Background:

During the past two decades, psychology has become a favorite school subject in many countries. This situation has led to studies on students’ attitudes and perceptions of psychology as a secondary school subject.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to compare motives for choosing psychology as a school subject among secondary school students (15–19 years of age) from England and Slovakia.

Method:

In this study, we administered an online questionnaire to gather data about motivation toward studying psychology among secondary students in England (n = 150) and Slovakia (n = 210).

Results:

For both groups, the most frequent motives and beliefs influencing the choice of psychology were self-understanding and understanding behaviors of others. However, significant cross-cultural differences in other motives emerged (e.g., the perception of difficulty of psychology as a school subject).

Conclusion:

Students, regardless the cultural context, choose psychology mostly to understand how the human mind works and to understand human behavior to help people.

Teaching Implications:

Pre-tertiary psychology teachers therefore need to accept a challenge to fulfill students’ expectations and to raise awareness of pre-tertiary students’ perceptions and beliefs about psychology among decision makers on national and international levels.

中文翻译：

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选择心理学作为中学学科的动机：跨文化比较

背景：

在过去的二十年里，心理学已成为许多国家最受欢迎的学校科目。这种情况导致了对学生对心理学作为中学学科的态度和看法的研究。

客观的：

本研究的目的是比较来自英格兰和斯洛伐克的中学生（15-19 岁）选择心理学作为学校科目的动机。

方法：

在这项研究中，我们进行了一项在线问卷调查，以收集有关英格兰 ( n = 150) 和斯洛伐克 ( n = 210)中学生学习心理学动机的数据。

结果：

对于这两个群体来说，影响心理学选择最常见的动机和信念是自我理解和理解他人的行为。然而，在其他动机方面出现了显着的跨文化差异（例如，将心理学视为一门学校科目的难度）。

结论：

学生，无论文化背景如何，选择心理学主要是为了了解人类思维的运作方式以及了解人类行为以帮助他人。

教学意义：

因此，大学前心理学教师需要接受挑战，以满足学生的期望，并提高国家和国际决策者对大学前学生对心理学的看法和信念的认识。