern about the mental health condition of those in helping profession cannot be undermined. We need to be cautious about what is delievered through our psychology education, and how the students see themselves as being equipped through the psychology education before getting ready to work in helping profession-related field. Do they have the needed capacities to overcome their problems before they can help others overcome their problems?
• In the 1970s and 1980s, a weekly television program in Indonesia was “Psikologi untuk Anda”(psychology for you). This program was popular especially among young people, providing mini lecturers of what psychology was all about and how it could be useful to help people who had problems. On the other hand, the topic “Psychology for you” indicated that those delivering the psychological services were alright, did not need any help. Was this a true condition, or some sort of defence mechanisms?
Introduction (3)• We know that undergraduate students, from 16 to 23 years
of age, are in the stage of forming their identity with lots of challenge lying ahead.
• For some of them, going to university is a first time experience of being away from the family, meaning that they need to be independent, able to manage their time and money, and to choose how and with whom they are going to study and do other leisure activities (Suleeman, Adikismo, Ardra, 2014).
• For some others, coming to Depok – Jakarta (the place where Universitas Indonesia is situated), brings some culture shock: 24-hour facilities, not-so-friendly neighbors, etc.
Introduction (4)
For all of them, coming to Faculty of Psychology Universitas Indonesia is quite shocking:
- a sudden change from high school time - receiving the attention from seniors - the freedom to choose extra-curriculair activities - the chances to meet a variety of people (ethnic, social economic status, religion, etc.).Different reasons of choosing psychology as their
undergraduate education, but mostly because they want to become counselors including for their own problems (Suleeman, Sophronius, Hadiwibowo, 2013).
Research questions
• What personal characteristics are perceived as important by the undergraduate students?
• What personal characteristics are perceived as grown through psychology education?
• What academic activities are facilitating for this personal growth?
• What academic activities are inhibiting for this personal growth?
Literature Review• As a discipline, psychology is applicative in a sense that those who
study psychology can apply psychological principles to help other people including themselves to increase their life in the areas of well being, education (Weiten, 2002), health, organisational effectiveness, etc. (Zimbardo, 2004). However, there is some indication that these people actually have a helping profession syndrome (meaning that subconsiously, they take psychology as a career as a response toward their own problem(s). Tillet (2003) used the term the patient within to indicate that the help that is provided for other people functions as a remedy for emotional problems faced in early life. They assume that the people they help have similar unfulfilled needs. Tillet continued with suggesting that this would make a psychologist functions ineffectively.
Method
Sample recruitment: Announcements to participate in the study were put on information board at several strategic places around the Faculty of Psychology campus. Those interested were asked to write their contact number, and were then contacted by the researchers and her team. Altogether, 203 undergraduate students from Faculty of Psychology Universitas Indonesia, from year 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 intakes, participated.
Method (2)• Research instrument. A questionnaire consists of several
open-ended questions asking how the students perceive themselves growing through psychology education. Four questions were analyzed for this report.
• The first question is posing 21 characteristics (drawn from the literature review) to be checked for their importance for psychologists and psychologists-to-be.
• These are: patience, persistent, smart, able to explain, responsible, curious, critical, creative,
diligent, open minded, friendly, outgoing, non discriminative, emphatetic, faithful, caring, able to control emotion, trustable, reflective, honest, and good listener.
• They may add any other characteristics seen as important.
Method (3)• The second question is again posing these 21
characteristics, asking the participants to choose which have grown through psychology education they received.
• The next questions asking what academic activities are perceived as facilitating and inhibiting for their gowth through psychology education.
• Method of analysis: quantitative and qualitative.
Results
• Ten top characteristics for psychologists and psychologist-to-be perceived as important:
• Patience, critical, open minded, friendly, non discriminative, empathetic, caring, able to control emotion, trustable, and good listener. • Across year intakes, there are no differences in terms
of what characteristics are important (there are some quantitative differences across year intakes, but not to be reported here).
• Other characteristics added by one or more but less than four participants are non judmental, observant, kind, helpful, etc.
