ATTITUDINAL DIFFERENCE IN HOSTEL BEHAVIOUR ON SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC ORIENTATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE FEMALE STUDENTS
ABSTRACT
This study looked at the attitudinal differences in hostel behavior on social and academic orientation among undergraduate female students at the University of Lagos, who were chosen at random from one of the university’s five female hostels.
Questionnaires were given out, and the results show that attitudes toward hostel behavior, religious values, socioeconomic status, and sex education all have an impact on the social and academic orientation of undergraduate female students.
THE FIRST CHAPTER
1.1 THE STUDY’S BACKGROUND
Attitude is frequently defined as a proclivity to react favorably or unfavorably to a specific set of stimuli, such as a national or ethnic group, a custom, or an institution. In this section, we will look at the hostel behavior of female students in terms of their social and academic orientation.
Anastasi (1982) defines attitudes as having three components. There are three of them: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. The cognitive component refers to the person’s, idea’s, or object’s belief or factual knowledge. The affective component refers to an individual’s emotional reaction to or feelings toward a person, idea, or object.
The behavioral or action component refers to one’s willingness to act on one’s feelings, beliefs, and knowledge. As a result, some students see hostel accommodation as a means of escaping family control (freedom) rather than focusing on their studies and getting away from outside influences.
The reliance on attitudes, according to Johnson (1975), is part of a fundamental psychological economy known as the ‘least-effort’ principle. The principle states that whenever possible, apply past solutions to current problems or past reactions to current experiences.
The hall administrators, who should be enforcing the rule, adopt an I-don’t-care attitude because they frequently turn a blind eye to what is going on in the hostels. Students leave and return in the early hours of the morning with no one noticing. Some students travel away from school for months without being noticed, sometimes in the company of non-students living in hostels with them.
Behavioral counselling, according to Krumbolt and Thorenson (1976), is a process of assisting people in learning how to solve specific interpersonal, emotional, and decision problems. A client can be taught to change his behavior through training. Some of these students require the assistance of a guidance counselor in order to overcome their maladjusted behavior.
Yates (1970) defined behavior modification as the attempt to change human behavior and emotions for the better. Anastasi (1982) defines behavior modification as the direct application of major learning principles in the practical management of behavior change. It entails applying conditioning principles to the acquisition and reinforcement of desired behavior as well as the elimination of unwanted behavior.
There was a time when university education was regarded as a veritable breeding ground for virtue acquisition and development. Students were regarded as being productive, morally upright, disciplined, decent, and virtuous. Not any longer; a typical female student has no qualms about bragging to her friends about her encounters with wealthy
“Aristos” (sugar daddies). And why not, when she has so much to show for it—a flashy car, foreign vacations, expensive clothes and gifts, and so on. These “Aristocrats” spend money on flirtatious girls that they cannot afford to spend on their wives at home.
It has also become fashionable for married men to brag about their dates with female undergraduates to one another. Some girls go so far as to have multiple boyfriends, including students, whom they support with money from their wealthy sugar daddy. Fights between girls competing for the attention of a man are quite common.
In the female hostels, there is a concerning situation in which non-students purchase bed space and occupy rooms in order to conduct business. According to rumors, many prominent people who patronize these girls prefer undergraduates. These commercial sex hawkers, some of whom may have been denied admission through JAMB or the diploma program, remain on campus for the sake of prestige, giving the impression that they are students.
Some students engage in truancy and absenteeism as a result of these negative attitudes. They stay up late or go out for weeks on end. As a result, they are unable to attend lectures. During these times, their friends assist them in marking attendance registers during lectures, completing assignments, and even taking continuous assessment tests. These are skills possessed by mercenaries. They are also difficult to detect by school authorities.
It is common knowledge that girls, unlike male students, have difficulty staying together. Fights, quarrels, vulgar exchanges of words, malice, and open jealousy are all common among hostel girls. There are those who persist in making noise, blasting music from radios, engaging in dirty habits, or stealing anything, including underwear.
