The goal was to examine the relationship between the number of psychology courses students have taken and their perceptions of psychology as a science. Additionally, differences in perceptions of psychology among psychology, education, and natural science majors were examined. Results indicated that students who had taken four or more psychology courses had more favorable perceptions of psychology as a science compared to those who had taken no courses or one course and those who had taken two to three courses. No significant differences in overall perceptions of psychology emerged among students in the three majors.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BartoszeckA. B.AbramsonC. I., & PlaceA. J. (2005) Perception of students in the south of Brazil of status of psychology as a science. Psychological Reports, 97, 750–756.
2.
CohenJ. (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd ed.) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
3.
CrowneD. P., & MarloweD. (1960) A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349–354.
4.
CrowneD. P., & MarloweD. (1964) The approval motive: studies in evaluative dependence.New York: Wiley.
5.
FeinL. G. (1954) Psychology—a profession or what?American Psychologist, 9, 81.
6.
FishmanD. B., & NeigherW. D. (1982) American psychology in the eighties: who will buy?American Psycologist, 37, 533–546.
7.
FriedrichJ. (1990) Learning to view psychology as a science: self-persuasion through writing. Teaching of Psychology, 17, 23–27.
8.
FriedrichJ. (1996) Assessing students' perceptions of psychology as a science: validation of a self-report measure. Teaching of Psychology, 23, 6–13.
9.
GroveW. A.WassermanT., & GrodnerA. (2006) Choosing a proxy for academic aptitude. Journal of Economic Education, 37, 131–147.
10.
JandaL. H.EnglandK.LovejoyD., & DruryK. (1998) Attitudes toward psychology relative to other disciplines. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 2, 140–143.
11.
KnightW. R., & HallJ. F. (1957) Use of a cartoon-type projective technique in measuring attitudes toward psychology. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 7, 25–28.
12.
McGuireJ. M., & BorowyT. D. (1979) Attitudes toward mental health professionals. Professional Psychology, 10, 74–79.
13.
McNeilE. B. (1959) The public image of psychology. American Psychologist, 14, 520–521.
14.
MoralesB. L.AbramsonC. I.NainS.JuniorN. A., & BartoszeckA. B. (2005) Status of psychology as a science in northeast Brazil: undergraduate students' perceptions. Psychological Reports, 96, 109–114.
15.
NederhofA. J. (1985) Methods of coping with social desirability bias: a review. European Journal of Social Psychology, 15, 263–280.
16.
ReynoldsW. M. (1982) Development of reliable and short forms of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 119–125.
17.
StevensJ. (2002) Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. (4th ed.) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
18.
WebbA. R., & SpeerJ. R. (1985) The public image of psychologists. American Psychologist, 40, 1063–1064.
19.
WoodW.JonesM., & BenjaminL. T. (1986) Surveying psychology's public image. American Psychologist, 41, 947–953.
