A Study of the Attitude, Self-efficacy, Effort and Academic Achievement of CityU Students towards Research Methods and Statistics

Abstract

The present research aims to study the relationship between social science students’ attitude towards research methods and statistics, self-efficacy, effort and academic achievement. Self-administered questionnaire was chosen as the primary data collection method and a sample of 153 students from Department of Applied Social Studies in the City University of Hong Kong were invited to complete the survey. After analyzing the data collected, Pearson’s correlation coefficient reflected that there was a positive correlation between all the four variables – attitude towards research methods and statistics, self-efficacy, effort and academic achievement. Also, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to estimate the prediction power of attitude and self-efficacy on effort. The result showed that both attitude and self-efficacy could significantly predict effort. However, when another multiple regression analysis was conducted to estimate the prediction power of attitude, self-efficacy and effort on academic achievement, it was found that effort failed to predict academic achievement. To conclude, in the present study, effort could only be regarded as an indirect factor but not a necessary factor in bridging the relationship between attitude, selfefficacy and academic achievement.