The impact of learning motivation and psychological hardiness on students quality of life among economics students and technical students a case study of lac hong university

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HOCHIMINH CITY THE IMPACT OF LEARNING MOTIVATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HARDINESS ON STUDENT’S QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG ECONOMICS STUD

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HOCHIMINH CITY

THE IMPACT OF LEARNING MOTIVATION AND

PSYCHOLOGICAL HARDINESS ON STUDENT’S QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG ECONOMICS STUDENTS AND TECHNICAL

STUDENTS:

A CASE STUDY OF LAC HONG UNIVERSITY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS

HoChiMinh City – 2010

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

-

NGUYEN THU HIEN

THE IMPACT OF LEARNING MOTIVATION AND

PSYCHOLOGICAL HARDINESS ON STUDENT’S QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG ECONOMICS STUDENTS AND TECHNICAL

STUDENTS:

A CASE STUDY OF LAC HONG UNIVERSITY

Major: Business Administration

Major Code: 60.34.05

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS

Supervisor: DR TRAN HA MINH QUAN

HoChiMinh City – 2010

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and deepest appreciation to my research Supervisor, Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan for his intensive support, valuable suggestions, guidance and encouragement during the course of my study

My sincere thanks are also due to Prof Nguyen Dinh Tho, for the valuable time and the precious material

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr Dinh Cong Khai, Dr Vo Xuan Vinh, Dr Nguyen Van Ngai, Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Trang, members of the proposal examination committee, for their valuable comments and suggestions

I would like to thank many of my collegues and students at Lac Hong university who helped me during the collection of the data

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of my teachers at Faculty

of Business Administration and Postgraduate Faculty, University of Econimics

Ho Chi Minh City for their teaching and guidance during my MBA course

I would like to specially express my thanks to all of my classmates, my friends from for their support and encouragement

I would also like to avail this opportunity to express my appreciation to Professor Nguyen Dong Phong, UEH Board of Directors for creating MBA program in English

Finally, I heartily dedicate this study to my beloved parents and my husband, Duong who have encouraged and supported me during my study

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ABSTRACT

Exploring the impact of learning motivation and psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life is important to a university For university, it can help them understand their student’s pyschology It will help university build plans to stimulate their student’s learning effectiveness and improve university’s training effectively For students, they will find the important roles of these factors to have a better learning attitude This will help them increase their learning motivation, their psychological hardiness, their quality of life and also improve their learning effectiveness

This research objective is to explore the factors including learning motivation and psychological hardiness impacting on student’s quality of life Then it tries

to find out whether there are the differences between these impacts among economics students and technical students at Lac Hong University

The process research will include two main steps: the pilot research and the main research, the analytic unit is student The pilot research will be qualitative

by making deeply interview with 7 students in order to check the content and meaning of words using in the measurement scales The main research will be quantitative with 328 students through qualitative technique of making interview directly The reason is to test the measurement model, the research model and the hypotheses

In the context of Lac Hong university, the results show that: Firstly, learning motivation is positively related to student quality of life Secondly, psychological hardiness is positively related to student’s quality of life But psychological hardiness has a higher influence on student’s quality of life than learning motivation

ii

Thirdly, the impact of learning motivation on student’s quality of life in the economics student group is positive and sinificant but it’s not sinificant in the technical student group This difference has the statistical significance in the case study of Lac Hong University

Finally, the impact of psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life

is positive and sinificant in the economics student group and the technical student group However this different finding between two groups has not the statistical significance in the context of Lac Hong University

Keywords: student’s quality of life, learning motivation, psychological

hardiness, Lac Hong university

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgement i

Abstract ii

Contents iv

List of Tables vi

List of Figures vii

CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Research objective 3

1.3 Research scope and research design 3

1.4 Research structure 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH MODEL 5

2.1 Concepts 5

2.1.1 Student’s quality of life 5

2.1.2 Learning motivation 7

2.1.3 Psychological hardiness 8

2.2 Research model 9

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 12

3.1 Research process 12

3.2 The measurement scales 13

3.2.1 The student quality of life measurement 14

3.2.2 The student learning motivation measurement 14

3.2.3 The student psychological hardiness measurement 14

3.3 The pilot research 15

iv

3.4 The main research 16

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH RESULT AND FINDING DISSCUSSION 20

