The Impact of Studying a Psychology Course on Students’ Attitudes Toward Psychology at the Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the attitudes of the medical freshmen toward psychology at the Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University. To achieve the objectives of this study and to answer its questions, the researcher has developed an attitudes Scale based on reviewing relative psychological literature. The validity and reliability of the measuring procedure are assured. A total sample of (188) male and 72 female medical freshmen students participate in this study during the academic year 1424/1425 H. The findings indicated that: The medical freshmen students (male and female) show positive attitudes toward psychology. There are statistically significant differences in the pre-test and post-test scores of the participants. This indicates that the students’ attitudes toward psychology have been positively changed at the end of the course. Due to the variable of gender, there are statistically significant differences in the participants’ attitudes toward psychology. The female participants’ were found to have significantly more positive attitudes toward psychology than male ones.