جامعه شناسی کاربردی (Dec 2017)
Analysis of Academic Loafing as Social Loafing Among Students of Mazandaran University
Abstract
Introduction Social loafing can cause many problems and negative consequences for the individual and society in the short term and the long term. Iranian society is a society in which social loafing is a serious problem. Today, we can see loafing in various sections in Iran. Loafing used to be meant breeding, sloth and negligence and dereliction. However, nowadays even university students present apathy in their behaviors. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors responsible for student’s social loafing (in these case Mazandaran university students). Students play a key role in development programs in every society. Therefore, their apathy to training can be a serious problem in our university system. In this research, loafing is defined as a situation in which a person procrastinates his/her pursuit of individual and collective goals. Here, researchers survey academic loafing at two levels: individual and collective. Academic loafing is effected by disorganization at the systemic level. Materials and Methods Method is survey and data collecting tool is questionnaire. The population of this research includes all of Mazandaran University students and the sample size was estimated 390 students by Cochran formula. In this research, the theory of Coleman rational choice was selected as the theoretical framework. After collecting data, hypotheses were analyzed at descriptive and inferential levels by Amos and SPSS software. The dependent variable is defined as academic loafing and independent variables include: disorganization within the university system and out of the university, lack of control in university, weak planning in university, systemic training loafing, culture of loafing in society, academic alienation, lack of interest and motivation to learn, autonomy, low cost of loafing in the community, lack of facilities at the university and lack of job prospects. Discussion of Results and Conclusions The results show that academic loafing has a meaningful relationship with variables such as disorganization within the university and out of the university, lack of control in university, weak planning in university, systemic training loafing, culture of loafing in society, academic alienation, lack of interest and motivation to learn, autonomy, and low cost of loafing in the community. But there is not a meaningful relationship between social loafing and lack of facilities at university and lack of job prospects. The result of structural modeling test shows that the above variables could explain 40% of the variance of academic loafing (at individual and group levels). According to the result, loafing is not a personal action but collective action.
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