4.1 Descriptive statistics of sanple 20

4.1.1 Final sample 20

4.1.2 Characteristics of sample 20

4.1.3 Descriptive statistics 22

4.2 The construct measurement scale 23

4.3 The hypotheses assessment 27

4.4 Finding disscussion 33

4.4.1 Question 1 33

4.4.2 Question 2 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 37

5.1 Concluding remarks 37

5.2 Implications of the research 38

5.3 Limitations of the research and further research recommendation 39

References 41 Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

v

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The demographical status of participants 16

Table 3.2: The main measurement scales 17

Table 4.1: Learning group of respondents 20

Table 4.2: Learning brand of respondents 21

Table 4.3: Sex of respondents 21

Table 4.4: Age of respondents 21

Table 4.5: Descriptive statistics 22

Table 4.6: Cronbach’s alpha of student’s quality of life measurement 23

Table 4.7: Cronbach’s alpha of learning motivation measurement 23

Table 4.8: Cronbach’s alpha of psychological hardiness measurement 24

Table 4.9: The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) result 25

Table 4.10: The final construct of measurement scale 26

Table 4.11: The results of correlation analysis 28

Table 4.12: The multi linear regression analysis on data of 328 responses 28

Table 4.13: The multi linear regression analysis on data of group 1 (economics students) .30

Table 4.14: The multi linear regression analysis on data of group 2 (technical students) .30

Table 4.15: Conclusion about the hypotheses 32

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: The research process 12 Figure 4.1: The results of linear regression analysis between student’s quality of life and the other factors 32

vii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research background

Due to globalization effect, the world is now smaller, the borders between nations seem to be closer to each other People can do business more convenient, easier to get information, or enjoy modern education from many developed countries, etc In Viet nam, when we become an official member of World Trade Organization (WTO), it brings us many opportunities to expand relationships with other countries, exporters can expand their markets, people enjoy more variety of goods, enjoy more chances to study, etc, but it aslo brings us many challenges, for example more competitors, more knowledge needed to be updated Especially, for educational field, it has to deal with a very important role in training and providing the human resource that must be useful for the process of cooporation with foreign partners and ready to catch

up with further global changes In this trend, many Vietnamese universities concentrate on finding the methods to improve its quality of training

There are many researches about teaching and learning in the world The objective is to find their own ways to improve the effectiveness of student’s learning and the quality of training One trend is to focus on learning motivation and student’s quality of life Reason for this is motivation, study behaviour, student’s quality of life impacting on the training quality and the perceived result of student during the course (Cole et al 2004; Rowold 2007, cited in Tho et al 2009)

About learning motivation, if an individual is motivated, he will try hard to complete his task and work hard to achieve goals In otherwise, a person who is not motivated will not try, will not work hard, or will show

behaviours that destroys the outcome of the situation (Eggen and Kauchak 1999)

In order to overcome the pressures or unexpected problems, psychological hardiness helps people deal with their pressures in life (Maddi 1999a, cited in Tho et al 2009) or make them become opportunities of development (Kobasa & Puccetti 1983, cited in Tho et al 2009)

About student’s quality of life, there are two trends The first one is focusing on the relationship between student’s quality of life and the other factors or the factors impacting on student’s quality of life The second one is focusing on measuring the student’s quality of life (Sirgy et al 2007, cited in Tho et al 2009)

In summary, our universities is concentrating on how to improve its training quality to catch up with the labor market demand In Viet nam, currently there aren’t many researches about student’s pyschology, especially student’s quality of life and other factors which have related to it such as learning motivation, psychological hardiness Meanwhile these studies will provide universities basic information about student’s pyschology, which can

be very useful for building the strategies to stimulate student’s learning effectiveness and the training effectiveness Consequently, the related studies

in this field is very neccesary From this reason, we realizes that it is necessary to conduct such a research related to student’s psychology at Lac Hong university such as: the impact of learning motivation, psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life to provide evidence about the relationship between them, from that university can make suitable plans in order to help their students to increase their quality of life during their course

or stimulate student’s learning effectiveness and its training effectiveness In addition, this research will try to answer whether there are differences of the

impact of learning motivation on student’s quality of life if compared the economics student group with the technical student group; whether there are differences of the impact of psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life if compared the economics student group with the technical student group

1.2 Research objective

This research objective is to explore the impact of learning motivation, psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life among economics students and technical students at Lac Hong University, in particularly, this will answer the following questions:

Question 1: Do learning motivation and psychological hardiness

impact on student’s quality of life?

