Dissonant study orchestrations of high-achieving university students

This study focuses on the dissonant study orchestrations of high achieving university students. Advanced psychology students' dissonant study orchestr ations were compared with previous findings of advanced medical students or chestrations. Further, the relation of study orchestrations to study succes s was examined. The subjects were 28 advanced psychology students at the Un iversity of Helsinki, Department of Psychology who returned a task booklet of learning; of these, 24 students completed a questionnaire concentrating on the students' interests, expectations and evaluation of the curriculum. All students were high achievers who had gone through a demanding selection process. The subjects completed three questionnaires concentrating on thei r study practices, conceptions of knowledge, expectations, and evaluation o f the instruction in the Department of Psychology. The results showed that seven out of 28 students expressed a dissonant study orchestration. The res ults further showed that students' individual study orchestrations were not related to study success. A comparison between advanced medical and psycho logy students showed that although the profiles of dissonant study orchestr ations were technically similar among medical and psychology students, cont ent analyses revealed that reasons for the development of dissonant study o rchestrations were different.