Patien
t
Abel to ex
plain
Responsib
le
Critical
Open-m
inded
Frien
dly
Outgoing
Non discrim
inative
Empath
etic
Caring
Able to co
ntrol e
motion
Trustw
orthy
Good listen
er0.00
20.00
40.00
60.00
80.00
100.00
120.00
2008 intake2009 intake2010 intake2011 intake2012 intake
Results (2)• Top characteristics grown through psychology education: • Understanding other people, understanding
oneself, critical, open mind, non discriminative, emphatetic, caring, able to control emotion,
reflective, and good listener chosen by all year intakes.
• Patience, able to explain, responsible, curious, outgoing chosen by one, two, or three year
intakes.
Able to ex
plain
Responsib
le
Critical
Open m
ind
Non discrim
inative
Empath
etic
Caring
Able to co
ntrol e
motion
Reflecti
ve
Good listen
er0.00
10.00
20.00
30.00
40.00
50.00
60.00
70.00
80.00
90.00
100.00
20082009201020112012
Results (3)
Academic activities which facilitate growth:• Courses: Developmental psychology (chosen
by all intakes), Counseling psychology, Social psychology, Self-understanding (elective)
• Course activities: Reflection (self-analyses), textbook and journal article reading and analyses, discussion with other students, meet new people in class and work together a group, discussion with lecturers, and feedback from lecturers.
Results (4)
Academic activities inhibiting growth:• Heavy assignments with short notice (less
than one week or two) • Assigments without feedback from lecturers.
Discussion• There are similarities of characteristics
perceived as important by all year intakes; however, there are differences in how they see themselves growing in these characteristics.
• Unfortunately, since no conversation took place between the researcher and the participants, it is still not clear in what ways undergraduate psychology students grow through psychology education.
Discussion (2)
• Are the characteristics gained through psychology education the target of the curriculum, or only incidentally happened? In other words, how the lecturers realize about these characteristics and really help the students exercise these.
• What characteristics are already in the students before they start the psychology education, and what characteristics are gained through psychology education?
Discussion (3)
Future studies:• Conduct focus group discussion in small
groups to let the participants talk freely about their ideas of good psychologists, and how they can grow through psychology education.
• Including the alumni to really identify how sudying psychology have helped them growing into more mature individuals and professionals?
ReferenceDiCaccavo, A. (2002). Investigating individuals' motivations to become counselling
psychologists: The influence of early caretaking roles within the family, Psychology and Psychotherapy, Theory, Research, and Practice, 75(3), 463-472.
Suleeman, J., Adikismo, A. & Ardra, O. (2014). Penyesuaian diri dengan kehidupan kampus pada mahasiswa baru (Adjusting to campus life among new university students). Paper presented at Second National conference, Universitas Yarsi, Jakarta, June 21, 2014.
Suleeman, J., Sophronius, J., Hadiwibowo, S. I. (2013). Why I Study Psychology. Paper presented at the 10th Biennial Conference of Asian Association of Social Psychology, Yogyakarta, August 21-24.
Tillet, R. (2003). The patient within- psychopatology in the helping professions, Journal of Continuing Professional Development, (9), 272-279 .
Waterman, B. T. (2002). Motivations for choosing social service as a career. www.bedrugree.net. Downloaded on June 23, 2013.
Weiten, W. (2008). Briefer Version Psychology themes & variations. Seventh Ed. Clifton Park, NY: Thompson Learning.
Zimbardo, P. G. (2004). Does psychology make a significant difference in our lives? American Psychologist, 59(5), 339-351. Doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.59.5.339
Typical curriculum in psychology undergraduate
1. Research Methods and Statistics, Psychometrics, Test Construction, Qualitative methods = 40 credit hours (out of 144 credit hours)
2. Physiological, Developmental, Personality, Social, Organizational Psychology = 60 -64 credit hours3. Philosophy, Liberal arts, Writing, = 25 credit hours4. Elective units = 8 – 12 credit hours (selected psychological
topics or other discipline)5. Final project = 6 credit hours