Question 2: Are there differences of the impact of learning motivation

and psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life if compared the economics student group with the technical student group?

This research will provide some evidence about the role of learning motivation, psychological hardiness, student’s quality of life It helps university build plans to stimulate student’s learning effectiveness and improve university’s training effectiveness For students, they will find the important roles of these factors to have a better learning attitudes It will help them increase their learning motivation, their psychological hardiness, their quality of life and also improve their learning effectiveness

1.3 Research scope and research design

This research is conducted at Dong Nai province The research object is technical students and economics students of Lac Hong university

The process research will include two main steps: the pilot research and the main research, the analytic unit is student

The pilot research will be qualitative by making deeply interview with

7 students in order to check the content and the meaning of words using in the

measurement scales

The main research will be quantitative with 328 economics students

and technical students through qualitative technique of making interview

directly The reason is to test the measurement model, research model and the

hypotheses

After collecting data, the measurement scales will be verified the

reliability by Cronback alpha ratio, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to

refine the measurement scales Finally, the hypotheses will be tested by using

the multi-linear regression analysis

1.4 Research structure

The structure of this research will include 5 chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction will introduce about research background, research

objective and research meaning, research scope and research design, research

structure

Chapter 2: Literature review will provide a literature reiview of student’s

quality of life, learning motivation, psychological hardiness

Chapter 3: Methodology will present methodology that used in the research,

this includes research methodology design, research procedures, measurement

scales

Chapter 4: Research results will describe sampling, processing data, presents

analyzing the data collected, and finding disscussion

Chapter 5: Conclusion and implication present conclusions and implications

from the research project

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH MODEL

This chapter is to focus on introducing the literature review in order to establish research model This chapter will include two parts The first one will introduce the literature review of student’s quality of life and learning motivation, psychological hardiness The second one will suggest the research model and the hypotheses about the impact of learning motivation, psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life

2.1 Concepts

2.1.1 Student’s quality of life

The quality of life is a multi-direction definition and complication that

is measured by many different ways (Vaez et al 2004)

The quality of student life can be interpretated in different meaningful ways and evaluative factors (Nussbaum and Sen 1993) These factors can include subjective and conscious experience of satisfaction, happiness, excellence, hope, optimism and enjoyment that accompany this period of adolescence (Staats et al 1995) The quality of student life can be affected by health behaviours, emotional well-being, sociocultural and political issues (Disch et al 1997) It has also been suggested that students are related with current financial situation and future career goals and how the earning of a college degree will enhance/suppress their future quality of life (Sax 1996) Student’s quality of life can be definited as the fully-satisfied level of student during the course at university (Sirgy et al 2007, cited in Tho et al 2009) The student fully-satisfied level during the course is evaluated basing on their satisfaction about teachers, equipments for learning, university’s treatment, relationship with friends, and extra activities

The study about student’s quality of life can be divided in two trends The first trend is about the factors impacting on student’s quality of life The second trend is about measuring the student’s quality of life (Sirgy et al 2007, cited in Tho et al 2009)

There are many researches about the factors which have related with student’s quality of life For example of Cha (2003) (cited in Tho et al 2009) identifies that there is a positive relationship between student’s life satisfaction level with the types of personality such as optimism, self-respect, etc The study of Vaez et al (2004) find out that there is a relationship between health status and student’s quality of life In Viet Nam, the study of Tho et al (2009) with econonics students of public universities and private universities The first result of this study shows that learning motivation is not

a factor which gets student’s quality of life increased, but learning motivation

is positively related to student’s quality of life at the public universities and it

is negative with private universities The seconds is that the psychological hardiness is positively related to student’s quality of life and learning motivation In addition, the impact of psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life at public universities is less than at private universities The impact of psychological hardiness on learning motivation at public universities is less than at private universities The thirds is that learning value

is positively related to psychological hardiness, learning motivation and student’s quality of life The result aslo shows that the impact of learning value on psychological hardiness at public universities is less than at private universities However, the impact of learning value on learning motivation is not different between students of public universities and private universities And the difference of the impact of learning value on student’s quality of life

at public universities and private universities is not significant

This study will examine the impact of learning motivation and psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life

