Northern Irish University Students Research Articles

Intimate Partner Sexual Violence, Gender, and Psychological Distress Among Northern Irish University Students.

While substantial prevalence rates of intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) have been found among university students for decades in North America, there is a specific gap in published studies on this issue in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The present analysis used data from a larger survey study of students in one Northern Irish university. The analyses reported here were used to examine relationships among IPSV victims, gender (males and females only), unhealthy alcohol use, and psychological distress among university students (n = 654) since the age of 16 and during the previous year. The results of this study are consistent with previous research indicating that women (n = 248) experience IPSV more often than men (n = 37; 50% vs. 23%, respectively). Nonetheless, IPSV is experienced by both men and women with statistically significant associations with alcohol use, posttraumatic stress, depression, and generalized anxiety compared with those who did not report any IPSV experience.

Sex differences in general knowledge in German and Northern Irish university students

Studies of sex differences in general knowledge have produced conflicting results with some investigators reporting no difference and others reporting greater general knowledge in men. This study was designed to determine whether the a male advantage in general knowledge found among university students in Northern Ireland could be replicated among students in Germany. The general knowledge questionnaire consisting of 17 domains of general knowledge was administered to 88 men and 145 women students at the University of Luneburg. The sex differences were closely similar in the two countries. Men had significantly and substantially greater general knowledge than women (d = 0.49 standard deviation units) in Germany and in Northern Ireland (d = 0.51). In both countries, the domains of general knowledge in which males achieved significantly and substantially higher scores were sport, finance, games, geography, history, science, discovery and exploration, and politics. There were no substantial or significant se...

Applying a Social Identity Paradigm to Examine the Relationship Between Men's Self-Esteem and Their Attitudes Toward Men and Women

The authors used a psychometrically robust measure of attitudes toward men in applying a social identity framework to obtain a better understanding of the previous finding of a significant positive relationship, among men, between self-esteem and attitudes toward men. Two studies of that issue are reported. Northern Irish university students (N = 106 men) participated in the 1st study, and 56 English university students participated in a replication. In both studies, participants completed measures of attitudes toward men and women before and after an experimental intervention that was designed to produce a threat to self-esteem regarding their identity as men. The findings suggested that, following such a threat, men with a high positive regard toward men will have enhanced self-regard toward men and will tend to view women more negatively. The present findings also suggested that the application of social identity theory and the method used in the present research in investigating that theory are very relevant to the understanding of the relationship between men's self-esteem and their attitudes toward men and women.

The Depression-Happiness Scale: test-retest data over two weeks.

The present aim was to examine further the psychometric properties of the Depression-Happiness Scale. Test-retest data over 2 wk. are reported for this scale for a sample of 54 female Northern Irish university students. Stability was fairly high as r = .70, and there was no significant change between Time 1 and Time 2 (M = 49.7 and 50.8, respectively). The data suggest that the Depression-Happiness Scale might be considered a trait measure of happiness rather than a state measure.

Memories of recent ethnic conflict and their relationship to social identity.

To examine ethnic memory and ethnic identity, two cohorts of Northern Irish university students in 1984 and 1995 were first asked to classify themselves in terms of being British or Irish. They were then shown 12 video clips of political events in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1980 and asked to date each clip. Then they indicated on a rating scale how that particular event made them feel in terms of being Irish or British. Baseline ethnic identity was virtually identical in both cohorts. In both years, performance on the memory task was at above-chance levels although performance declined from 1984 to 1995. There was, however, no direct relation between baseline identity and memory performance.

The Depression-Happiness Scale, a measure of a state or a trait? Test-retest data over two years.

Test-retest data over two years, reported for scores on the Depression-Happiness Scale among 14 female Northern Irish university students, showed fairly high stability ( r = .55) and no change ( t = 0.56) between Time 1 ( M = 51.1) and Time 2 ( M = 49.6).

Reliability and validity of the Francis scale of attitude towards Christianity (adult) among Northern Irish university students

To facilitate the use of the adult form of the Francis scale of attitude towards Christianity in Northern Ireland, the reliability and construct validity of the scale was examined among a sample of239 male and 459 female Northern Irish uni versity students. Respondents completed the Francis scale and also answered questions about the frequency of personal prayer and Church attendance. Support was found for the reliability, unidimensionality and construct validity of the scale among both male and female Northern Irish university students. The Francis scale is commended for research in Northern Ireland.

Attributions for unemployment in Northern Ireland: Does it make a difference what your name is?

Two studies are described which provide evidence forintergroup attribution bias in Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants. In the first study, 209 Northern Irish university students completed a questionnaire designed to assess intergroup attribution bias along the dimensions of internality, stability and globality. It was found that outgroup attributions for unemployment tended towards more internal, stable and global causes than for the Ingroup. Similar results were found in the second study which investigated intergroup attribution bias in 294 Northern Irish school age students.

Evaluative and Affective Dimensions of Self-Concept: A Test of Construct Validity Using Structural Equations Modeling

It has been suggested that self-concept has both an evaluative and an affective dimension. Measures of self-concept, task satisfaction and performance were obtained from a sample of 188 Northern Irish university students. Using confirmatory factor analysis (LISREL 8), it was shown that, whereas a one-factor model did not fit the self-concept data, a two-factor model in which evaluative items loaded on one factor and affective items on the other, demonstrated a good fit (Incremental Fit Index (IFI) = 0.99). Further, a structural model in which evaluative self-concept was related to performance and affective self-concept was related to task satisfaction also fitted (IFI = 0.99). Thus, both the discriminant and construct validity of affective and evaluative self-concept were demonstrated. This may mean that previous studies have underestimated the magnitude of relationships between self-concept and other variables such as achievement.

A Short Measure of General Self-Esteem among Northern Irish University Students: Some Data on Reliability

The 12-item measure of general self-esteem from the Self-description Questionnaire III was reliable as estimated several ways among 263 Northern Irish university students.

Religiosity: psychoticism and obsessionality in Northern Irish university students

The aim of the present study was to replicate previous work which has examined the relationship between personality and religiosity in college students. One-hundred and fifty Northern Irish students completed the Francis Scale of Attitudes Towards Christianity, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), and Kline's measure of anal-obsessional personality traits (Ai3). As predicted, higher scores on the Francis scale were associated with lower scores on psychoticism and higher scores on obsessionality. It is suggested that obsessional personality can be understood as a facet of a broader psychoticism dimension and that this provides a more secure base for theoretical predictions on the personality correlates of religiosity.

Social Psychological Correlates of Locational Preference in Northern Ireland

The residential preferences of 60 Northern Irish university students (30 Protestant and 30 Catholic) for sixty locations within the Province were examined to assess the relationship of this variable with their perceptions of the level of unemployment, violence and denominational composition of those locations. There was a high level of intergroup agreement between Protestant and Catholic subjects on the application of all scales and subjects’ perceptions correlated well with ‘objective’ measures. The greatest difference between the two groups was in the correlation between perceived denomination and preference ratings: for Protestant subjects, the relative dominance of own-group members was highly correlated with preference, while for Catholic subjects no such relationship was found. This was explained by the differential use of judgements of ‘objective’ characteristics in the formation of residential preference.