Thesis Tep 2018

Chapter I
Introduction
In Divine Word College of Calapan, students who aim to
achieve college degree achievement have to complete the whole
program by passing a minimum number of units, including all the
prescribed core courses and proceed to research program. In the
process of research study, student should come up with a topic;
to plan and conduct a study searching about the proposed topic;
and to make a report about the findings of the study. This
report is called thesis for the students who aim for the
completion of the program requirements.
Thesis writing is an academic writing that is in line with
academic environment. It is the kind of writing used in high
school and college classes. In addition, academic writing is a
formal writing wherein the researcher must be careful to his
words to use.
Thesis writing is aim to address a particular issue. This
is to be done in a precise and systematic manner to look for new
knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. The task of the
researcher is to search for an existing data to investigate and
find results, and further analyze whether this newly gathered
facts are also true to other environment.
● DWCC LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT AB PSYCHOLOGY● DWCC LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT AB PSYCHOLOGY●
Thesis writing is significant for graduate students.
Through the process, the researcher or students come to know how
to do research and report the findings. Thesis is the most
important write up in a researcher’s life which also benefits
both the researcher and the reader.
In conducting research, researcher must allot plenty of
time for the completion of each phase of the activity. They must
be conscientious and patient because this process demands long
time of working to complete. They need to allocate excess time
before the scheduled deadline because there is something that
takes more time than what is planned, and there are some stages
in the research work that are more difficult than what the
researchers expect. In short, there are unexpected difficulties
and problems and they may lead to academic failures. In
conducting a research one must have the interest of doing it. It
is a very laborious task.
Writing a good thesis is mandatory as it has to be and
approved by the internal and external panel of examiner. A
variety of devices must be used in order to write a good thesis.
A well-written thesis has a good thesis statement by which main
ideas are related. The thesis statement is a researcher’s guide
which takes him along the right path and avoids getting lost or
losing the tracks of relevant thoughts.
Apart from the presence of deeply analytical mind thesis
writing requires good writing skills and ability to present an
argument clearly and logically. The recent advancement in
computer and information technology has realized the need of
some outside help for the whole student community and as a
result there are several professional writings services online
now. The service provider employ professional writer of great
caliber for the writing task. They ensure that the researcher
receive top quality services with regard to academic writing.
Academic writings are an essential part of any learning
process as for professors to evaluate the level of understanding
and involvement of every student into a certain subject.
Research study is important for students because it enhances the
knowledge researcher, clarifies confusion, to have a proper
understanding of the subject, to learn about methods and issues,
improve writing skills and logical thinking, bring consistency
in the work, motivates other.
Some courses in Divine Word College of Calapan are required
to conduct a research study as a mandatory requirement of their
college course. There are some students in Divine World College
of Calapan who work for their thesis or research by themselves
and others are those courses wherein the students undergo a
group research study. Successful completion of fulfilling the
thesis requirements serves as their way to finally finish their
college course.
Students usually found themselves blank when they write a
thesis. The condition of the student to lose their focus in
writing a good thesis is categorized as psychological factors.
Students’ psychology is a pivotal contributor to the
success in writing thesis. Self-esteem, motivation and anxiety,
all of this psychological factors would assist the success or
lead to unconsciously built barrier that end with evident
failure acquiring the necessary skill to achieve competence and
proficiency in writing.
Writing a thesis proves very difficult for most students.
Some students in Divine Word College of Calapan seem to have
difficulties in writing their thesis. Some have not finished
their college courses because of some potential factors that
cause the student to fail in their thesis subjects. The
researcher was curious to know about the causing factors of
students’ difficulties in writing thesis.
Background of the study
The fact that students have been facing challenges in
writing their thesis is undeniable. It is expected for a student
to find difficulties in constructing and generating ideas for
writing or concentrating their attention on a topic when they
were asked to write. Most of the time research work is found to
be tedious and very tiring work to do; however, teacher and
students cannot get away from this work because most often this
is an academic requirement.
Research Locale
The study was conducted in Divine World College of Calapan,
this place was chosen for knowing the effectiveness of the said
study among the students of Liberal Arts and Criminology
Department. As student of Divine Word College of Calapan, taking
up AB Psychology, they are required to do a study or a thesis as
one of the required output of the curriculum. The researcher
chose the study to find out the effects of potential
psychological factor to students’ difficulties in writing their
thesis and some issues regarding the process. And further
analyze the factors that considered as potential factors. The
researcher believes that this paper can help in the enhancement
of the students taking up courses with thesis requirements by
creating a program based on the result of this study. In this
study, the researcher aims is to direct the attention to these
factors in terms of definition and how they can affect students
during the learning process in general and in writing in
particular.
Theoretical Framework
The researcher considered some theories that support the
study. These are the following:
Theories of Self-esteem
Theoretically, self-esteem may be conceived to be a
function of the social responses of others to the individual’s
presentation of self. The act of writing with its highly
intentional nature required effort is sometimes directly, and
almost always indirectly, an exposure of self to others. In
most cases, writing is accompanied by either actual or implied
evaluation from others. This exposure and evaluation may be
reflected over time, in inferences by the writer self-worth. A
history of positive evaluations of one’s writing should lead to
higher self-esteem on the part of the writer than would a series
of negative reactions. Heightened self-esteem should be
associated with lower writing apprehension. A person’s
apprehension about writing develops, and is maintained, at least
in part, from others’ evaluation of his or her writing. People
receiving positive responses from others for their writing
should be less apprehensive about the act than their counterpart
who typically receives negative reactions.
The need for self-esteem plays an important role in
psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which depicts
self-esteem as one of the basic human motivations. Maslow
suggested that people need both esteem from other people as well
as inner self-respect. Both of these needs must be fulfilled in
order for an individual to grow as a person and achieve self-
actualization (Kendra Cherry 2013)
According to Kobal & Musek (2002), self-esteem as a
theoretical term has both numerous synonyms and definitions. It
is also identified as self-representation, self-esteem and self-
evaluation in literature. Self-concept is a psychological entity
which includes feelings, evaluation and attitude, as well as
descriptive categories of our selves. It is manifested outwardly
by your behavioral and personality traits and inwardly by how we
feel about ourselves and the world around us. Psychological as a
whole has an effect on one’s particular self-perceptions and on
the perceptions of other people. It also regulates academic
achievements attitudes in school (Burns,1979,p.78). He also
states that self-esteem is a positive or negative attitude
towards himself.
With regard to psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspectives,
Freud and others like Adler, Sullivan and Horney who were
influenced by Freud and psychoanalysis have discussed concepts
relevant to psychodynamic perspectives on self-esteem. What is
common to all psychodynamic perspectives including unconscious,
preconscious and conscious processes within the self, beginning
with Freud (Fisher, 1996).
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory contributed to the widespread
concern with the self. Although Freud never used the term self
or self-esteem directly, the concept of ego in Freudian theory