2.1.2 Learning motivation

Motivation is a complicated concept that is difficult to measure or recognize in any meaningful way (Ball 1977) It can be possible to observe behaviour and from that to reason an individual’s motivation but it is never possible for an observer to be certain Motivation is a deeply personal concept (Elton 1996)

As presented, motivation is considered as the drive on one’s thoughts and actions Motivation is a key that simulates to try hard to reach to the goals (Lumsdem 1994) Example, for some students, they tend to be highly motivated simply because they do not want to fail; otherwise someone tends

to lose their motivation basing on what they value (Mowl 1996)

The definition of motivation is used to explain why human acts and maintains their activities and help them to complete their tasks (Pintrich 2003, cited in Tho et al 2009) According to Noe (1986) (cited in Tho et al 2009), learning motivation is defined as a desire to join and bear the contents of a subject or the training program

Fallows and Ahmet (1999) propose reasons explain why a student might be interested in learning: the learner’s desire to please the teachers; perceived need to understand the material presented; each learner’s degree of interest in the subject material; the personal philosophical values and beliefs

of the learner; the learner’s attitudes to the materials being delivered; the academic and career aspirations of the learner; incentives and rewards which are expected to accrue from their learning

And Entwistle (1998) gives three more generic types of motivation that reason for valuing learning: extrinsic – the desire to finish the course for some

expected reward; intrinsic – begining from their interest in a subject; achievement – the desire to ‘perform well’ and sometimes perform better than others

2.1.3 Psychological hardiness

Pychological hardiness represents a single latent variable Hardiness comprises of commitment, control and challenge (Canava et al 2001, cited in Tho et al 2009) Commitment is shown out by using all mind and energy to work or to deal with a problem Control shows a trend to bear and behave actively to deal with unexpected events Challenge displays the hope of changes in life Changes are attractive ones, they are not a risk of development (Kobasa et al 1982, cited in Tho et al 2009) Therefore, in life, people often has to face with many stressful events or problems, in order to overcome them, people needs to get characteristic of hardiness

In learning situation, researchers find out that learning is one of the most stressful activities to university students (Cole et al 2004; Furr et al

2001, cited in Tho et al 2009) According to Britt et al (2001) and Kobasa et

al (1982), cited in Tho et al 2009), psychological hardiness is displayed through students who use all their minds and energy (commitment), bear and behave actively (control) and accept changes (challenge) during their course

at university During the course, students often not only have to deal with their learning tasks such as exams, projects, readings, excercies, etc, but also with other personal factors such as finance, part-time job, social activities, etc Therefore, psychological hardiness plays an important role to help them in order to solve their stressful events and problems during their course at university (Tho et al 2009)

In addition, Maddi (1999a) (cited in Tho et al 2009) mentions that psychological hardiness helps people improve their work effectiveness and

health when dealing with their stressful events at work Psychological hardiness also helps people deal with their pressures in life (Maddi 1999a, cited in Tho et al 2009) or make them become opportunities of development (Kobasa & Puccetti 1983, cited in Tho et al 2009) Finaly, psychological hardiness helps people deal with their stressful events or problems, make them become sovable matters or become good opportunities, make work effective, or help them improve their quality of life (Wiebe & McCallum

1986, cited in Tho et al 2009)

Learning motivation

Psychological hardiness

Student’s quality of life +H1

+H2

educational organization (Ansongkhram 2002) Causes affecting motivation can be classified differently according to age, status and different environments including support from families It can be seen that causes affecting these motivations are all the matter of the students’ quality of life

