Transcript The Psychosemantic Approach to Personality

Which way should it be: The
personal or the general?
Shulamith Kreitler
and Michal Kreitler
School 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 study
The 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 solving
 definition
 four models of problem solving
 choice of a solution
Examples of the contents of
the themes
 Development:
 domains of development
 models of development
 Determinants 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 modes
Teaching 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/knowledge
Range for resp. 8-32, range for satis: 1-5
 Groups
1
2
3
4 Tot.
Emotions
Mean of correct resp.
Mean of satisfaction
.
Prob. Solving
Mean of correct resp.
Mean of satisfaction
.
Development
Mean of correct resp.
Mean of satisfaction
20.2
4.1
18.5
4.0
15.4
2.9
16.3
2.2
17.6
3.3
16.5
3.5
19.4
3.9
12.2
2.4
14.5
2.0
15.6
2.9
14.2
3.0
14.1
2.9
9.5
2.9
11.3
1.8
12.3
2.6
Results: Information/knowledge
Range for resp. 8-32, range for satis: 1-5
 Groups
1
2
3
4 Tot.
All themes
Mean of correct resp.
Mean of satisfaction
17.0
3.5
All themes
Groups 1+2
3
17.2
3.5
12.7
2.9
Mean of correct resp.
Mean of satisfaction
17.3
3.6
12.7
2.9
14.0
2.4
4
14.0
2.4
15.2
2.6
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.
THANK YOU
DANKE
спасибо
¡gracias
谢谢
for your attendance and attention
[email protected]
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