Assumptions about human nature - primary data of a study with students of psychology and other subjects

Research Questions/Hypotheses:

Primarily, this is a descriptive study. A profile was developed concerning the basic beliefs of psychology students in their 1st semester. It was expected that differences would be found between the students in their 1st semester and those in more advanced semesters. 2 specific features - membership in a religious community and a self-designation into a religion - were expected to be marked differences between students from eastern and western Germany, a difference already established in many other representative surveys. Individual foreknowledge concerning the topics of the questionnaire varied, but it was expected that this would have, as in the previous investigation, hardly any influence on the assessment of occupational implications. Significant correlations were expected between (1) views on ontological aspects of epiphenomenalism, monism, dualism, and complementarity, (2) the God belief, or atheism, agnosticism, deism, theism, and (3) attitudes toward transcendence/immanence and (4) to paranormal phenomena. Possible differences between students from different majors (only at the University of Freiburg) were considered.

Research Design:

Fully standardized survey snstrument (provides question formulation and answer options); single measurement

Measurement Instruments/Apparatus:

A preliminary version of the questionnaire was used for teaching new college students to address philosophical and ideological presuppositions using the example of the mind-body problem to address this and to ask about possible consequences of psychology. From these expanded study aims - the desire to include more topics and the aim to identify a structure in the belief systems - the following development tasks for the new questionnaire crystallized: 

1. The questionnaire is designed to be equally suitable for students of various majors, but should not require any specialized terminology and does not attempt to provide philosophical clarification concerning the numerous, often difficult, concepts presented within. It should be possible for students to complete with their existing preconceptions (though whether an interest in such philosophical questions exist and whether the participant has already explored these questions should be determined).
2. The concept of humanity is described in terms of selected central beliefs, though, in addition to simple items, trilemma or content-contrary item pairs and scales will be used.
3. The educational aspect is to be retained through drawing attention to both common opinions and notable individual differences.
4. The possible consequences of philosophical presuppositions should be scientifically and critically examined.
5. It should be methodologically suitable for describing patterns (item clusters or belief systems) and to test correlation hypotheses, for exploration of group differences between students of psychology, philosophy, theology, and science, and for examination of relationships with religion and socio-demographic variables (as well as others). 

The former questionnaire was accordingly revised, simplified, and extended by including a number of important issues. Concerning topics focused on the human image, subject matter encompasses the brain and consciousness; free will, religion and interest in meaning of life questions; faith in God and atheism; transcendence and immanence; theodicy issues; beliefs about supernatural (paranormal) phenomena; creationism; special position of man in evolution; nature-nurture issues; the meaning of life; Christianity and other religions; truth, tolerance, and the ultimate justification of a moral, multicultural setting. Some topics had graded response options as scales. Within 3 central themes, the issues are presented as a trilemma so that the inconsistencies can be clearly displayed and, following reflection of these, the subject's own position can be revealed. The beliefs (opinions) concerning the image of man have been formulated as declarative sentences. These statements are to be rated as either true or false. The option to decide between 2 alternative answers was not given in order to avoid a tendency in subjects to respond to questions in the affirmative; however, some answer couples were formulated as opposing theses. Additionally, sentence structure was kept as simple as possible, avoiding double negatives and using as few technical terms and foreign words (placed only in parentheses) as possible.

Data Collection Method:

Data collection in the presence of an experimenter

• Group Administration

Population:

(1) Students of psychology taking required undergraduate courses, (2) Students of philosophy, theology, science (physics, chemistry, etc.), humanities taking required undergraduate courses, and (3) psychology students in their 3rd and 5th semesters.

Survey Time Period:

Sample:

Convenience sample

Gender Distribution:

71,4 % female subjects (n=567)
28,6 % male subjects (n=227)

Age Distribution: 18-47 years

Spatial Coverage (Country/Region/City): Germany

Subject Recruitment:

Lecturers invited participation. The questionnaires were issued by colleagues during various educational events at psychology institutes in the old and new German States.

Sample Size:

796 individuals

Return/Drop Out:

Department of psychology: Of the approximately 900 event attendees, 713 (83%) participated in the questionnaire survey. Of these, 93 (13%) delivered incomplete questionnaires and were therefore excluded from the statistical analysis. In other departments, of the 305 people who participated in the study, 53 (17%) were excluded from further analysis due to incomplete questionnaires. As the exact numbers concerning attendees of these events was unknown, an exact number concerning the rate of survey return cannot be given. All returned questionnaires were evaluated if they met the specific requirements:

1. The four main items had to be answered: subject's view concerning the principles of being, the brain-consciousness trilemma, the trilemma question of free will, and the God-question (scale).
2. In the variable range "ENGAGED" to "GLAUB7" and "ÜBERZ1" to "WAHR6", only a maximum of 4 items could be unanswered.