Does “Psychological Literacy” Feature in Non-Psychology Degrees? A Cross-Discipline Study of Student Perceptions

Abstract

Background: Psychological literacy is a set of attributes, which refer broadly to how students apply their subject-specific psychology knowledge to solving problems. However, the extent to which psychological literacy skills are unique to psychology as a discipline is unknown. Objective: We assessed whether students perceive psychological literacy attributes to be prominent in disciplines outside of psychology. Method: We recruited undergraduate students from Psychology, non-Psychology STEM subjects, and Humanities subjects ( N = 296) and asked them to identify the extent to which they perceive psychological literacy attributes to be prominent in their degrees. Results: Psychology students reported significantly higher perceived prominence of psychological literacy attributes in their degree, compared with Humanities and non-Psychology STEM students, in all but two of the psychological literacy attributes. Conclusion: These findings suggest that psychological literacy mostly represents attributes unique to psychology students, but some of these attributes are also developed within other disciplines. The facets of psychological literacy unique to psychology relate to knowledge of behavior, research skills, ethics, and socio-cultural issues. Teaching implications: This suggests that psychology students graduate with some subject specific attributes, which may make them uniquely advantaged in a competitive work context and affirms that psychology degrees do hold unique value.