Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Introduction

Academic performance is fundamental in producing qualified graduates to serve patient needs accordingly. The aim is to produce competent practitioners and a workforce to control, diagnose, and treat patients with various mental health problems. However, education is not a smooth process, and students face numerous challenges that impact their excellence. These factors vary according to institutions, students, and country, but others are universal such as interest to the subject and understanding of instruction. The research paper seeks to provide evidence on factors affecting the academic performance of psychology students.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Literature Review

Alaslani and Alandejani (2020) examine factors influencing student performance through social networking sites, which are today’s primary form of communication. The authors suggest factors affecting students’ academic performance such as interaction with colleagues, interactions with instructors, engagement, and cooperative learning while using social networking sites. They hypothesize that using SNSs to interact with colleagues and instructors improves students’ performance. They also hypothesize that engagement and cooperative learning through SNSs improves students’ academic performance. The researchers conducted quantitative research using a survey to analyze factors linked to students’ performance. Quantitative research bolsters the objectivity and accuracy of this study. (Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

The findings indicate that interaction with colleagues, interaction with instructors, cooperative learning, and engagement significantly affect students’ academic performance. The results are supported by other peer-reviewed studies making them credible. The paper is relevant to the research question as it addresses potential factors that impact academic performance. The evidence provided will help answer the research question. Some of the limitations to the study are the inclusion of volunteers from KFUPM only, which only has male participants. The researchers failed to consider instructors’ opinions and focused on students only.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

In an attempt to identify the challenges students in higher academic institutions faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dodd, Dadaczynski, Okan, McCaffery, and Pickles (2021) explore psychological well-being and its impact on learning experience and related the findings to gender and subjective social status. They used an online cross-sectional survey to collect data from 787 university students aged 18 years and over. A cross-sectional study design offers good control over the measurement process and better precision in the sampling process. They sought to answer how COVID-19 impacted university students in Australia, the characteristics of those affected, what sociodemographic factors were linked with low psychological well-being among students during the pandemic, and whether the Covid-19 impact on students was related to low well-being.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

The researchers measured well-being, sense of coherence, future anxiety, and subjective social status. The results indicate the need for support elements to help improve students’ academic performance. The findings are supported by credible statistical analysis and peer-reviewed literature. The results are relevant to the research problem because they provide insights into potential factors and circumstances affecting a student’s academic performance. The evidence will help address the research problem in a meaningful way. Some of the limitations that would affect the results include the use of the cross-sectional design that limited drawing of causal conclusions, and the generalization of the results to the whole student body. The sample had a higher female and postgraduate representation and fewer international students. Therefore, some sociodemographic groups with a higher risk of experiencing distress may not have been accounted for. The sample also had a larger representation of medical and health sciences students who typically present with higher anxiety. The researchers reported the overall sense of coherence scale instead of the subscales, promoting caution during result interpretation.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Mandal, Ghosh, Sengupta, Bera, Das, and Mukherjee (2016) investigate factors affecting the performance of undergraduate medical students. According to the authors and evidence presented from peer-reviewed studies, the performance of undergraduate medical students is declining, particularly in developing nations. The study explores concentration, interest in a subject, and understanding of the subject as potential factors affecting academic performance. They used predesigned, pretested structured, and validated questionnaires to collect data from students in their third year. Predesigned questionnaires are extensively tested before usage and promote uniformity in responses. They evaluated the data using descriptive statistics. (Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

The results indicate difficulty in understanding instruction, parental and peer pressure, and dissatisfaction with career choices are linked to poor performance. The researchers also concluded that male gender, failure to understand the media of instruction, burnout, self-assessed depression, sleep disorders, and peer and parental pressure were significantly linked to students’ poor performance. The results are credible and relevant to the research question because they offer evidence-based insights on factors linked to poor academic performance. The study will help answer the research question. One limitation to the study is a focus on psychological correctable factors leading to poor performance, warranting future researchers to focus on both emotional and psychological students’ needs for better performance. (Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Beharu (2018) focuses on the psychological factors affecting students performance among freshman psychology students. The researcher used the purposive sampling technique to select a sample that included 16 first-year students. Purposive sampling allows the researcher to get the most out of the small sample and develop better insights and precise research results. They collected data using observation checklists and questionnaires. According to Beharu (2018), people’s success and failure in activities they perform each day are conditioned by their everyday psychology. The study aimed to answer what are the major psychological factors affecting students’ academic performance in freshman psychology students and whether stress, self-efficacy, test anxiety, and motivation impact students’ academic performance.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Results indicate a significant relationship between students’ self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Students’ stress levels are also strongly correlated with their intrinsic motivation. The findings are consistent with backed by peer-reviewed journals and articles, making them credible and valid. They are relevant to the research problem because they provide useful insights into factors affecting academic performance. They will help address the research question. Some limitations to the study include a small sample that limited the validity of the results. The authors recommend additional statistical analysis to determine whether the psychological factors explain the largest variance portion in student academic performance.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Khan et al. (2020) explore factors impacting the academic performance of medical students from a medical student’s perspective. The researchers undertook a cross-sectional study and distributed questionnaires to collect data from students. A cross-sectional study design allows for effective investigation and comparison of multiple variables simultaneously. They analyzed data using SPSS and used tables and charts to establish an association between academic performance with the identified factors, including parents’ supervision, academically competent peers, use of media and teaching strategies, and apposite institutional environment. Research findings indicate parental concern, time spent on social media, the influence of friends, a silent studying environment, and teaching styles affect academic performance. The study also found a significant link between academic performance and place of residence, peer academic performance, willingness to join the medical profession, place of residence, and night study. The results are similar to those reported in the literature review part of the study, bolstering validity and reliability. The evidence will inform the research because it information on factors affecting academic performance. The paper is peer-reviewed, making it credible and valid. It will help in answering the research question. One limitation of the(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example) study is the lack of comparison between different medical colleges and focus group discussions with research participants.

