University of East London, School of Psychology,

London E15 4LZ, UK

RESEARCH INTERNS:

HAMIDA ISLAM & SHADAE RILEY

SUPERVISORS: DR SHARON CAHILL AND DR CHRIS PAWSON

‘WHAT DO WOMEN PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS THINK PSYCHOLOGY

IS ABOUT?’

The main aim of the study was to identify what womenpsychology students thought psychology was about andhow they intended to use it in their future career. Asecondary objective was to ask the participants whatthey liked and disliked about their degree. The researchquestions attempted to find out about the careeroptions participants were thinking about now and whatcareer options they may have thought about prior tostarting their degree. The research project was set in 2phases: the first was a questionnaire asking what theparticipant understood about psychology, we also askedfor some demographic information. The second phase ofthe research was a semi-structured interview where theresearchers asked a series of questions about theparticipants experiences of the degree programme, forexample, “why did you decided to study psychology”,“what do you think psychology is and what jobs orcareers you are thinking about pursuing”?

When women decide to study psychology what careeroptions do they think of? What experiences do they gothrough during the degree programme? Do they godown the career path they initially envisaged aftercompleting their degree in psychology? This researchinvolved recruiting and interviewing a mixture of womenundergraduates and post graduate psychology students.Principally, this project was looking to understand whatmotivated students to study psychology as a science. Didthe participants consider Psychology a “science”? Whataspects of the degree were enjoyed, what aspects weremore challenging and perhaps less enjoyable. Thisproject will feed into the STEM agenda (Science,Technology, Engineering and Maths) and hopefully givean insight into what attracts women students toPsychology and what, during their study, might be asurprising challenge for them.

There has been much research demonstrating thatstudents and the general public lack knowledge ofPsychology and the nature of science (NOS). Ledermanet al. (2002) identified that NOS refers to the beliefs,values, and suppositions such activities are based on.Provost et al. (20110 suggests that joint understandingbetween educators and practitioners has yielded severalrecognised aspects of NOS, such as understanding thenature of empiricism and the difference betweentheories and laws. These aspects have been translatedinto desirable learning objectives of pre-tertiaryinstruction, in national and international educationreforms (McComas, Almazroa, & Clough, 1998). Webband Speer (1986) identified that the roles ofpsychologists may be particularly unclear to the public.They asked participants (college students and theirparents) to rate psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians,counsellors, teachers, and scientists on 11 clusters ofpersonal characteristics. In preparation of thedescriptor-clusters, students wrote paragraphsdescribing each profession. Students omitted paragraphsabout psychologists more frequently than for otherprofessions. A review by Wood, Jones, and Benjamin(1986) cited data that led them to believe the public isbeginning to view psychologists as behavioural scientists,and offering suggestions for future research.

The research employs a mixed method design with acombination of qualitative and quantitativemethodology. The participants were womenundergraduate and post graduate psychology studentsaged between 18 – 40 and of different ethnic origins.The participants were recruited through different mediaresources and by snowballing, enabling quick and amore effective approach to recruitment.

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The research was conducted in 2 stages:Phase 1: semi-structured interviews with 12 interviewsconducted.Phase 2: completion of a short questionnaire (n=62) whichincluded the PAS (ref)Analysis:Qualitative – Thematic analysis is a search for themes thatemerge as being important to the description of thephenomenon (Daly et al. 1997). It involves theidentification of themes through “careful reading and re-reading of the data” (Rice & Ezzy, 1999)

Questions

Why did you decide to study psychology?

oI wanted a career as a Psychologist

oTo help / understand people

oTo learn about myself

If you had to describe what psychology is what

would you say? If you were to describe what

psychology “as a science” is – what would you

say – how different are the 2 descriptions?

oPsychology is a social science

oThe science in psychology is hidden

oMan in a “white coat”

What do you like and not like about studying

psychology? What subject or topics areas do you

find the most interesting and why? What about

the ones you don’t like – why might that be?

Which topic areas are the most “scientific” and

why?

oThere is a broad range of subjects (some of which I

prefer more than others)

oI can relate the psychology to „real life‟ (including

myself)

oI like specific subjects because I am more interested

in them

oI didn‟t like Research methods (and I don‟t like

maths)

oThe more “science” based subjects were harder

What do you think most students think studying

psychology will lead to? What careers or jobs do

you think a degree in psychology will lead to for

you?

oBetter job / career prospects

o“Don‟t know at this stage”

o“I want to be a ……. Psychologist”

Why do you think that psychology as a degree is

popular with women students?

oIt‟s a stereotype about Psychology

oWomen are more understanding than men

“

We would argue that these students were not confident when discussing what Psychology was,especially when asked to talk about it as a science. This was demonstrated through the responsesfrom the deductive and inductive themes produced from the research in question 2 - I didn’t likeResearch methods; the more “science” based subjects were harder. This indicated that they were notprepared or hold prior-knowledge that the degree would include “mathematical” aspects. Thisresearch also demonstrates that student do not perceive psychology as a typical “science” asdemonstrated the question 3 of the themes - The science in psychology is hidden.

