Students’ Attitudes Towards Different Team Building Methods

Abstract

Purpose of study, this study examined attitudes towards different teamwork constructs and team-building methods in a sample of university students enrolled in either Bachelor's (N=157) or Master's (N=85) in Science programs in Extreme Psychology. Attitudes towards teamwork and three different types of team-building methods were assessed twice, once before the team-building training course, and a second time after participation in team-building activity. Methods Questionnaire completed and returned within a week. Findings and results On the whole, students gave positive evaluations to the efficiency of team-building methods and were willing to be involved in team-building activities. They highlighted the fact that the team formation process was an adequate model of professional relations and interactions for extreme psychologists. Results also indicated a number of significant mean discrepancies in groups of respondents, but no systematic pattern appeared to underline these differences. At the same time, moderate to high pre-test - post-test convergence pointed to considerable changes of student attitudes toward teamwork after going through team-building exercises. Conclusions and recommendations It is important that psychologist training programs incorporate team-building methods, and are designed to take actual professional tasks into account, as well as areas in which students may feel less confident.