The development of desired
characteristics of psychologists in
undergraduate psychology students
Julia Suleeman
Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia
ICOPE 6, Northern Arizona University, August 3-5, 2014
Introduction
• A competence-based curriculum, replacing the knowledgebased, is applied in Universitas Indonesia since the year 2012,
focusing on specific competencies of the students rather than
just a transfer of knowledge from lecturers to the students.
• Since psychology is one of the helping professions, those
studying psychology should be equipped to have the needed
competencies and qualities. A label wounded healer is given to
those who learn about their own problems through helping
others solving their problems (Waterman, 2002; see also
Dicaccavo, 2002).
• This on-going study is carried out as part of an internal
curriculum evaluation to identify how the students grow
through the psychology education. For this report, the focus is
on what qualities are perceived as good for psychologists, and
how the students rate themselves on those qualities.
Introduction (2)
• According to Tillet (2003), people who take psychology were triggered
by their own problems in early life, hoping that they would be able to
help others who have similar problems.
• Tillet’s concern about the mental health condition of those in helping
profession cannot be undermined. We need to be cautious about what
is delievered through our psychology education, and how the students
see themselves as being equipped through the psychology education
before getting ready to work in helping profession-related field. Do
they have the needed capacities to overcome their problems before
they can help others overcome their problems?
• In the 1970s and 1980s, a weekly television program in Indonesia was
“Psikologi untuk Anda”(psychology for you). This program was popular
especially among young people, providing mini lecturers of what
psychology was all about and how it could be useful to help people
who had problems. On the other hand, the topic “Psychology for you”
indicated that those delivering the psychological services were alright,
did not need any help. Was this a true condition, or some sort of
defence mechanisms?
Introduction (3)
• We know that undergraduate students, from 16 to
23 years of age, are in the stage of forming their
identity with lots of challenge lying ahead.
• For some of them, going to university is a first time
experience of being away from the family, meaning
that they need to be independent, able to manage
their time and money, and to choose how and with
whom they are going to study and do other leisure
activities (Suleeman, Adikismo, Ardra, 2014).
• For some others, coming to Depok – Jakarta (the
place where Universitas Indonesia is situated),
brings some culture shock: 24-hour facilities, notso-friendly neighbors, etc.
Introduction (4)
For all of them, coming to Faculty of Psychology
Universitas Indonesia is quite shocking:
- a sudden change from high school time
- receiving the attention from seniors
- the freedom to choose extra-curriculair activities
- the chances to meet a variety of people
(ethnic, social economic status, religion, etc.).
Different reasons of choosing psychology as their
undergraduate education, but mostly because they want
to become counselors including for their own problems
(Suleeman, Sophronius, Hadiwibowo, 2013).
Research questions
• What personal characteristics are perceived
as important by the undergraduate students?
• What personal characteristics are perceived as
grown through psychology education?
• What academic activities are facilitating for
this personal growth?
• What academic activities are inhibiting for this
personal growth?
Literature Review
• As a discipline, psychology is applicative in a sense that
those who study psychology can apply psychological
principles to help other people including themselves to
increase their life in the areas of well being, education
(Weiten, 2002), health, organisational effectiveness, etc.
(Zimbardo, 2004). However, there is some indication that
these people actually have a helping profession syndrome
(meaning that subconsiously, they take psychology as a
career as a response toward their own problem(s). Tillet
(2003) used the term the patient within to indicate that the
help that is provided for other people functions as a
remedy for emotional problems faced in early life. They
assume that the people they help have similar unfulfilled
needs. Tillet continued with suggesting that this would
make a psychologist functions ineffectively.
Method
Sample recruitment: Announcements to
participate in the study were put on information
board at several strategic places around the
Faculty of Psychology campus. Those interested
were asked to write their contact number, and
were then contacted by the researchers and her
team. Altogether, 203 undergraduate students
from Faculty of Psychology Universitas Indonesia,
from year 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012
intakes, participated.
Method (2)
• Research instrument. A questionnaire consists of several
open-ended questions asking how the students perceive
themselves growing through psychology education. Four
questions were analyzed for this report.
• The first question is posing 21 characteristics (drawn
from the literature review) to be checked for their
importance for psychologists and psychologists-to-be.
• These are: patience, persistent, smart, able to explain,
responsible, curious, critical, creative,
diligent, open minded, friendly, outgoing, non
discriminative, emphatetic, faithful, caring, able to
control emotion, trustable, reflective, honest, and good
listener.
• They may add any other characteristics seen as
important.
Method (3)
• The second question is again posing these 21
characteristics, asking the participants to
choose which have grown through psychology
education they received.