had much in common with the notion of self as viewed by a number
of other theorists. In psychoanalytic theory, conscious
awareness was largely considered under the concept of ego.
Therefore, the defense mechanism, the relationship of
consciousness to the external world and the inculcation of moral
values – all of them are figured in Freudian theory – became
topics of interest for the self-theorist (Gergen, 1971).
Although Adler did not discuss self-esteem directly like
Freud, he explained a universal tendency toward an inferiority
feeling apparently innate. Finally he found that major goal of
the individual was a striving for superiority (Wells & Marwell,
1976). He believed that each person has a unique view of reality
through the creative self. This creative self tries to make
sense of life and to plan for achieving goal of completeness and
perfection. The motivation of this creative self was named as
striving for superiority. In other words, the creative self-
live within a style of life or a way of interpreting reality
consistent with one’s life goals chosen early in life. Each of
us is engaged in striving for superiority toward a goal of
completeness or perfection (Bednar, & Peterson, 1995).
The positive responds of significant others, with
acceptance and encouragement, or negative responds of
significant others including excess, either support or undermine
the development of self-esteem in the child. To Adler,
development of the one’s social interest or involvement in
society allows a person to achieve self-acceptance (Coopersmith,
1967). As a writer they should have positive outlook in life,
and a positive environment as well. It is hard for the writer to
make ideas came from the disturbing minds of negative people
around them.
As mentioned above, Adler (1964) did not emphasized on the
concept of self-esteem. Indeed, he considered self-esteem as a
source of neurosis to the degree that it became a self-absorbing
goal. Probably, a more appropriate Adlerian term for self-esteem
would be self-acceptance. Therefore, appropriate self-esteem
requires a one’s acceptance of the right for belonging to
humanity and willingness to contribute to the social interest of
group (Bednar & Peterson, 1995).
Sullivan (1953) considered self-process with respect to
social psychology as an unusual dimension of psychoanalytic
perspective. He described the self interpersonally and
emphasized the function of symbolization in its development.
Coopersmith‘s (1967) multidimensional model of self-esteem
represents an integration and expansion of the theoretical work
of James (1892) and Cooley (1902). According to Coopersmith
(1967), self-esteem consists of the evaluation that individual
makes and maintains with regard to himself. That means it
expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval and indicates
the extent to which an individual believes himself to be
capable, significant, and worthy. In summary, self-esteem is
considered as personal judgment of worthiness expressed by the
attitudes of one holds toward him/herself (Coopersmith, 1967).
Under the cognitive-behavioral perspectives, there are two
theorists - Bandura and Epstein- that are presented for the
combined perspective with regard to conceptualization of the
self and self-esteem. While for the cognitive perspective, the
acts and processes of knowing are the entire personality, for
the behavioral perspective personality is an accumulation of
learned responses to stimuli, sets of overt behavior or habit
systems (Schultz & Schultz, 1994). Cognitive behavior represents
another approach to understanding the effects of learning on the
instigation of behavior. In the process of learning that
particular behaviors can lead to particular goals, expectations
about the goals are established and the goals acquire values.
One cognitive approach to motivation, called expectancy‐value
theory, stresses that the probability of occurrence of behavior
depends upon individuals' perception of the value of a goal as
well as their expectation of reaching it.
Bandura’s (1982) opinion about the self is not something
that determines or causes behavior. On the contrary, it is
cognitive processes and structures related with thought and
perception. He discussed self-reinforcement and self-efficacy as
the aspects of self. Self-reinforcement is defined as one’s
standards for behavior or criteria using for evaluating of one’s
own behavior. Based on perception of results of one’s
performance; one’s self-evaluation will increase, if one is
successful. Conversely, if an individual is not successful,
his/her self-evaluations will decrease. Bandura (1982)
attributes development of this capacity to be learned from the
behavior of important models.
Self-efficacy, which is the closest term to self-esteem, is
discussed as next step. Self-efficacy is defined as one’s
assessments of how well one meet internal standards. That is
one’s feelings of adequacy, efficiency and competence in coping
with life. According to him, there are four sources of
information to judge one’s self-efficacy; performance attainment
(proven past successful experience); vicarious experiences
(seeing others doing successfully); verbal persuasion
(encouraging someone that he/she can succeed within reasonable
limits); physiological arousal (the extent of calmness that the
person feels). Self-efficacy develops through the interaction of
some developmental experiences such as parental responsiveness,
peer responsiveness, teacher responsiveness, etc. Adolescents
and adults continue to gain perceptions of self-efficacy through
successes (Schultz & Schultz, 1994)
One the potential problems related to psychological factors
is self-esteem which is overwhelmingly issued in determining the
effects on academic writing. Self-esteem continues to be of the
most commonly researched concepts on social psychology
(Baumeister 1993; wells & Marwell 1976; Wylie 1979). Self-esteem
consists of people experiences and perceptions about themselves
(Heino 2000,46) It is associated with the human way of detecting
its existence, the ability to know its strength and weaknesses,
and accept the (Aho & Laine 1997,20-21). Concept associated with
self-esteem includes self-satisfaction, self-appreciation and
self-confidence. Also the concept of self-love, pride and vanity
will rise up when talking about self-esteem. (Scheinin 2003.8.)
People with strong self-esteem feel that they are valuable
and appreciate themselves (Rosenberg 1979,54). They can
appreciate also other people, are able to give positive feedback
and can deal with authority figures without considering them as
a threat (Keltikangas-Jarvinen 1994, 18-20). Instead, people
with low self-esteem are unsatisfied with and underestimate
themselves. (Rosenberg 1979,54). They see other people’s
competence and success as a threat and will not tolerate
authority figures ( Keltikangas-Jarvinen 1994,18-20).
Theories of Motivation
Human beings achieve success by setting and reaching goals.
The process of setting and achieving goals includes trial,
error, elimination and execution. In other words, goal setting
and motivation are inherent processes necessary to achieve
success. Since the days of the hunter-gatherer, goal setting (or
planning) was what separated those who ate from those that went
hungry. Even today it can still work this way. Those who are
incapable of setting and reaching goals are more likely to
become underachievers. Underachievers find it harder to
obtain gainful employment and maintain meaningful relationships,
while life is much easier for those who achieve goals.
One of the major factors can be a lack of motivation.
Motivation is the drive that prompts an individual to ‘do’ and
not to delay such actions. Behaviorist Clark Hull compared a
human beings’ need to reduce stress with the bodies need to
remain balanced in his Drive-Reduction Theory. Hull found at a
very basic level most of us inherently motivated to reduce
stress in the hopes of bringing ourselves back to balance. Drive
is essential in order for responses to occur (i.e., the student
must want to learn). Stimuli and responses must be detected by
the organism in order for conditioning to occur ( i.e., the
student must be attentive). Response must be made in order for
conditioning to occur (i.e., the student must be active).
Conditioning only occurs if the reinforcement satisfied a need
(i.e., the learning must satisfy the learner's wants).
Therefore human beings need to possess some “drive” to
prevent unnecessary tension with basic needs like sex and
hunger. However Mr. Hull’s work doesn’t cover why some of us are
driven to engage in activity outside of tending to our basic
needs. Dr. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham later studied the subject
of motivation as it pertains to goal setting. They discovered
five key elements that are necessary for success. These include:
clarity, challenge, commitment, feedbacks and task complexity.
They believed that motivation is gained through setting
challenging goals. If the goal is too simple or easy to reach,
the motivation needed to achieve the goal simply wouldn’t exist.
A challenging (but reachable) goal, as they saw it, leads to an
increase in energy and effort, both of which were needed to
complete a goal (Locke and Latham). Motivation as it Relates to
Goal Setting Theory.
In reviewing these theories, you gain a better
understanding of how the overall process of motivation works.
One needs drive to set goals and one needs goals to
