Psychological barriers to the development of research agency in future psychologists

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify and systematize the psychological barriers to the development of future psychologists' research agency, as well as to determine their prevalence and representation characteristics among students of different academic years. To theoretically substantiate the problem, analysis, generalization, and systematization of scientific literature were applied. Empirical data were obtained through an online survey of 473 first (Bachelor's) cycle higher education students majoring in 053/C4 Psychology (Years 1–4) from 16 higher education institutions of Ukraine. The questionnaire was exploratory in nature and contained open-ended and semi-open questions aimed at identifying psychological difficulties that students associate with the manifestations of their own research agency, particularly with independence, initiative, self-regulation, confidence in their capabilities, making and upholding research decisions, and identification with the role of a researcher. The obtained responses were processed using content analysis, extracting semantic units followed by their thematic generalization. This made it possible to systematize the identified psychological difficulties into eight groups of barriers: motivational, cognitive, emotional-affective, personality-dispositional, regulatory-volitional, professional-identity, communicative barriers, and barriers related to low tolerance of uncertainty. The overall prevalence of each identified group within the sample was determined, as well as the most typical specific manifestations within each group; emotional-affective and regulatory-volitional barriers were found to be the most prevalent, while professional-identity barriers were the least represented. A comparison of responses from students of different academic years using Pearson's χ² test and Cramér's V revealed statistically significant differences in the representation of professional-identity and communicative barriers: the former gradually decreased from lower to higher years of study, whereas the latter, on the contrary, increased; no statistically significant differences across academic years were found for other groups of barriers. Scientific novelty lies in the fact that psychological barriers to the development of future psychologists' research agency have been systematized for the first time from the perspective of their potential limitation on the student's agency; eight such groups have been empirically identified, and the specific features of their representation depending on the academic year have been established. Practical significance of the results lies in the possibility of their utilization by university lecturers, academic supervisors, and specialists of university psychological services to diagnose psychological difficulties in students' research activity and to differentiate psychological, educational, and methodological support for the development of their research agency.