ABSTRACT
This
study examined the attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour on social and
academic orientation among undergraduate female students in University of
Lagos, who were randomly selected from the five female hostels of the
University of Lagos.
Questionnaires
were administered and results obtained and findings show that attitude towards
hostel behaviour, religious value, socio-economic status and sex education
influence the social and academic orientation of undergraduate female students.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
TITLE PAGE i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Background
of the study 1
1.2 Statement
of problem 8
1.3 Purpose
of the study
9
1.4 Research
Questions 10
1.5 Research
Hypotheses 11
1.6 Significance
of the study 11
1.7 Scope
and limitations of the study 12
CHAPTER
TWO-
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction 13
2.2 The
attitudinal change in behavioural pattern 13
2.3 The
influence of attitude on hostel behaviour 19
2.4 The effects
of sex education on hostel behaviour 27
2.5 The effect
of socio-economic status on hostel behaviour 31
2.6 Socio-economic
status attitude and achievement 34
2.7 Summary 35
CHAPTER THREE- RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction 36
3.2 Research design 37
3.3 Research area 37
3.4 Population of
the study 37
3.5 Sampling techniques 37
3.6 The sample 37
3.7 Research instrument
construction 38
3.8 Procedure for
data collection 38
3.9 Data preparation
and scoring 39
3.10 Method of
data analysis 39
CHAPTER FOUR- DATA ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction 40
4.2 Hypotheses testing
and interpretation of results 40
4.3 Summary of findings 48
CHAPTER FIVE- DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
49
5.2 Discussion of
findings 49
5.3 Summary of
the study 51
5.4 Conclusion 52
5.5 Recommendation 52
5.6 Suggestion for
further research 53
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
CHAPTER ONE
1.1
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Attitude
is often defined as a tendency to react favourably or unfavourably towards a
designated class of stimuli, such as a national or ethnic group, a custom, or
an institution. Here, we want to look at the hostel behaviour of female
students as it concerns their social and academic orientation.
According to Anastasi (1982), attitudes have three
components. These are cognitive, affective and behavioural components. The
cognitive component refers to the belief or factual knowledge about the person,
idea or object. The affective component refers to one’s emotional response to
or feelings toward a person, idea or object. The behavioural or action
component refers to one’s disposition to do something about one’s feelings,
beliefs and knowledge. To this effect, some students see hostel accommodation
as a means of escape from family control (freedom) instead of a means of
concentrating on their studies and getting away from outside influence.
According
to Johnson (1975), the reliance on attitudes is part of a fundamental
psychological economy referred to as the ‘least-effort’ principle. The
principle states that whenever possible, apply past solution to present
problems or wherever possible, apply past reactions to present experiences. The
hall administrators, who ought to set the rule, put up the I-do-not-care
attitude as they tend to turn a blind eye to what is going on in the hostels.
Students go out and come back in the early hours of the morning without anybody
showing any concern. Some students travel out of the school environment for months
without being noticed, sometimes in the company of non-students living with
them in the hostels.
According
to Krumbolt and Thorenson (1976), behavioural counselling is a process of
helping people to learn how to solve certain interpersonal, emotion and decision
problems. With training, a client can be taught to change his behaviour. Some
of these students need the services of a guidance counsellor to help them
overcome their mal-adjusted behaviour.
Yates (1970) defined behaviour modification as the
attempt to alter human behaviour and emotion in a beneficial manner. Behaviour
modification according to Anastasi (1982), represents the direct utilization of
major learning principles in the practical management of behaviour change. It
involves the application of conditioning principles to the acquisition and
strengthening of wanted behaviour and the elimination of unwanted behaviour.
There was a time university education was seen as a
veritable platform for the acquisition and development of virtues. Students were
thought to be productive, morally upright, disciplined, decent and virtuous.
Not anymore, now, a typical female student does not bat an eyelid over
flaunting her escapades with rich “Aristos” (sugar daddies) to her friends. And
why not, when she has so much to show for it- a flashy car, vacations abroad,
expensive clothes and gifts etc. These “Aristos” spend on their flirtatious
girls what they cannot afford with their wives at home.
It
has equally become fashionable for married men to boast to one another about
their dates with female undergraduates. Some girls go as far as keeping
multiple boyfriends including students, whom they maintain with money from
their rich sugar daddies. Fights between girls competing over a man are quite
common.
