Social Representations of Competition among University Students. How does the University Career Influence the Perception of Competition?

Authors: Retana AL

DOI: 10.23880/mhrij-16000193

Volume 6, Issue 2

Abstract

The objective of this work was to analyze the way in which belonging to a certain university career can influence the perception and social representation that students have about competition. For this, a qualitative study was carried out with twelve Mexican students from two different careers: Medicine and Arts. Through semi-structured interviews, information was collected about how they conceive competition within their careers and in society, in general, with the purpose of investigating whether science students have more competitive attitudes and favorable to meritocracy. Than those who study humanities. Taking the model of social representations as the theoretical reference for analysis, it was found that this hypothesis is fulfilled, given that, according to the testimonies analyzed, the medical students expressed a greater willingness to compete and to conceive competition as a mechanism for improvement, while those from the Arts stated that competing can desensitize people and generate conflicts and emotional problems.  

Keywords: Competition; Meritocracy; Social Representations; University Students; Merit

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