increase motivation. The paradox here is that one theoretically
cannot exist without the other. If a person lacks motivation,
there is no drive to set goals. On the other hand, if one lacks
goals, he or she will not feel motivated to aim for greater
achievement, leading to unchanging behavior.
Theory of anxiety
Language learning theory is a controlled conscious process
occurs in academic setting that aims to study the explicit
rules. During this process, the progression of learners’
performance is regularly assessed through different types of
tests and evaluations. In the other hand, language acquisition
refers to learning the language unconsciously and naturally
through comprehensible input exposure. Focusing on learning, the
input must have certain features to be successfully learnt.
Richards and Rodgers (2004) assert that the input has to be
comprehensible, pertinent, quantity sufficient, and presented in
comfortable environment where anxiety is in its lowest degrees.
Throughout language learning process, anxiety plays detrimental
role, consequently, it should be reduced to the minimum because
it acts as an affective filter that hinders learners’ ability to
perceive the input as, Bailey and Daley (1999) utter.
Consequently, this leads them to lack confidence in using the
comprehensible input they received. Finally, this results in
losing their motivation to learn or communicate it. Anxiety
which is described as the most affective factor influencing
foreign language learning tends to be the main cause of what
Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) call a "mental block" which
prevents second language learners from engaging in language.
Conceptual Framework
Independent Variable Dependent Variable
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
 Self-esteem Difficulties
 Motivation in
 Anxiety Writing Thesis
OUTPUT
Maintaining Positivity Program in Thesis Writing
The conceptual framework shows the independent variables
which are the Psychological factors that affect the students’
difficulties in writing thesis and the dependent variable
which is the difficulties in thesis writing. The independent
variable will verify the dependent variable. The arrow
represents the hypothesized relationship between the
independent and dependent variables. The broken line
represents the indirect relationship between the psychological
factors that affect the students and the difficulties in
thesis writing.
Statement of the Problem
This research aims to find out and analyze the potential
psychological factors causing students’ difficulties in writing
thesis. It also aims to identify the need and solution to
overcome the negative factors affecting the thesis writing.
Specifically, this study will answer the following
questions:
1. What are the psychological factors that affects the
students’ difficulties in writing thesis in terms of :
1.1 Self-esteem
1.2 Motivation
1.3 Anxiety
2. Which factors greater affects the difficulties in
writing thesis?
3. Is there a significant relationship between the
psychological factors and the student’s difficulties in
writing thesis?
4. Based on the findings of the study, What is the proposed
output?
Statement of the Hypothesis
The researcher formulated the hypothesis based on the
problem presented above: There is no significant relationship
between psychological factors affecting the student
difficulties and thesis writing.
Significance of the Study
The researcher believes that this study is beneficial to the
following:
School Administrators - they may prioritize programs that will
ensure improvement among their students.
Guidance Counselors - They can now provide psycho-educational
enhancement training programs for the students.
Students - They would gain knowledge and understand how the
psychological factors affect the ideology of thesis wring
This paper can also serve as a reference to future
researchers on their study and provide reliable data and
results. It could also serve as a basis to open a new study.
Scope and Delimitations
This study focused on the relationship between the
psychological factor affecting the students’ difficulties and
thesis writing.
The study is limited only to the 68 students of Liberal
Arts and Criminology Department specifically students taking up
Psychology course and who are taking up courses with thesis as
one of their requirements for completion. The respondents came
from the Divine Word College of Calapan.
Definition of Terms
The following terms are operationally defined for the
purpose of this study:
Anxiety – fear of the person psychologically or physical
Extrinsic motivation – is when you’re doing something for
external rewards.
Intrinsic Motivation – is when you do something because
you enjoy it or find it interesting.
Motivation – goal-directed that provoke behavior which is
characterized by willingness and volition.
Self-esteem – a person’s overall sense of worth.
security and well-being.
Thesis writing - aim to address a particular issue.
Chapter II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter contains information gathered from books,
journals, other periodicals, online sources and varied
unpublished materials that provided the researcher with the
exhaustive review of the topic and the necessary background
knowledge to pursue the study.
Literatures
Many of undergraduate students experienced difficulties in
writing their thesis. Brown (2007) states some factors that
potentially affect the writing process in terms of psychology.
He assumed that these factors can be determined through the
affective factors of the student during the process. He further
interprets the affective factors that influenced the
undergraduate student in writing a good thesis and listed some
factors that potentially related to the process: self-esteem,
self-efficacy, willingness to communicate, inhibition, risk-
taking, anxiety, empathy, extroversion and motivation. In this
study, the researcher focuses on three factors that potentially
affect the undergraduate student in the completion of their
thesis writing which are: self-esteem, motivation and anxiety.
All the process in making a good research study will
potentially influenced by the factors mentioned by
Brown(2007)such the decision of the writer in finding the data
in his/her study, in making decisions throughout the research,
and the whole research process.
In addition, writing is difficult especially for those
students who used the second language in particular. According
to Khasir (2012), “writing plays an essential role in language
learning”. He also believes that the writing is the most
important skills that the second language learner needs to
develop to have the ability to communicate ideas and information
effectively. Writing is as high as risky skill which involves
different aspects such as spelling, punctuation, organization,
etc. Archibald (2004), states that writing is the major form of
communication by means of channel connection between the writer
and the reader. It transfers messages, letters, and knowledge,
to take exams and to maintain learning. He also perceives
writing as the art for every writer.
Furthermore, Celce-Murcia sees that native speaker finds
difficulties in mastering writing skill. And Klassen (2002)also
argued that writing is a crucial skill that is poorly acquired,
which means that the problems seems to be behind those examining
language areas. He argued that,” Today, English language is used
as a world language; it is used as a language in International
business, sciences and medicine.” English is said to be the most
used language in any fields. Academically, English language is
used in curriculum in Universities. In the Philippines, we used
English language as our second language.
Moreover, Psychological factors such as motivation,
attitudes, anxiety and self-esteem can be positive or negative
factors according to (Brown, 2000). In recent years, the
importance of affective factors like anxiety, inhibition,
motivation, and self-esteem has been of interest in the field of
language learning/writing because of their high effects (Andres,
2002).According to (Branden 2001) mentioned that self-esteem has
two aspects: self-confidence which the sense of efficacy and
self-respect which is the self of worthy. So, self-esteem is the
students’ feelings of one’s self. Traditionally, self-esteem is
frequently used in related literature synonymously with the
terms self-concept, self-competence and self-efficacy although
they are different. He defines self-esteem as “experience of
being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and
being worthy of happiness.
In psychology, self-esteem is one of used to describe a
person’s overall sense of worth or personal value (Kendra Cherry
2013. It is an important part of success. Kendra Cherry also
sited that the feeling of defeated the factors or depressed is
the result of too little self-esteem. It can also lead people to
fall from bad choices, and negative relationship, or fail to
live up to their full potential.
Indeed, most of the students who undergo a research study
find difficulties in writing their thesis because of the low
self-esteem that the students have. As observed, students with
high level of self-esteem have the capability to gain more
achievement in school and to write their papers more easily. The
role of positive self-esteem helps the student to motivates and
boost their confidence in the completion of their thesis. On the