There
exists in the female hostels a worrisome situation in which non-students buy
bed space and occupy rooms in order to run their business. It is said that a
lot of prominent people outside who patronize these girls, prefer
undergraduates. These commercial sex hawkers, some of whom may have failed to
gain admission either through JAMB or the diploma programme, remain on campus
for prestige’s sake, giving away the impression that they are students.
These undesirable attitudes lead some students into
truancy and absenteeism. They keep late nights or travel out for weeks on end.
The consequence is that they are absent from lectures. During these times
however, their friends help them mark attendance registers during lectures,
complete assignments or even continuous assessment tests. There are mercenaries
who are adept at these. They are not easily detected by the school authorities
either.
It
is common knowledge that girls always have problems staying together unlike
male students. Fights, quarrels, vulgar exchange of words, malice and open
jealousy are bad traits found commonly among girls in hostels. There are those
who persist in noise making, the blaring of music from radio sets, dirty habits
or stealing anything including underwear.
Cult
membership is another problem on campus. Female students, seeking influence or
sheer pleasure often secures membership of these nocturnal groups. Others are
intimidated into joining or forced through peer pressure. Yet some others seek
protection from fellow students in cults. Some students see hostel
accommodation as a means of escape from family or parental control. They see
their undergraduate programme as an opportunity to explore the world. So they
delve recklessly into vices such as late night parties, indecent dressing,
prostitution, cult membership etc.
It is instructive to note
that some of these girls have returned with incurable sexual diseases and
mysterious illnesses which usually lead to death. There are also those who were
not properly brought up or given parental care and instruction. Such
delinquents are often given to the above-mentioned behavioural traits.
The problem of
student’s adjustment to university life is of paramount importance. The way
people adjust or fail to adjust to demanding problems or new environments have
been subjected to a sequential series of attitudinal patterns over the ages.
The university environment is not only known for the pursuit of academic
excellence but also for multifarious innovations and challenges for each
student. To adjust to university life, it is not uncommon that a student passes
through psychological strains and stresses such as worry, frustration, anxiety
and conflict to mention a few. Left without help, a student may find it
extremely difficult to cope with life at a university.
Woman (1973) describes
adjustment as a relationship between the individual and the environment as he
strives to survive the various physical and psychological stresses. It requires
a lot of discipline on the part of the student to be able to hold his/her own
without undue influence in such an environment as the University of Lagos.
Eysenck et al (1976) define adjustment as a process of activities geared
towards survival in a given environment.
Education is a
process of influencing, reinforcing and changing people’s knowledge, attitudes
and behaviours, and then the university, as an educational institution, can
assume the role of creating an environment conducive to the optimal growth and
development of an educated person with the following characteristics:
a. She has an open mind and
allows reason and scholarship to guide her in her decisions. At the same time,
his emotions are alive and sensitive to the world around her.
b. Such woman has some
understanding of herself. She is aware of her prejudice; she also knows her own
limitations. In order words, she has the vision to know where she is going and
where she has been.
c.
She understands the society and the world in which she lives
and she is alert to her responsibilities to all segments of society. Thus she
accepts her jobs with grace and performs them with all possible integrity and
ability.
d. A well education person
has developed a philosophy of life that is grounded in an intellectually
grasped set of values. Hence, her life has meaning and the way is paved for the
achievement of future goals.
Our hopes and
aspirations to have educated and well cultured citizens of the characteristics
listed above will not be accomplished throughout university education unless
our students are well adjusted to university life. Failure of a student to
adjust adequately to the university life may lead to adverse consequences some
of which may be frustration, inability to cope with studies, repetition of
course due to failure, drop-out or even expulsion from the institution. Failure
of a student to benefit from university education may also lead to wastage of
human and material resources can ill-afford. (Olayinka, M. S and Omoegun O.M)
The first
perennial problem is lack of accommodation for the efficient adjustment of
students to university life. Acute shortage of accommodation is notable in
halls of residence, in the library, the lecture rooms and lecture theatres.
Lazarus (1969)
describes adjustment as man’s efforts, successful or unsuccessful, to deal with
life in the face of environmental demands, internal pressures, and human
potentialities. These university facilities built around 1962 for an optimum
student population of about five thousand are now expected to serve the need of
over twelve thousand students. Some students have to stand outside to listen to
lectures as there is no room to stand inside.
