Psicologia e paz: a perspectiva de estudantes universitários

Abstract

This study investigated Psychology undergraduates' attitudes toward peace and the connection they perceive between peace and Psychology. One-hundred-and-twenty-one Brazilian students, registered in a public federal university, answered four open-ended questions regarding the definition of peace and its relation to Psychology. Content analysis provided categories of answers per question. Chi-square tests between the categories and five groups of students (divided according to the year they were admitted in the Psychology course) did not reveal significant differences. The majority of the participants defined peace at two levels (individual and social); did not provide concrete examples of connections between Psychology and peace; but emphasized that Psychology could contribute to peace as a practice that aims at the well-being of an individual person, indirectly leading to social peace; or as a science that studies the human being and his relationship with himself (individual peace) and with other human beings (social and world peace).