other hand, student with low self-esteem finds it more difficult
to write their papers.
Not only self-esteem but also motivation was studied in
relation to the difficulties in writing thesis. Wallace Lambert,
and Robert Gardner were the pioneer of L2 motivation research;
they considered motivation as one of the most significant
predictors of L2 performance. According to Domyei (2000), the
degree of success or failure of L2 learners is affected by
motivation. Achievements are met whenever motivations existed.
Additionally, motivation derives from the latin word
“movere” which means “to move”. Therefore, it is responsible for
the individual to make certain choices, to perform action, to
expend effort or persist in action ( Domyei & Ushioda, 2011). In
means that it is the logical and psychological interpretation of
why an individual takes particular decisions willingly to
accomplish task needed to their study and to allot more time to
reach his goals. According to (Dembo, 2004) motivation is the
internal processes that provide behavior with its necessary
power and direct it. The individual’s expectation and beliefs,
perception, and goals are included in these internal processes.
When the person is motivate and endure on doing a task he is
often related to how competent he believes he is to complete the
task.
Basically, motivation is viewed as goal-directed that
provoke the behavior which is characterized by willingness and
volition. It is classified into two parts namely: intrinsic
motivation and extrinsic motivation. According to (Natalie Boyd)
intrinsic motivation is when you do something because you enjoy
it or find it interesting while extrinsic motivation is when
you’re doing something for external reward or to avoid negative
consequences. People are more likely to stick on what they are
doing and be successful if they are intrinsically motivated. On
the other hand, without extrinsic motivation some task would
never be done by those people who are unwillingly motivated to
do a task. In relation to academic, for example, students are
extrinsically motivated by their grades in school given by their
teachers. On the contrary, some students are intrinsically
motivated by their self-satisfaction in attaining a high grades
from their teachers. It is a mental satisfaction tremendously
clash because it could be gained through compliment
simultaneously. Intrinsically motivated learners are inclined to
gain and expand their knowledge from analyzing and correcting
their mistakes and errors and to solve intricate and complicated
issues due to their competitive nature (Walker,Greene, &
Mansell, 2006). Whereas the extrinsic motivation derives from
external factors often related to the educational environment
and teaching/learning process and basically stimulated by
pragmatic gains such as rewards or fear of punishment. Brown
(2000) explains that those who pursue goals only to receive an
external reward from someone are extrinsically motivated.
Further, the individual’s will of producing a piece of
writing activates his thinking about what he should write, for
whom (audience), and how to undertake the writing task
simultaneously with his emotions towards the whole process. They
do not have the ambition to explore new topics, they are
satisfied with what they write and do not seek new adventures in
writing or take risks. This effect could be positive if they are
interested in the subject and motivated to write while it could
be negative if they are demotivated. Boscolo and Gelati (2007)
assume that learners’ self-confidence about their writing level
correlates with the level of their motivation to write.
Accordingly, motivated learners are said to be self-confident
and to exploit writing as an influential means of communication.
Motivation plays a crucial role in writing and in the whole
process. Writing motivation can operate as a hindrance or serve
as a support in undertaking any writing task. However, academic
writing tasks are constrained by a certain types of topics which
typically include objective concepts and must be presented in an
objective manner, hence; learners are demotivated because they
are not permitted to convey their own personal views and style
in the majority of writing tasks. In other words, students feel
themselves dispassionate by certain rules and conventions which
are the core of any written production in English. Most student
lack the mastery of these conventions and their focus on them
and on how to apply them correctly lead to a lack of motivation
to write because they do not have self-confidence and do not
trust their capacities in producing a good piece of writing.
Even student who are intrinsically motivated to write fail in
maintaining motivation, it is a human nature to reject
constraints therefore most EFL learners consider writing as an
imposed activity which they are not motivated to tackle it
willingly.
In line with anxiety, as a personal perspective, it is
studied in anthropology, psychology and education. In every
corner of human life, anxiety has become a comprehensive human
occurrence in the second part of 20th century. Generally,
anxiety talked about the fear of the person’s psychological or
physical security and well-being. Over the last several decades,
psychological studies and researches had been integrated into
all educational fields especially writers. As an effective
psychological factor, anxiety has stimulated a particular
interest in the field of SL acquisition and learning.
As a matter of fact, investigation about anxiety was done
by some researcher to find out its effects on another language
macro skill such as writing. Cheng et al. (in Cheng 2004)
surveyed 433 university English majors in Taiwan using three
pre-existing instruments: Horowitz et al. Foreign Language
Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS); the second language version of
the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Test (SLWAT); and a
background questionnaire designed to capture demographic and
specific language learning history information. In addition,
measurements of the final course are conducted for comparison.
Additional correlations were examined to compare second language
classroom anxiety and second language writing anxiety with
second language speaking and writing achievement.
Briefly, writing is a skill that serves individuals
communication needs as well as their learning progression, the
emphasis on writing as fundamental skill in learning lead to
further research on writing in parallel with speaking. It is a
description of an individual difference which is characterized
by a general evading of writing and avoidance of any situation
requires writing and might be followed by an evaluation. These
situations are thought to be more punishing than rewarding for
apprehensive individuals, as consequence, it is avoided.
As previously stated, writing apprehension is fear of the
writing process which compensates the predicted advantages of
writing ability. It is a “situation and subject-specific
individual difference”, hence it is an innate individual trait
that depends and varies in its degrees on the subject and on the
situation which the individual is going through. In Addition to
that, it refers to the somehow regular constant feelings such as
writing outcome expectancy (the importance and value of writing
recognized) and attitude towards writing. For apprehensive
learners, writing tasks are fear provoking, frustrating and
cause worry. They expect to be negatively rated on their
writings and, as a result they tend to avoid it when it is
possible because they have low self- perceptions and believe
that they would fail in writing. To conclude, writing
apprehension represents a filter (a barrier) that prevents the
learner from manipulating his/her prior knowledge about the
writing task and exploiting the necessary skills to successfully
tackle it, this barrier is called a writer’s block which is
defined as an incapability to initiate or maintain a writing
task for reasons other than a lack of basic skill or commitment.
It affects the motivation to write, attitudes towards writing
and towards oneself level of writing skill and academic
performance.
In the Philippines, The Manila Science Journal “I should be
writing my thesis now, but I can’t!” stated that the common
complaint is the difficulty in gathering enough momentum to
actually sit down and start typing. More often than not, and end
up staring at the computer screen for hours and not being able
to anything worth saving on the disk. He also said that writing
is not easy and there are many ways to do it and often, once get
bogged down making that decision. In other words, writers are
psychologically motivated in doing their thesis. Decisions are
really up to the writer whether he wants to write about his
topic.
Foreign Related Study
According to the study by Badran A. “The relationship
between Self-esteem and Paragraph Writing of Iranian EFL
Learners” among 50 randomly chosen University students about
finding a positive correlation between self-esteem and writing
achievement, no significant relationship was reported in this
research. Neither was any report associated with the low level
of self-esteem and its relationship with low level of writing;
besides, nor was any finding regards with a connection between
high level of self-esteem and high level of writing ability.
In addition, another research which was investigated in