Classrooms are also
grossly inadequate because many students peep through the windows to glance at
what the lecturers write on the boards. Provision for accommodation in halls of
residence is shockingly inadequate as only about 40% of the student population
can hope to get campus lodging.
The University
Library and faculty libraries are incapable of providing reading spaces and
adequate books and journals for the numerous anxious students who are desirous
of drinking of the fountain of knowledge that a university is expected to
supply. Many students go to the university with different goals and objectives.
The great silent majority of students normally go about their lectures with a
view to passing their examinations with good grades and later obtain good
certificates and degrees.
The vocal
minority among students tend to be trouble shooters who champion the cause of
student confrontation with the police as a method of bringing about more
amenities for students. Such students are apt to block the roads, destroy,
molest innocent students and precipitate a breakdown of law and order.
Student unrest cannot be
completely eliminated but our students should learn to apply constitutional
procedures to bring about a desirable change. They should be informed that
negotiation and not confrontation is a better method of seeking redress. They
should always keep open the channel of communication with significant others
who are in a position to listen to their grievances with sympathy.
The role of
cohort advisers should be well explained to the students in this wise. Students
should be motivated to be achievement oriented and to re-order their
priorities. They should not allow side issues to detract them from their main
objective of coming to the university.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problem to be
investigated here is the difference in hostel behaviour of undergraduate female
students living in the hostel.
This is a
problem because students are from different socio-economic backgrounds but some
of them fail to recognize this as they strive to live up to the expectation of
their peer group. In the hostels you will find call-girls who take up residence
in various halls pretending to be students because it has become fashionable
for men to come to campus and pick girls supposed to be undergraduates.
The non-students make a
lot of money from the men. Their rooms are heavily furnished with every gadget
that makes life comfortable. They ride in flashy cars and exhibit wealth. They
generate noise through their electronic gadgets and the type of visitors they
receive. They engage in scandalous activities, going out at odd hours with men
to night parties and come back in the early hours of the day disturbing those
that are sleeping.
Some students
want to emulate their lifestyle believing them to be enjoying life. They join
the non-students in their nefarious activities. The students get distracted
from their studies; they begin to lag behind in their academic work. In order
to meet up they pay people to do assignments and write tests for them.
There is therefore need
for a form of orientation for new intakes who are confronted with different
lifestyles mostly confusing upon entry into the university. If we accept the
assumption that education is a process of influencing, reinforcing and changing
people’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, then the university as an
educational institution can assume the role of creating an environment
conducive to the optimal growth and development of an educated person.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
i.
To determine the extent to which attitude towards hostel
behaviour affects the social and academic orientation of undergraduate female
students.
ii.
To examine whether religious values influence attitudinal
difference in hostel behaviour.
iii.
To assess whether socio-economic status influence the
attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour.
iv.
To determine to what extent sex education affects the
attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to do
an in depth study on the attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour on social
and academic orientation among undergraduate female students, the following
questions have to be addressed:
i.
To what extent does the
attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour influence the social and academic
orientation of undergraduate female students?
ii.
To what extent do
religious values influence the attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour of
undergraduate female students?
iii.
Does socio-economic status
influence the attitudinal difference in hotel behaviour among undergraduate
female students?
iv.
To what extent does sex
education affect the attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour of
undergraduate female student?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
1. There
is no significant influence of attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour on
social and academic orientation among undergraduate female students.
2. There
is no significant influence of religious values on the attitudinal difference
in hostel behaviour among undergraduate female students.
3. There
is no significant influence of socio-economic status on the attitudinal
difference in hostel behaviour among undergraduate female students.
4. There
is no significant influence of sex education on the attitudinal difference in
hostel behaviour among undergraduate female students.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
i.
This research will help
students to know how their attitude and hostel behaviour affect their social
and academic orientation.
ii.
It will help
parents/guidance know how hostel behaviour affects the social and academic
orientation of their children.
iii.
It will help the school
authority to know how attitude and hostel behaviour affect social and academic
orientation of students.
iv.
It will put the society
in the knowing that attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour affects social
and academic orientation of students.
1.7 SCOPE AND
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This
study will be carried out among female undergraduate students of University of
Lagos. It will study the attitudinal difference in hostel behaviour on social
and academic orientation among female undergraduate students. The limitation is
that it will exclude male students and Post graduate students of the
Institution.
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