Another issue on campus is cult membership. Female students seeking influence or simply for fun frequently gain membership in these nocturnal groups. Others are coerced into joining or are forced to do so due to peer pressure. Others, on the other hand, seek protection from their fellow students in cults.
Some students see hostels as a way to get away from family or parental control. They see their undergraduate program as a chance to travel the world. As a result, they engage recklessly in vices such as late-night parties, indecent dressing, prostitution, cult membership, and so on.
It’s worth noting that some of these girls have returned with incurable sexual diseases and mysterious illnesses that usually kill them. There are also those who were not properly raised or instructed by their parents. Such delinquents frequently exhibit the aforementioned behavioral characteristics.
The issue of students’ adjustment to university life is critical. Over time, the way people adjust or fail to adjust to difficult problems or new environments has been subjected to a series of attitudinal patterns. The university environment is known not only for academic excellence, but also for a wide range of innovations and challenges for each student.
It is not uncommon for a student to experience psychological strains and stresses while adjusting to university life, such as worry, frustration, anxiety, and conflict, to name a few. Without assistance, a student may find it extremely difficult to adjust to university life.
Woman (1973) defines adjustment as a relationship between the individual and his environment as he attempts to cope with various physical and psychological stresses. It takes a great deal of discipline on the part of the student to be able to hold his or her own without undue influence in an environment like the University of Lagos. Eysenck et al. (1976) define adjustment as a series of activities aimed at surviving in a given environment.
Education is a process of influencing, reinforcing, and changing people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, and the university, as an educational institution, can then take on the role of creating an environment conducive to the optimal growth and development of an educated person who possesses the following characteristics:
a. She has an open mind and lets logic and scholarship guide her decisions. At the same time, his emotions are alive and aware of what is going on around her.
b. Such a woman has a sense of self-awareness. She is aware of her prejudice, but she is also aware of her own limitations. In other words, she can see where she is going and where she has been.
c. She comprehends the society and world in which she lives, and she is aware of her obligations to all segments of society. As a result, she accepts her jobs with grace and performs them with the utmost integrity and ability.
d. A well-educated person has developed a life philosophy based on an intellectually grasped set of values. As a result, her life has meaning, and the path to achieving future goals has been paved.
Our hopes and dreams of having educated and well-cultured citizens with the characteristics listed above will not be realized unless our students are well adjusted to university life. Failure to adjust adequately to university life may result in negative consequences such as frustration, inability to cope with studies, course repetition due to failure, drop-out, or even expulsion from the institution. Failure of a student to benefit from university education may also result in a waste of human and material resources that cannot be afforded. (M. S. Olayinka and O.M. Omoegun)
The first recurring issue is a lack of accommodations for students’ efficient adjustment to university life. There is a severe shortage of housing in residence halls, the library, lecture rooms, and lecture theatres.
According to Lazarus (1969), adjustment is man’s successful or unsuccessful efforts to deal with life in the face of environmental demands, internal pressures, and human potentialities. These university facilities, which were built around 1962 for an optimum student population of about 5,000, are now expected to serve the needs of over 20,000 students. Because there isn’t enough room inside, some students must listen to lectures while standing outside.
Classrooms are also woefully inadequate because many students peer through the windows to see what the lecturers are writing on the boards. Accommodation in residence halls is shockingly inadequate, with only about 40% of the student population able to find on-campus housing.
The University Library and faculty libraries are unable to provide adequate reading spaces as well as books and journals for the large number of anxious students who wish to drink from the fountain of knowledge that a university is expected to provide. Many students attend university with varying goals and objectives. The vast silent majority of students normally attend their lectures with the goal of passing their exams with good grades and obtaining good certificates and degrees.
The troubleshooters are a vocal minority of students who champion the cause of student confrontation with police as a means of bringing about more amenities for students. Such students are likely to obstruct traffic, destroy property, molest innocent students, and cause a breakdown in law and order.