Iran by Hayati (2006)”The Relationship between Self-esteem and
Listening Comprehension of EFL students”. This research is
between listening comprehension and self-esteem which showed
that there was a positive relationship between self-esteem and
listening comprehension.
Moreover, a study of Athena Jalaliyah B. Derico-Lawi, “The
relationship between the levels of determination and the
attainment of Masters or Doctoral degrees among Muslim
educators” discussed some indicators used to identify the
teacher/student level of determination: research skill, values
and awareness. As a result, the study uncover that the only
variables found to have significant relationship with the
completion of their thesis was research skill. According to
their study research skill was identified as a barrier to the
completion of the teacher/student thesis.
Furthermore, according to the study by Dwihandini “The
analysis of the factors affecting the undergraduate students’
thesis writing among the undergraduate student of Mahasaraswati
University, psychological factors have 55% influence to student
whose writing a thesis. While there were 33% of the students
felt neutral in facing the difficulties through psychological
factors. Nevertheless, there were 12% of the respondents agreed
that psychological factors was not one of the factors of the
difficulties they encounter in thesis writing. Research
conducted on undergraduate students in the English Department of
Mahasaraswati University found that the indicator in the
psychological factor affecting the students’ difficulties in
writing thesis was self-esteem of the student. In term of the
students’ anxiety, there was no significant evident that the
students’ anxiety could cause students’ difficulty in writing
thesis.
Another study conducted by Rachel DeDeyn, “Student
Identity, Writing Anxiety, and Writing Performance”, the meta-
analysis revealed that the weighted average correlation between
writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy was r=-.72, the
weighted average correlation between writing anxiety and writing
performance was r=-.47, and the only correlation between writing
self-efficacy and writing performance was r=.85. This meta-
analysis shows that there are moderate to strong relationships
between all of these variables. The strongest relationship
appears to exist between writing self-efficacy and writing
performance and the weakest relationship appears to exist
between writing anxiety and writing performance, however this
relationship is still considered moderate.
Moreover, a research which investigated in Iran by
Sariyanto, Iwan Supardi, Syarif Husin “Analysis on factors
causing undergraduate students difficulties in writing thesis”
falls on the last position in causing students’ difficulty in
writing thesis. In relation to the said topic, there are 3
aspects: self-esteem, anxiety, and motivation. Based on the
students’ responses, it is found that the students’ self-esteem
and anxiety are the main causes of students’ difficulties in
writing thesis.
In addition to study of the study conducted by Badri
Nadjette,” The main psychological factors affecting EFL
learners’ in the academic writing” in which psychological factor
(motivation and anxiety) affects the EFL Learners’ academic
writing while it was deduced that attitude has no effects on EFL
learners’ academic writing. The data gathered from the students
and teacher questionnaires revealed that the students have a
weak academic writing level. They are not aware of academic
writing features and they still encounter various difficulties
in academic writing concerning the accurate use of its
conventions mainly in terms of grammar, vocabulary form and
organization, in which they have serious deficits. Moreover, the
study ensured the effects of psychological (attitude, motivation
and anxiety) on EFL learners academic writing; in the case of
Master One students in Foreign Languages Department, English
language Division. Students indicated that their attitude toward
academic writing is positive and does not affect their writing
level, whereas they asserted that the nature of topics affects
their motivation towards academic writing tasks and this result
in losing motivation to write, thus, a poor level of academic
writing. Moreover, they stated that they feel anxious during
academic writing task and afraid of the negative comments of the
teacher. Consequently, they tend to not participate in academic
writing task and to develop avoidance strategies. On the other
hand, teachers inferred students’ weaknesses to the lack of
reading which resulted in the lack of fluency and poor
linguistic competence. Finally, teachers confirmed that the
psychological factors have noticeable effects on students’
academic writing especially extrinsic motivation and writing
apprehension (anxiety) which is exhibited through students’ fear
of negative evaluation. Attitude was viewed as neutral factor
that has no effect on our case of study. In contrast with the
fear of negative evaluation that is a component of anxiety which
has negative effect on students’ academic writing and the
extrinsic motivation which functions as a positive factor.
Finally, both student and teacher highlighted the significance
of doing more practice and more exposure to language through
extensive reading.
Another study conducted by Mansoor Fahim, Somaye Khojaste
Rad “The relationship between Self-esteem and Paragraph writing
of Iranian EFL Learners can give further explanation to this
study. Researcher measured the correlation between the scores on
the Coopersmith self-esteem inventory and the scores on
paragraph writing. The results show that there is a positive
relationship between self-esteem and paragraph writing scores by
utilizing Pearson product moment formula. It follows that there
is a relationship between self-esteem and the writing scores.
Therefore, the first null hypothesis is rejected. Regarding the
second null hypothesis, the researcher found a positive
relationship between the scores of English language proficiency
and paragraph writing by using Pearson product moment formula.
It showed there is a positive relationship between English
language proficiency and paragraph writing. Thus, the second
null hypothesis is also rejected. Considering the third null
hypothesis, the researcher again found a positive relationship
between English language proficiency and the subjects’ scores of
self-esteem according to Pearson product moment. It shows that
there positive relationship between English language proficiency
and self-esteem. Therefore, the third null hypothesis is
rejected too. In the fourth null hypothesis the researcher by
utilizing Pearson product moment found a relationship between
English language proficiency, self-esteem, and paragraph
writing. So the researcher again safely rejected the fourth null
hypothesis. Thus, there is a positive relationship between
English language proficiency, self-esteem, and paragraph
writing.
Local Related Study
In accordance to the study of Alice Mae A. Mamhot, Maria
Hannah V. Martin, and Elaine M. Masangya of De La Salle
University Manila, “Comparative Study on the Language Anxiety of
ESL and EFL Learners”, they studied about the comparative on the
language anxiety of ESL and EFL Learners. Similarities and
differences between ESL and EFL learner’s language anxiety were
identified, compared and analyzed in the said study and further
investigate the probable causes of anxiety in which language
process might affect mostly. It was found that ESL learners will
have an indication of language anxiety on the Fear of Negative
Evaluation and General Feeling of Anxiety, and these levels of
anxiety have affected their output. As for EFL learners whom the
researchers hypothesized to experience Fear of Negative
Evaluation which would affect their output was proven incorrect
as the results from the FLCAS survey to EFL learners indicated
no level of language anxiety. However, both groups of
respondents answered that they view their selves to be
responsible for the language anxiety they experience. With this
admission, despite the disagreement in the FLCAS survey,
researchers deduced that EFL learners do still experience
language anxiety.
Moreover, another local study conducted by Eden Regala
Flores, Department of English and Applied Linguistic Dela Salle
University,”The Self-concept and Self-efficacy Beliefs as
Predictors of Writing Performance of College Freshman Students”
attempted to investigate the relationship among the beliefs of
self-efficacy and self-concept in relation to the writing skills
of the students. As a result, the variables are significantly
related despite the fact that the relationship between self-
efficacy and writing skill is higher than the relationship
between self-concept and writing. In this study, the result of
regression indicated that self-efficacy beliefs are better
predictor in student’s writing performance.
Furthermore, a study entitle “Self-perception and Actual
performance in Reading and writing was conducted by Maria b.
Cequena, Jessie S. Barrot, Karen L. Gabinete, Aileen l. Barrios,
Eduardo a. Bolanos of De La Salle University-Manila. The study
aimed to know the relationship between self-perception and
actual performance in reading and writing. As a result, there is
moderate correlation of self-efficacy in the average performance
in writing.
Lastly, study about the “Relationship of Levels of self-
esteem, study habits, and academic performance of college
