Comparing Institutional, Teaching, and Student Factors in Relation to Psychology Student Satisfaction

Abstract

Background Satisfaction of psychology students has implications for students’ engagement, learning, and persisting with education. Understanding of influences on satisfaction remains incomplete. Objective To investigate contributors to psychology students’ satisfaction, we assessed multivariate associations of satisfaction with institutional, teaching, and student factors. Method In two cross-sectional studies at the same university, first year psychology undergraduates ( N = 138 in 2019; N = 142 in 2023) completed online measures of student satisfaction, institutional factors (i.e., reputation, image, and learning environment), teaching factors (i.e., teaching quality, program structure, and assessment and feedback), student factors (i.e., self-efficacy, self-regulation, and motivation), and demographics. Results All proposed factors correlated with satisfaction. In hierarchical regression, student (self-efficacy) and institutional factors (academic reputation) explained more variance in satisfaction than did teaching factors. A second institutional factor, learning environment, associated independently with satisfaction in 2023 but not 2019 data. Conclusion Student self-efficacy and institutional reputation were the strongest predictors of psychology student satisfaction within this project. Replication at other institutions is needed, and longitudinal and experimental designs would also benefit future research. Teaching Implications Supporting psychology students to enhance self-efficacy and understand their institution's contributions to psychology might assist students’ satisfaction and thereby potentially aid learning and engagement.