Although student unrest cannot be completely eliminated, our students should learn how to use constitutional procedures to effect desired change. They should be informed that negotiation, rather than confrontation, is a better way to seek redress. They should always keep the lines of communication open with significant others who can sympathize with their grievances.
In this regard, the role of cohort advisers should be thoroughly explained to students. Students should be encouraged to be goal-oriented and to re-arrange their priorities. They should not let minor issues distract them from their main goal of attending university.
1.2 THE PROBLEM’S STATEMENT
The difference in hostel behavior of undergraduate female students living in the hostel is the problem to be investigated here.
This is a problem because students come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, but some fail to recognize this as they strive to meet the expectations of their peers. In the hostels, there are call girls who live in various halls pretending to be students because it has become fashionable for men to come to campus and pick up girls posing as undergraduates.
Non-students make a lot of money off of men. Their rooms are lavishly furnished with every amenity that makes life easier. They drive flashy cars and flaunt their wealth. They make noise with their electronic devices and the types of visitors they receive. They engage in scandalous behavior, leaving at odd hours with men to night parties and returning in the early hours of the morning, disturbing those who are sleeping.
Some students want to emulate their lifestyle because they believe they are having a good time. They participate in the nefarious activities of the non-students. Students become distracted from their studies and fall behind in their academic work. They pay people to do assignments and write tests for them in order to meet up.
As a result, there is a need for some sort of orientation for new intakes who are confronted with various lifestyles that are often confusing upon their arrival at university. If we accept the assumption that education is a process of influencing, reinforcing, and changing people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, then the university, as an educational institution, can play the role of creating an environment conducive to an educated person’s optimal growth and development.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
i. To ascertain the extent to which attitudes toward hostel behavior influence the social and academic orientation of female undergraduate students.
ii. To see if religious values influence attitudinal differences in hostel behavior.
iii. Determine whether socioeconomic status affects the attitudinal differences in hostel behavior.
iv. To ascertain the extent to which sex education influences the attitudinal differences in hostel behavior.
1.4 QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
The following questions must be addressed in order to conduct an in-depth study on the attitudinal differences in hostel behavior on social and academic orientation among undergraduate female students:
i. How much influence does the attitudinal difference in hostel behavior have on the social and academic orientation of female undergraduate students?
ii. To what extent do religious values influence undergraduate female students’ attitudinal differences in hostel behavior?
iii. Does socioeconomic status influence the attitudinal differences in hotel behavior among female undergraduate students?
iv. To what extent does sex education affect the attitudinal differences in hostel behavior of female undergraduate students?
1.5 HYPOTHESES FOR RESEARCH
1. There is no significant influence of hostel behavioral differences on social and academic orientation among undergraduate female students.
2. Religious values have no significant influence on the attitudinal differences in hostel behavior among undergraduate female students.
3. Socioeconomic status has no significant influence on the attitudinal differences in hostel behavior among undergraduate female students.
4. Sex education has no significant effect on the attitudinal differences in hostel behavior among undergraduate female students.
1.6 THE STUDY’S SIGNIFICANCE
i. This research will assist students in understanding how their attitude and hostel behavior affect their social and academic orientation.
ii. It will assist parents/guardians in understanding how hostel behavior affects their children’s social and academic orientation.
iii. It will assist the school administration in understanding how students’ attitudes and hostel behavior affect their social and academic orientation.
iv. It will inform society that attitudinal differences in hostel behavior affect students’ social and academic orientation.
1.7 STUDY SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
This research will be conducted among female undergraduate students at the University of Lagos. It will investigate the impact of hostel behavior on social and academic orientation among female undergraduate students. The restriction is that it will not be available to male students or postgraduate students at the institution.
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ATTITUDINAL DIFFERENCE IN HOSTEL BEHAVIOUR ON SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC ORIENTATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE FEMALE STUDENTS
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