students” was conducted by Edwin A. Estrella and find out that
there are no significant relationships that exist between the
levels of self-esteem academic performance.
Having been able to present the research findings, related
literature and articles, it was found that, Philippines, has a
very little studies about the relationship between the
psychological factors and thesis writing.
Chapter III
Methodology
This chapter presents the research method, population and
sampling, respondents/participants of the study, research
instruments, validation of the instrument, data gathering
procedure and statistical tools employed in the treatment, and
analysis of data.
Research Design
To carry-out this research, the writer applies descriptive
correlational method in gathering information to determine and
explain the relationship between two or more variables and in
compiling the data from the psychological factor affecting the
student difficulty and in thesis writing of the undergraduate
student of Liberal Arts and Criminology of Divine Word College
of Calapan.
The descriptive method is design to gather information
about present existing conditions. This method was used to
describe the nature of a situation as it exists at the time of
the study and to explore the causes of particular phenomena.
Correlational studies are design to determine the extent to
which different variables are related to each other in the
population of interest.
Respondents of the Study
The respondent that will be use in this study is the
selected undergraduate students of the Divine Word College of
Calapan obtain through central limit theorem (CLT); a
statistical theory that posits the mean of all samples from the
same population will be approximately equal to the mean of the
population given a sufficiently large sample size from a
population with predetermined level of variance.
Table 1: Distribution of Respondents
Course Description Sample Taken
AB Psychology 20
AB English & AB Pol Science 21
Criminology 27
Total 68
Sampling Technique
The sampling technique that is employ by the researcher was
proportional stratified sampling techniques. Sample size of each
strand in this technique is proportionate to the population.
This means that the strand has the same sampling fraction.
Research Instrument
The research will use questionnaire in order to gather
data. The model of questionnaire used was the Likert type of the
questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of the three
psychological factors affecting the student difficulty in
writing their thesis.
The following table will show the blueprint of the three
factors in the questionnaires statements.
Table 2: Blueprint of the questionnaire of the difficulties in
thesis writing
Psychological Factors Indicators
Self-esteem 1. in deciding the
topic of my thesis
2. in deciding the
title of my thesis
3. in identifying and
formulating the thesis
problem
4. in identifying the
purpose of my thesis
5. in gaining the data
of my thesis
6. in writing a good
thesis
Motivation 7. Having intrinsic
motivation toward the
thesis writing
8.Having intrinsic
motivation in writing a
thesis
Anxiety 9. In writing thesis
Scaling and Quantification
A five point numerical scale with designated a statistical
limits and verbal description was used to quantify the data in
which 5 is the highest and 1 is the lowest.
Table 3: Scaling and Quantification
Numerical Scale Statistical Limits Verbal Description
5 4.50-5.0 Very high
4 3.50-4.49 High
3 2.50-3.49 Moderate
2 1.50-2.49 Low
1 1.0-1.49 Very low
Gathering Data Procedure
The researcher will make a letter of request to get the
data that needed for the study. After the researcher got the
approval from the concerned channels, the researcher proceed to
the distribution of the survey questionnaires to the respondents
within the quickest time possible, during the scheduled date and
time.
Statistical Treatment and Analysis of Data
Several statistical tools and procedures were used to
analyze and interpret the data obtained.
Frequency count. The statistical tool was used to know the
total number of respondents that favored to a specific item. It
was used to tally the items related to the demographic profile
of the male and female undergraduate students such as their
frequency.
Percentage. This was applied to establish a comparative
value of an item in relation to the whole population
particularly in relation to the profile of the respondents. The
formula is given below:
Whereas:
%= percentage
F= the frequency of the data
n= total number of population/sample
Ranking. This was utilized to determine the items in the
questionnaire that has the highest and lowest mean perception.
Weighted Mean. This was used to determine relationship of
the psychological factors and thesis writing of the selected
Divine Word College of Calapan undegraduate students. This
determined the frequency of responses to the items required from
the options in Likert scale. To find the over-all mean
perception of each variables, the average mean was averaged and
added.
Pearson Product- Moment Correlation Coefficient. Since this
study uses a descriptive-correlational research design, the
researcher used tables and graphs to illustrate the relationship
of variables and frequencies for interpretation and analysis.
This statistical tool was used to find a significant
relationship between the psychological factors and thesis
writing.
Whereas:
- square of the sum of all the X’s
- square of the sum of all the Y’s
2
– sum of all squares of the X’s
2
- sum of all squares of the Y’s
- sum of the products of X and Y
N - the number of cases (N) multiplied
by the sum of the products XY
Chapter IV
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
This chapter presents the answer to the specific problems raised
in this study. It contains analysis and interpretation of the
data gathered by the researcher.
Problem 1: What are the psychological factors affecting the
students’ difficulties in writing thesis in terms of:
1:1 Self-esteem as a difficulty in writing thesis
Table 4
Mean Perception Profile of the Respondents in Terms of Self - Esteem
Items Mean Rank Description
1. I can easily decide the best title 2.75 10 Neutral
for my research study.
2. I can logically construct ideas 2.91 7 Neutral
needed for my research study.
3. I can easily improve my writing 3.18 4.5 Neutral
for the development of my
research.
4. I can write accurate summary of 3.12 6 Neutral
information gathered for my
research.
5. I can use my own independent 3.24 3 Neutral
thinking in my research study.
6. I discuss what I’m going to write 3.46 1 Neutral
with other student and my
instructor.
7. I feel my work is as good as 2.87 8.5 Neutral
others
8. I can write an appropriate 3.25 2 Neutral
paraphrase of information for my
research
9. I can effectively write under time 2.87 8.5 Neutral
pressured
10. I can write a good research study 3.18 4.5 Neutral
Overall Mean 3.08 Neutral
Based from the table above, students indicated that self-esteem
towards thesis writing is neutral and has a moderate affect to their
writing skill, whereas students had a minimal difficulty in deciding
the best title for their thesis. Deciding their topic falls to be the
least factor that hindrance the writing task in thesis completion in
accordance by the result presented. In Question 2, students have equal
view in construction of their ideas for their thesis. In Question 3,
self-esteem had an equal effect on the improvement of their thesis. In
Question 4, the students have neutral feelings in terms of summarizing
the data gathered for their thesis. In Question 5 to 10, students
indicated that self-esteem has a moderate correlation in the writing
performance of students. In terms of construction, paraphrasing and
discussion of their thesis, the students viewed self-esteem had an
equal effect on the difficulties of students in writing their thesis.
Thus, discussion of their thesis to others ranked as 1 in the survey
questions. In terms of improvement and effectiveness of their thesis,
the students also viewed self-esteem as neutral.
A study conducted by Mansoor Fahim, Somaye Khojaste Rad
“The relationship between Self-esteem and Paragraph writing of
Iranian EFL Learners can give further explanation to this study.
Researcher measured the correlation between the scores on the
Coopersmith self-esteem inventory and the scores on paragraph
writing. The results show that there is a positive relationship
between self-esteem and paragraph writing scores by utilizing
Pearson product moment formula. It follows that there is a
relationship between self-esteem and the writing scores.
1.2 Anxiety as a difficulty in writing thesis
Table 5
Mean Perception Profile of the Respondents in Terms of Anxiety
1. I feel nervous when I start 4.04 1 Agree
working with my thesis
2. My mind goes blank when I start 3.60 3 Agree
to work on my research
3. I perspire when I write my own 3.35 10 Neutral
words in my research
4. I tremble when I discuss my 3.40 7.5 Neutral
research study
5. I freeze up when unexpectedly 3.40 7.5 Neutral
asked about my research
6. I feel anxious about the 3.63 2 Agree
quality of my research
7. I feel tense whenever I 3.46 5 Neutral
discussed my research
8. It’s hard for me to choose the 3.57 4 Agree
information I’m going to
incorporate for my thesis
9. I can’t focus on my writings 3.37 9 Neutral
for the improvement of my
research
10. My thought become jumbled when 3.41 6 Neutral