While exploring facility-related factors impacting the academic performance of medical students in a human anatomy course, Tiruneh et al. (2020) identified dormitory crowdedness, large class size, inadequate classroom facilities, and low internet access as having a strong correlation with students’ low performance. The researchers undertook a cross-sectional research study that included 120 participants. The cross-section study design allowed the researchers to collect data on all variables at once, measure the prevalence of all identified factors, and study multiple outcomes and exposures. They collected data using self-administered questions and analyzed the data using binary and multinomial logistic regression. The study results are consistent with other peer-reviewed studies making them credible. The research paper has authority as most authors are affiliated with the 1Biomedical Department, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The paper is relevant to the research problem as it provides insights into factors affecting academic performance. It will help in answering the research question. Budget constraints limited the sample size selected, and researchers could not take samples from other medical schools. The study also focuses on facility-related factors, limiting generalizability. (Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Research Gap

There is a need to produce competent practitioners to work in the psychology field. Therefore, it is imperative to explore factors that might impact the performance of psychology students and devise interventions to address them. When investigating factors affecting academic performance, few studies address specific factors affecting the academic performance of psychology students. Only one study (Beharu, 2018) investigated factors affecting the academic performance of psychology students, but it limited its focus to freshman psychology students in a specific university. Many studies provide information about overall medical students or students in general. This factor indicates a research gap that needs addressing to provide information about the challenges or factors affecting the academic excellence of psychology students. The research paper will investigate the association between various factors and psychology students’ academic performance.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

It would be exciting to identify specific factors affecting psychology students. For instance, burnout and anxiety are factors affecting academic performance but are predominant in medical students. It raises the question of whether certain factors would be predominant among psychology students. Some researchers highlight stress, anxiety, self-esteem, substance use, and interaction with colleagues as affecting psychology students, but they focus on freshman students. The study paper will identify factors with a higher association regarding the academic performance of psychology students.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Research Question, Hypothesis, and Variables

Research Question

What are the factors affecting the academic performance of psychology students?

Hypothesis

H1:

A student’s concentration, interest, comprehension of the subject, personality, burnout, psychological wellbeing, financial problems, and parental and peer pressure affect academic performance

H0:

There will be no association between a student’s concentration, interest, comprehension of the subject, personality, burnout, psychological wellbeing, financial problems, parental and peer pressure, and academic performance(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Variables

Independent variables: concentration, interest, comprehension of the subject, personality, burnout, psychological wellbeing, financial problems, parental and peer pressure(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Dependent variables: Psychology students’ academic performance

References

Alaslani, K., & Alandejani, M. (2020). Identifying factors that influence students’ performance through social networking sites: An exploratory case study. Heliyon, 6(4), e03686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03686(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Dodd, R. H., Dadaczynski, K., Okan, O., McCaffery, K. J., & Pickles, K. (2021). Psychological Well-being and Academic Experience of University Students in Australia during COVID-19. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(3), 866. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18030866(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Mandal, A., Ghosh, A., Sengupta, G., Bera, T., Das, N., & Mukherjee, S. (2016). Factors affecting the performance of undergraduate medical students: a perspective. Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, 37(2), 126–129. https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-0218.96104(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Beharu, W. T. (2018). Psychological factors affecting students academic performance among freshman psychology students in Dire Dawa University. Journal of Education and Practice, 9(4), 59-65.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Khan, K. W., Ramzan, M., Zia, Y., Zafar, Y., Khan, M., & Saeed, H. (2020). Factors affecting academic performance of medical students. Life and Science, 1(1), 4-4.(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Tiruneh, S. T., Abegaz, B. A., Bekel, A. A., Adamu, Y. W., Kiros, M. D., & Woldeyes, D. H. (2020). Facility-Related Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Medical Students in Human Anatomy. Advances in medical education and practice, 11, 729–734. https://doi.org/10.2147/AMEP.S269804(Factors affecting the Academic Performance of Psychology Students Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

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