Perception of Students in the South of Brazil of Status of Psychology as a Science

Abstract

73 university students (M age=20.5 yr., SD=4.8; range 17-44 yr.) from the southern state of Paraná took the Psychology as Science scale to assess whether they view psychology as a rigorous science. Analysis showed the students considered psychology to be a science, agreed study of psychology should be part of a university curriculum, not many believed that psychological research may contribute to the solution of psychological problems, and few believed obtaining a Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology was useful in obtaining employment. Data were compared with a previous study conducted on a northeastern sample.

The View of Russian Psychology Students on Whether Psychology is a Science

“…Our sample had a coefficient alpha of .67, which was equal or lower than coefficient alphas taken solely from American student samples, including coefficient alphas in the .67 to .80 range identified by Friedrich (1996), coefficient alphas of .72, .75, .76, .83, and .86 identified across several American samples (Amsel et al, 2011;Bartels et al, 2009;Holmes, 2014;Holmes & Beins, 2009) and a cross-cultural sample (Roberts & Povee, 2014), higher than coefficient alphas of .58 and .44 of the Brazilian samples (Bartoszeck et al, 2005;Morales et al, 2005), and coefficient alphas of .64 of the Australian sample (Provost et al, 2011). Although it is generally agreed that the lower limit for Cronbach's alpha value is .70 (Nunnally, 1967), in the social sciences, it may decrease to .60 and still be acceptable, especially in exploratory studies and in research (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006).…”

“…Moreover, students with higher PAS scores are more involved in psychological research (Friedrich, 1996), and, in general, are more interested in science, tending to endorse the idea of conducting research in the future (Gervasio et al, 2010;Holmes & Beins, 2009). Expanding this area of research in order to increase the internationalization of psychology and to provide American psychologists with a basis for scientific collaboration, our group over the past decade has conducted studies on whether students across several universities in the south and northeast of Brazil consider psychology to be a science (Bartoszeck, Abramson, & Place, 2005;Morales, Abramson, Nain, Junior, & Bartoszeck, 2005). Based on three factor scores of the PAS, namely reflecting students' beliefs about psychology as a science, their appreciation of psychological research, and their views about predictability of behavior, we found that students in the northeast (Morales et al, 2005) and the south (Bartoszeck et al, 2005) of Brazil were ambivalent toward the status of psychology as a science and that this is due in part to the lack of published research and the maintaining of psychology research laboratories throughout Brazil.…”

“…Expanding this area of research in order to increase the internationalization of psychology and to provide American psychologists with a basis for scientific collaboration, our group over the past decade has conducted studies on whether students across several universities in the south and northeast of Brazil consider psychology to be a science (Bartoszeck, Abramson, & Place, 2005;Morales, Abramson, Nain, Junior, & Bartoszeck, 2005). Based on three factor scores of the PAS, namely reflecting students' beliefs about psychology as a science, their appreciation of psychological research, and their views about predictability of behavior, we found that students in the northeast (Morales et al, 2005) and the south (Bartoszeck et al, 2005) of Brazil were ambivalent toward the status of psychology as a science and that this is due in part to the lack of published research and the maintaining of psychology research laboratories throughout Brazil. These conclusions are consistent with recent research conducted with American samples, which found that students' beliefs associated with psychology as a science were positively associated with professors' appreciation of psychology as a science (Amsel, Ashley, Baird, & Johnston, 2014;Amsel et al, 2009) and with participation in courses that emphasize research methodology and/or require students to complete a research project (Amsel et al, 2011;Friedrich, 1996;Holmes & Beins, 2009;Pettijohn et al, 2015).…”

A Crisis in Comparative Psychology: Where Have All the Undergraduates Gone? Additional Comments,

“…The situation I found in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia is not much different. In a survey of psychology students at two universities in the northeast and south of Brazil, approximately 70% of the students polled did not even believe that behavior is predictable—a really shocking percentage (Bartoszeck, Abramson, & Place, 2005; Morales, Abramson, Nain, Junior, & Bartoszeck, 2005).…”

Brazilian Educational System and Advances in Vocational Teaching with the Advent of Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology

“…Those in the northeast of Brazil generally did not consider psychology as a science, while students in the south of Brazil did consider it a science. This diff erence between the two regions of Brazil is linked with the ability of students to do research; the more research a student does, the greater the belief that psychology is a science ( Bartoszeck, Abramson, & Place, 2005 ;Morales, Abramson, Nain, Junior, & Bartoszeck, 2005 ). Foreign professors trying to improve psychology training in Brazil have been hampered by a lack of understanding of the educational system ( Abramson & Bartoszeck, 2006 ).…”