I start working with my
research
Overall Mean 3.52 Agree
Based on the table above, the students agreed that there is
a positive effect of anxiety towards writing thesis. In
accordance with the result of the survey, nervousness of the
students in dealing with their thesis rank as 1 on the survey.
As previously stated, writing anxiety is a fear of the writing
process which compensates the predicted advantages of writing
ability. It is a “situation and subject-specific individual
difference”, hence it is an innate individual trait that depends
and varies in its degrees on the subject and on the situation
which the individual is going through.
Students’ experiences of perspiring during the writing
process resulted to be on the least of the survey. Writing tasks
are fear provoking, frustrating and cause worry. Students agreed
that there is a correlation between anxiety and writing thesis.
A research which investigated in Iran by Sariyanto, Iwan
Supardi, Syarif Husin “Analysis on factors causing undergraduate
students difficulties in writing thesis” falls on the last
position in causing students’ difficulty in writing thesis. In
relation to the said topic, there are 3 aspects: self-esteem,
anxiety, and motivation. Based on the students’ responses, it is
found that the students’ self-esteem and anxiety are the main
causes of students’ difficulties in writing thesis.
1.3 Motivation as a difficulty in writing thesis
Table 6
Mean Perception Profile of the Respondents in Terms of Motivation
1. I enjoy writing my thesis 3.00 10 Neutral
2. I put a lot of effort into my 3.72 3 Agree
research study
3. I like my writings to be graded 3.56 4 Agree
4. I enjoy literary research study 3.04 9 Neutral
5. I like to get feedback from my 3.85 2 Agree
instructor
6. I like to get feedback from my 3.54 5 Agree
classmate
7. I like others to read what I 3.49 6 Neutral
have written
8. I am passionate writing my 3.13 8 Neutral
research
9. I enjoy group study sessions 3.25 7 Neutral
with my classmate 3.94
10.I enjoy whenever someone 1 Agree
appreciate what I have
accomplished
Based from the table above, the respondents felt neutral
when it comes to motivation which motivates them to do their
research in their own willingness, On the other hand, the
students agreed that they push through on working on their
research writing with motivation from others. Students also
agreed that they enjoy writing thesis whenever someone
appreciated their accomplishment as it falls to rank 1. On the
other hand, the enjoyment of students in working on their thesis
falls to rank 10. This means that students really didn’t enjoy
writing their thesis as indicate in the survey conducted.
Wallace Lambert, and Robert Gardner were the pioneer of L2
motivation research; they considered motivation as one of the
most significant predictors of L2 performance. According to
Domyei (2000), the degree of success or failure of L2 learners
is affected by motivation. In that case, it is proved that
motivation affects the students’ difficulties in writing their
thesis.
1.2 Difficulties in Writing Thesis
Table 7
Mean Perception Profile of the Respondents in Terms of Difficulties in
Thesis Writing
1. I can’t find a topic for my 3.40 1.5 Neutral
research study
2. I can’t provide appropriate 3.40 1.5 Neutral
thesis statement for my
research
3. I can’t provide connection 3.10 4 Neutral
between my thesis statement and
all of the topic sentences in
my paper
4. I can’t support my paper with 3.07 6 Neutral
adequate information relevant
to my topic
5. I fail to correctly cite my 3.09 5 Neutral
sources
6. I can’t maintain the purpose of 2.88 7 Neutral
my research study
7. I can’t find enough data to 3.13 3 Neutral
support my research study
8. I can’t construct 2.82 8 Neutral
questionnaires related to my
research study
9. I can’t find enough respondents 2.60 10 Neutral
for my research study
10.I can’t tabulate the data I 2.63 9 Neutral
gathered
Based from the table above, the students felt neutral about
their difficulties experience throughout the process of
completion of their thesis. According to the result of the
survey, students had hard time in finding their topic for their
research as it ranked to 1.5 and they also had difficulties in
providing appropriate thesis statement for their research. On
the other hand, student had a moderate difficulty in finding
their respondent needed for their study as it falls to rank 10.
Problem 2 & 3: Which factor greater affect the difficulties in
writing thesis? Is there a significant relationship between the
psychological factors and the students’ difficulties in writing
thesis?
Table 9
Marked correlation are significant at p<.5000
Variables Computed r R2 P value Interpretation
Self-esteem -0.410 0.168 0.000512 Significant
Anxiety 0.635 0.403 0.000001 Significant
Motivation -0.410 0.168 0.000509 Significant
Based from the table above the factors that greater affects
the students in writing their thesis is anxiety with the p-value
of 0.000001, which is interpreted as significant with the degree
of freedom of 66 at 5% level of significant. There is a
significant relationship between anxiety and difficulties in
thesis writing. The computed r 0.634 which is high that there is
change that if the anxiety increases the difficulty in thesis
writing also will increase. R2 or coefficient of determination
means that only 40.3% difficulties in thesis writing are
affected by anxiety of the respondents.
A research study which investigated in Iran by Sariyanto,
Iwan Supardi, Syarif Husin “Analysis on factors causing
undergraduate students difficulties in writing thesis” falls on
the last position in causing students’ difficulty in writing
thesis. In relation to the said topic, there are 3 aspects:
self-esteem, anxiety, and motivation. Based on the students’
responses, it is found that the students’ self-esteem and
anxiety are the main causes of students’ difficulties in writing
thesis.
Another study conducted by Rachel DeDeyn, “Student
Identity, Writing Anxiety, and Writing Performance”, the meta-
analysis revealed that the weighted average correlation between
writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy was r=-.72, the
weighted average correlation between writing anxiety and writing
performance was r=-.47, and the only correlation between writing
self-efficacy and writing performance was r=.85. This meta-
analysis shows that there are moderate to strong relationships
between all of these variables. The strongest relationship
appears to exist between writing self-efficacy and writing
performance and the weakest relationship appears to exist
between writing anxiety and writing performance, however this
relationship is still considered moderate.
Moreover, the second factors that affects the students’
difficulties in thesis writing is motivation with the p value of
0.000509 which is interpreted as significant with the degree of
freedom of 66 at 5% level of significant. There is a significant
relationship between motivation and difficulties in thesis
writing. The computed r -0.410 which is negatively high that
there is change that if the motivation decreases the
difficulties in thesis writing will increase. R2 or coefficient
of determination means that 16.8% difficulties in thesis writing
were affected by motivation of the respondents.
In the Philippines, The Manila Science Journal “I should be
writing my thesis now, but I can’t!” stated that the common
complaint is the difficulty in gathering enough momentum to
actually sit down and start typing. More often than not, and end
up staring at the computer screen for hours and not being able
to anything worth saving on the disk. He also said that writing
is not easy and there are many ways to do it and often, once get
bogged down making that decision. In other words, writers are
psychologically motivated in doing their thesis. Decisions are
really up to the writer whether he wants to write about his
topic.
Lastly, the least factor that affects the difficulties in
thesis writing is self-esteem with the p value of 0.000512 which
is interpreted as significant with the degree of 66 at 5% level
of significant. There is a significant relationship between
self-esteem and students’ difficulties in thesis writing. The
computed r -0.410 which is negatively high that there is a
change that if self-esteem decreases the difficulties in thesis
writing increases. R2 or coefficient of determination means that
16.8% difficulties in thesis writing were affected by self-
esteem of the respondents.
A study conducted by Ali Akbar Khansir ”Self-esteem and
writing Achievements of Iranian EFL Learners ”. In Iranian EFL
setting, writing has important role in learning English
language, is that, the learners face problems how to write essay
or every piece of writing in target language (English), they are
needed to have a good self-esteem to overcome their writing
problems in English writing and however, self-esteem seems to be
used an a psychological factor in EFL classroom. The result of
the test showed that there was significant relationship between
Self-esteem and Writing achievements of Iranian EFL learners.
Outcome of this research indicated that there is a significant
correlation between self-esteem and the writing achievements of
male and female students separately.
Problem 4: Based on the findings of the study, What is the proposed
output?
Table 9
Proposed Program in Thesis Writing
Time Frame: July-March 2019-2020
Areas of Concern Activities Objectives Target