HAMIDA ISLAM (MBPsS)

Now a graduate psychology student, I was very much interested in working with a academicmember of staff to be able to see how their approach to research was applied. I was focused onbeing part of a study which would allow me to progress within the research field. By being part ofthis Internship, this has been possible, as this study will hopefully be published. The reason forchoosing this research project is to actually be able to answer the question- ‘what do womenstudents think psychology is about?’ As a woman myself and being a student, my reasons forchoosing to study psychology were to be able to understand people better and to be able to pursuea career within forensic psychology or clinical psychology. However, I am sure other people havedifferent ideas, friends whom I have known prior to starting this degree and friends who arethinking of studying psychology have extremely different opinions and reasons. This I hadacknowledged myself already, therefore I thought it’ll be interesting to use this and see the resultsas a whole .The research question was of interest as it was interesting to see the variance ofdifference in opinion for mature students to students who had chosen psychology straight fromcollege. A comparison of seeing what reason/s female students had into choosing psychology as adegree programme and how they maintained it, especially for those mature females who haveyoung children, before they started the degree programme and to those who ended up havingchildren throughout their degree period. It was of particular interest to understand how they hadovercome these or any other obstacles which perhaps had made it difficult for them. Comingtowards the end of the internship I had realised the skills which I had acquired, for example, workingusing mixed methodologies and having a presentation about the study, all of which would help metowards my career in Psychology. Overall, this experience has allowed me to look into my careeroptions within Psychology with a added positive feeling.

SHADAE RILEY

I applied to this internship because the topic was interesting. I also thought it would be a good wayof gaining real world experience of conducting research outside of my degree (dissertation). Therewas also the added bonus of working with an academic on research which will be published withadditional work. This will also look good on my C.V. demonstrating additional experience in theresearch field. Being a part of this research also allowed me to develop and gain new skills one ofwhich WAs strengthening my qualitative analysis skills, where I now have firsthand experience ofconducting IPA and Thematic analysis. ‘What do women students think Psychology is about?’ wasfascinating as I am a woman studying Psychology it allowed me to reflect on my own experiencethrough the stages of my degree, what I thought it would be, what I have learnt and on completinghow my views have changed. Interviewing different students I found some interesting results suchas the experience of fellow mature students with children and other responsibilities outside ofuniversity, the different issues and struggles they faced along the way which in turn impacts on theirchoices when completing the degree also how the issues were overcome. It also revealed theirreasons for doing the degree; one example was for a career change. The research question was alsoin line with my core attraction to Psychology which seeks to understand people’s behaviour, it alsorelated well to the topic I covered in my final year project. On reflecting I can say that my ideas andmy thoughts have changed but only for the better. I envisage that I will still pursue a career in clinicalpsychology. This experience has only made me hungrier to chase my goal in working in the field ofClinical Psychology.

The aim for this study is to get the findings published. There will be additional work carried out tosupport and validate these findings. One such is to carry out a longitudinal research with psychologystudents from the beginning of the academic year through to the end. We will also aim to get abigger population of students to complete the questionnaire. The paper will hopefully be written bythe end of the next academic year and we hope to submit it to the HEA conference in 2013.

The interview questions resulted

in several deductive and inductive

themes

Why did you decide to study psychology?

If you had to describe what psychology is

what would you say? If you were to describe

what psychology “as a science” is – what

would you say – how different are the 2

descriptions?

What do you like and not like about studying psychology? What subject or topics areas

do you find the most interesting and why? What

about the ones you don’t like – why might that be? Which

topic areas are the most “scientific” and why?

What do you think most students think studying

psychology will lead to? What careers or jobs do you think a

degree in psychology will lead to for you?

Why do you think that psychology as a degree is popular with women

students?

REFERENCES:

Lederman, N. G., Abd-El-Khalick, F., Bell, R. L., & Schwartz, R. E. (2002). Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire: Toward valid and meaningful assessment of learners’ conceptions of nature

of science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 497-521. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tea.10034

McComas, W. F., Almazroa, H., & Clough, M. P. (1998). The nature of science in science education: An introduction. Science and Education, 7, 511-532.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008642510402

Provost, C. S., Martin, H. F., Peacock, A., Lipp, V. O., Bath, D. & Hannan, G. (2011). University Students’ Views on the Nature of Science and Psychology. Psychology Learning and Teaching, Vol

10.

Webb, A. R., & Speer, J. R. (1986). Prototype of a profession: Psychology's public image. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 17, 5-9.

Wood, W, Jones, M., & Benjamin, L. T, Jr. (1986). Surveying psychology's public image. American Psychologist, 41, 947-953.