• The next questions asking what academic
activities are perceived as facilitating and
inhibiting for their gowth through psychology
education.
• Method of analysis: quantitative and
qualitative.
Results
• Ten top characteristics for psychologists and
psychologist-to-be perceived as important:
• Patience, critical, open minded, friendly,
non discriminative, empathetic, caring, able to
control emotion, trustable, and good listener.
• Across year intakes, there are no differences in
terms of what characteristics are important (there
are some quantitative differences across year
intakes, but not to be reported here).
• Other characteristics added by one or more but less
than four participants are non judmental, observant,
kind, helpful, etc.
120.00
100.00
80.00
60.00
2008 intake
2009 intake
40.00
2010 intake
2011 intake
20.00
0.00
2012 intake
Results (2)
• Top characteristics grown through psychology
education:
• Understanding other people, understanding
oneself, critical, open mind, non discriminative,
emphatetic, caring, able to control emotion,
reflective, and good listener  chosen by all year
intakes.
• Patience, able to explain, responsible, curious,
outgoing  chosen by one, two, or three year
intakes.
100.00
90.00
80.00
70.00
60.00
50.00
2008
40.00
2009
2010
30.00
2011
20.00
2012
10.00
0.00
Able to
explain
Responsible
Critical
Open mind
Non
Empathetic
discriminative
Caring
Able to
control
emotion
Reflective Good listener
Results (3)
Academic activities which facilitate growth:
• Courses: Developmental psychology (chosen
by all intakes), Counseling psychology, Social
psychology, Self-understanding (elective)
• Course activities: Reflection (self-analyses),
textbook and journal article reading and
analyses, discussion with other students, meet
new people in class and work together a
group, discussion with lecturers, and feedback
from lecturers.
Results (4)
Academic activities inhibiting growth:
• Heavy assignments with short notice (less
than one week or two)
• Assigments without feedback from lecturers.
Discussion
• There are similarities of characteristics
perceived as important by all year intakes;
however, there are differences in how they
see themselves growing in these
characteristics.
• Unfortunately, since no conversation took
place between the researcher and the
participants, it is still not clear in what ways
undergraduate psychology students grow
through psychology education.
Discussion (2)
• Are the characteristics gained through
psychology education the target of the
curriculum, or only incidentally happened? In
other words, how the lecturers realize about
these characteristics and really help the
students exercise these.
• What characteristics are already in the
students before they start the psychology
education, and what characteristics are gained
through psychology education?
Discussion (3)
Future studies:
• Conduct focus group discussion in small
groups to let the participants talk freely about
their ideas of good psychologists, and how
they can grow through psychology education.
• Including the alumni to really identify how
sudying psychology have helped them growing
into more mature individuals and
professionals?
Reference
DiCaccavo, A. (2002). Investigating individuals' motivations to become counselling
psychologists: The influence of early caretaking roles within the family, Psychology
and Psychotherapy, Theory, Research, and Practice, 75(3), 463-472.
Suleeman, J., Adikismo, A. & Ardra, O. (2014). Penyesuaian diri dengan kehidupan
kampus pada mahasiswa baru (Adjusting to campus life among new university
students). Paper presented at Second National conference, Universitas Yarsi, Jakarta,
June 21, 2014.
Suleeman, J., Sophronius, J., Hadiwibowo, S. I. (2013). Why I Study Psychology. Paper
presented at the 10th Biennial Conference of Asian Association of Social Psychology,
Yogyakarta, August 21-24.
Tillet, R. (2003). The patient within- psychopatology in the helping professions,
Journal of Continuing Professional Development, (9), 272-279 .
Waterman, B. T. (2002). Motivations for choosing social service as a career.
www.bedrugree.net. Downloaded on June 23, 2013.
Weiten, W. (2008). Briefer Version Psychology themes & variations. Seventh Ed. Clifton
Park, NY: Thompson Learning.
Zimbardo, P. G. (2004). Does psychology make a significant difference in our lives?
American Psychologist, 59(5), 339-351. Doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.59.5.339
Any comment? Suggestion?
Please direct to julia.suleeman@ui.ac.id
Terima kasih!
Typical curriculum in psychology
undergraduate
1. Research Methods and Statistics, Psychometrics, Test
Construction, Qualitative methods = 40 credit hours (out of
144 credit hours)
2. Physiological, Developmental, Personality, Social,
Organizational Psychology = 60 -64 credit hours
3. Philosophy, Liberal arts, Writing, = 25 credit hours
4. Elective units = 8 – 12 credit hours (selected psychological
topics or other discipline)
5. Final project = 6 credit hours