and Strategies Participants
-Undergraduate Day 1(am): The Tour -to familiarize -

students who are -Tour in school the students from Undergraduat
taking up thesis library and research possible e students
subjects & planning library, references that of Liberal
they can use for Arts and
their study Ciminology
of DWCC.
-to sites some
samples of thesis
made by the
graduate students
of DWCC
Day 2(pm): Thesis

Writing Workshop -To equip the
-Seminar and training students with
that instills knowledge on
knowledge an provides thesis writing
practical and
conceptual - To plan for the
information on how structures of
thesis writing works your thesis
an encourage you to
put the techniques to
use in your thesis
Day 3: Positivity -To set positive

Seminar “Blast perception
through writer’s throughout the
block” thesis process.
-Seminar that
inculcate the -To enhance the
students to boost students with
positivity in writing proper skill and
thesis motivation
-to help the

students boost
their confidence
in writing thesis
-to educate the

students about
the wrong stigma
about thesis
writing
Chapter V
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION
The summary of the findings, conclusion and recommendation of
study is presented in this chapter.
Summary of Findings
1. Mean perception of the respondents on the difficulties in
thesis writing:
1.1 Self-esteem
The overall mean perception of this variable is 3.08 which
fall under the description of neutral which means that
difficulties of students in writing thesis are moderately
affected by self-esteem.
1.2 Anxiety
fall under the description of agrees which means that
difficulties of students in writing thesis are highly affected
by anxiety.
1.3 Motivation
fall under the description of neutral which means that
difficulties of students in writing thesis are moderately
affected by motivation.
Conclusions
Based on the findings presented, the researcher formulated
conclusions which are considered as a result of the study. The
following conclusions are shown:
1. There is a significant relationship between self-esteem and
difficulties of students in writing their thesis. The students
of Liberal Arts and Criminology Department in Divine Word
College of Calapan are affected by self-esteem wherein they are
not confident in writing their thesis. Indeed, most of the
students who undergo a research study find difficulties in
writing their thesis because of the low self-esteem that the
students have. As observed, students with high level of self-
esteem have the capability to gain more achievement in school
and to write their papers more easily. The role of positive
self-esteem helps the student to motivates and boost their
confidence in the completion of their thesis. On the other hand,
student with low self-esteem finds it more difficult to write
their papers.
2. There is a significant relationship between anxiety and
difficulties of students in writing their thesis. It means that
that the students had regular constant feelings such as writing
outcome expectancy (the importance and value of writing
recognized) and attitude towards writing. Writing anxiety
represents a filter (a barrier) that prevents the students from
manipulating his/her prior knowledge about the writing task and
exploiting the necessary skills to successfully tackle it, and
incapability to initiate or maintain writing task for reasons
other than a lack of basic skill or commitment.
3. There is a significant relationship between motivation and
difficulties of students in writing thesis. Achievements are met
whenever motivations existed. The students are more likely to
stick on what they are doing and be successfully if they are
motivated. On the other hand, without motivation accomplishment
of your thesis would never be one by those students who are
unwillingly motivated to do the task. Writing motivation can
operate as a hindrance or serve as a support in undertaking any
writing task. Students are demotivated because they are not
permitted to convey their own personal views and style in the
majority of writing tasks. In other words, students feel
themselves dispassionate by certain rules and conventions which
are the core of any written production in English. Most student
lack the mastery of these conventions and their focus on them
and on how to apply them correctly lead to a lack of motivation
to write because they do not have self-confidence and do not
trust their capacities in producing a good piece of writing.
4. Anxiety was viewed as one of the affective factors that
affect students’ difficulties in writing thesis. Writing can be
a source of stress and anxiety for students. If the level of
anxiety of students increases the more chance that they will had
hard time working and worst they will not finish their thesis.
On the other hand, motivation and self-esteem have lesser effect
on students’ difficulties in writing their thesis. Since these
two factors still affects thesis writing minimally it can
trapped the students to get failed in accomplishing their thesis
requirement.
Recommendation
1. Positive learning environment can be used for students’
feelings and needs should be provided in classroom in order to
reinforce self-esteem.
2. Students who have low self-esteem should be trained to
overcome their negative feelings about themselves and look
positively at their capabilities.
3. Teachers, classmates and their family should help them
appreciate their performance and be proud of their achievements.
4. With this knowledge, educators should assuage their students’
fears, guide them through their anxiety, and help them increase
their self-esteem through good qualitative feedback.
5. The school should strive to subject all undergraduate
students to academic writing training, with a special focus on
how to write research report.
6. It is the students who write the graduation thesis. The
improvement of students’ ability depends on their own interest
in study and cultivation of thinking ability. Interest is the
best teacher. For the students, they should broaden their
horizon, have profound understanding of academic research,
master the trend of the field and lay solid foundation for the
research.
7. For school, it is important to raise both teachers’ and
students’ awareness in the importance of thesis writing.
8.

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Chapter I

In Divine Word College of Calapan, students who aim to

achieve college degree achievement have to complete the whole

program by passing a minimum number of units, including all the

prescribed core courses and proceed to research program. In the

process of research study, student should come up with a topic;

to plan and conduct a study searching about the proposed topic;

and to make a report about the findings of the study. This

completion of the program requirements.

Thesis writing is an academic writing that is in line with

academic environment. It is the kind of writing used in high

school and college classes. In addition, academic writing is a

formal writing wherein the researcher must be careful to his

Thesis writing is aim to address a particular issue. This

is to be done in a precise and systematic manner to look for new

knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. The task of the

researcher is to search for an existing data to investigate and

find results, and further analyze whether this newly gathered

facts are also true to other environment.

Through the process, the researcher or students come to know how

to do research and report the findings. Thesis is the most

important write up in a researcher’s life which also benefits

both the researcher and the reader.

In conducting research, researcher must allot plenty of

be conscientious and patient because this process demands long

time of working to complete. They need to allocate excess time

before the scheduled deadline because there is something that

researchers expect. In short, there are unexpected difficulties

and problems and they may lead to academic failures. In

conducting a research one must have the interest of doing it. It

is a very laborious task.

Writing a good thesis is mandatory as it has to be and

approved by the internal and external panel of examiner. A

variety of devices must be used in order to write a good thesis.

A well-written thesis has a good thesis statement by which main

ideas are related. The thesis statement is a researcher’s guide

losing the tracks of relevant thoughts.

writing requires good writing skills and ability to present an

argument clearly and logically. The recent advancement in

computer and information technology has realized the need of

some outside help for the whole student community and as a

result there are several professional writings services online

now. The service provider employ professional writer of great

receive top quality services with regard to academic writing.

Academic writings are an essential part of any learning

process as for professors to evaluate the level of understanding

and involvement of every student into a certain subject.

Research study is important for students because it enhances the

knowledge researcher, clarifies confusion, to have a proper

understanding of the subject, to learn about methods and issues,

improve writing skills and logical thinking, bring consistency

in the work, motivates other.

Some courses in Divine Word College of Calapan are required

to conduct a research study as a mandatory requirement of their

college course. There are some students in Divine World College

of Calapan who work for their thesis or research by themselves

and others are those courses wherein the students undergo a

group research study. Successful completion of fulfilling the

Students usually found themselves blank when they write a

thesis. The condition of the student to lose their focus in

writing a good thesis is categorized as psychological factors.

Students’ psychology is a pivotal contributor to the

success in writing thesis. Self-esteem, motivation and anxiety,