Magister Artium - MA (Psychology)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/12152

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Browsing by Subject "Academic performance"

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    First year students' perceptions of the influence of social integration on academic performance
    (University of the Western Cape, 2009) Moos, Aziza; Mwaba, K.
    During Apartheid, South African education policies were largely based on a system of racial segregation, resulting in unequal educational opportunities between black and white students. Current education policies centred on Access and Equity have been ratified to address the education issues of the past. However, there still remains a concern about the poor performance and consequently, the high drop out rate, particularly amongst black South African university students. The findings of various studies have shown that the factors that contribute to poor academic performance range from inadequate pre-university schooling and financial issues to poor language proficiency, inadequate social support and insufficient social integration. The present study employed a qualitative approach to explore first-year students' perceptions of the influence of social integration on academic performance. Tinto's Student Integration Model provided the conceptual basis for the conduction of the study. Three focus groups were used to collect the data which were analysed according to thematic analysis procedures. The main finding of the study was that academic and social experiences were intrinsically linked in the first year of study. Moreover, the findings indicate that friends, belonging to nonacademic organisations and lecturer-student interaction (as three indicators of social integration) influenced first-year students' academic performance. South African contextual factors such as socio-economic status and language were found to be a potential hindrance to good academic performance. The implications of these findings are discussed.
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    Investigating the relationships between perceived family support, self-efficacy, and academic performance among undergraduate students at a South African university
    (University of the Western Cape, 2024) Fraser, Khelsey; Adonis, Tracey-Ann
    In South Africa (SA), the university dropout rates are alarmingly high which indicates that many students in South African universities struggle to complete their degrees. Identifying the underlying factors that causes students to dropout of university is important to lowering these dropout rates. This study therefore aimed to investigate the relationships between perceived family support, self-efficacy, and academic performance among undergraduate students at a South African university. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was used as the theoretical framework. A quantitative research approach was used. The phase of the broader doctoral study in which the current study was embedded employed a cross-sectional correlational design and online questionnaires were administered to undergraduate university students who were selected by simple random sampling. Secondary data was therefore used in this study. For the purpose of this study, convenience sampling was used. The sample included 274 young adults between the ages 18-35 years with the following inclusion criteria i.e. that the participants were: 1) undergraduate Community and Health Sciences (CHS) Faculty students or those enrolled in degree programmes at other faculties who took psychology as a service-level module, 2) registered for the academic year during which data were collected, and 3) the participants were between the ages of 18-35.