Researcher Firas Jamal Diab, a student in the master’s program in educational psychology, has defended his thesis titled “Psychological Alienation and Its Relationship to Psychosocial Security among a Sample of University Students in the Northern Governorates of the West Bank.”
The present study aimed to know the level of psychological alienation and its relationship to psychosocial security among a sample of university students in the northern governorates of the West Bank. It also aims to investigate those differences and variations that may be contributed to, from the researcher’s point of view, by some variables, such as gender, place of residence, academic specialization, educational level, and university name. This makes the study of great importance to decision-makers and educational policymakers, whether in schools, universities, colleges, or graduate institutions in Palestine.
Regarding the approach followed, the study relied on the descriptive, correlational approach, and a stratified random sample was chosen according to the gender of the student. The sample size was (382) male and female students from Palestinian universities in the northern governorates of the West Bank, specifically students from the Arab American University and An Najah National University, Al-Quds Open University, Palestine Technical University - Kadoorie.
Successive to collecting the necessary data through the instruments designated for this purpose and analyzing it statistically, the results of the study revealed that the level of psychological alienation among the sample studied was moderate in size. The arithmetic mean was (3.15), and the level of psychosocial security was also moderate, with an arithmetic mean of (2.75). The study also showed that there were no statistically significant differences in the averages of psychological alienation according to the variables of gender and educational level. While the differences were statistically significant depending on the variable of place of residence in favor of the village, academic specialization in favor of humanities, and the name of the university to which the student belongs in favor of Al-Quds Open University and An-Najah National University. In addition, it was revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the averages of students’ psychosocial security according to the variables of gender, place of residence, academic specialization, and educational level, while the differences were statistically significant according to the university name variable, specifically in favor of the students of Arab American University and Al-Quds Open University, and Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie. The results indicated that there is a statistically significant negative correlation between psychological alienation and psychosocial security. This means that the greater the psychological alienation among university students in the northern governorates of the West Bank, the lower their level of psychosocial security, and vice versa.
The thesis was supervised by Dr. Wael Abu Hasan. The committee of examiners included Dr. Fayez Mahameed and Dr. Yahya Jaber.