Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Aggression is part of everyday life which includes learning. The dynamics of learning at a university from undergraduate to post-graduate is complex. Within such a context challenges concerning aggression are posed to the involved persons, i.e. for student-learners, professors and management. We address students’ perceptions of self, relationships, and aggression. We explore and describe the differences between the perceptions of aggression of various groups of students perceiving higher versus lower intra- or interpersonal relationships and to formulate guidelines. We use a quantitative, exploratory and empirical research design applying multivariate inferential and descriptive statistics were followed. A questionnaire was electronically distributed to all students in a faculty of education. Cronbach alpha, factor analyses, and multivariate comparisons (Hotelling T-square followed by t-tests) were used. Perceptions of self- love, interpersonal relationships and disconnectedness were used as independent variables and perceptions of various forms of aggression formed the dependent variables. Ethical clearance was obtained. Results reflected that when a person perceives the she or he exhibits self-love there are significant differences with respect to perceived aggression. A student with self-love is less aggressive towards self and others compared to persons perceiving themselves as having less self-love. These students should be assisted to understand and manage their own perceptions of self, relationships, and aggression to facilitate dynamic adult education.