Hypothesis 1: Learning motivation is positively related to student’s

quality of life

Based on the literature review presented, in learning situation, students often have to face with stressors during their course However, students having a high psychological hardiness will help them to control their problems better It helps students alter stressful events become interesting ones in their quality of life at university, or maintain and develop their motivation in learning When students overcome their learning stressors by solving their learning excercies, projects, exams, they experience about the role of teachers, the role of learning with other classmates

Hypothesis 2: Psychological hardiness is positively related to student’s

quality of life

In addition, in the research of Tho (2009) with economics students of public unversities and private universities The results of this study showed that there are different results about the relationship between student’s quality

of life and other factors if compared public unversities with private universities For students who learn different subjects, the results of the relationship between student’s quality of life and others factors might be different which caused by some differences For example between technical students and economics students, there are some different factors as followed: teachers’ method, supported equipments during their their learning, technical students’ male rate is often higher than economics students, etc Therefore this research expects to answer whether there are differences of the impact of

learning motivation on student’s quality of life between the economics student group and the technical student group; whether there are differences of the impact of psychological hardiness on student’s quality of life between the economics student group and the technical student group

Hypothesis 3: Learning motivation is positively related to student’s

quality of life in the economics student group

Hypothesis 4: Learning motivation is positively related to student’s

quality of life in the technical student group

Hypothesis 5: Psychological hardiness is positively related to student’s

quality of life in the economics student group

Hypothesis 6: Psychological hardiness is positively related to student’s

quality of life in the technical student group

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

Chapter 3 will provide methodology that uses to examine the measurement scales of concepts and verify research model and hypotheses

given

3.1 Research process

This research process included 2 phases The first phase of the pilot research and the second phase of the main research The pilot research was conducted by using the qualitative method The main research used the quantitative method The unit of analysis is student The object is Lac Hong university technical and economics students

Figure 3.1: The research process

THE MAIN RESEARCH USING THE MAIN

MEASUREMENT SCALES

(Quantitative: n=328)

Reliability analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Linear regression analysis

The main measurement scales

WRITING REPORT

The pilot research was conducted in August 2010 that used the

qualitative method by making deeply interview with 7 students in order to

check the content and meaning of words which were used in the measurement

scales

After the pilot research, the main research was based on quantitative

method which was conducted with 328 students through qualitative technique

of making interview directly The reason was to verify the measurement

model, research model and test the hypotheses The colletected data was

tested by Reliability analysis (Delete low-item total correlation item < 0.30)

and items made Cronback alpha <0.60), Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

(Deleted items with low loading factor < 0.50) The hypotheses were tested

by the multi-linear regression with Enter method

3.2 The measurement scales

The definitions of student’s quality of life measurement, learning

motivation measurement and psychological hardiness measurement had been

available in the world, and aslo had been verified in many researches at

different nations The measurement scales of student’s quality of life (Sirgy et

al 2007, cited in Tho et al 2009), learning motivation (Cole et al 2004, cited

in Tho et al 2009), and psychological hardiness (Cole et al 2004, cited in

Tho et al 2009) were used in this research, which had been inheritted by Tho

et al (2009) This research would apply these measurement scales in the

current envirnoment of Lac Hong university in Viet Nam In this research,

these measurement scales had been translated into English basing on the

Vietnamese measurement scales presented in Tho et al (2009) The

measurement scales of this research were measured basing on the Likert 5

point, with 1: fully – againsted; 5: fully-agreed

3.2.1 The student’s quality of life measurement

This value was measured basing on the measure of student’s quality of life of Sirgy et al (2007) (cited in Tho et al 2009) It included 6 observed variables: coded from Q1 to Q6

Q1: I’m very pleased with the teaching of teachers at this university Q2: I’m very pleased with the material facilities and equipments at this university

Q3: I’m very pleased with the treatment to students at this university Q4: I’m very pleased with the extra – activities of the course at this university

Q5: I’m very pleased with relationship with my classmates when study

at this university

Q6: In generally, my learning quality of life is very high at this university

3.2.2 The learning motivation measurement

This measure was based on the measure of learning motivation of (Cole

et al 2004, cited in Tho et al 2009) It included 5 observed variables, coded

from M1 to M5

M1: I try my best to invest into my learning

M2: I spend most of time on this subject

M3: Investment into this subject is my first priority

M4: I use all of my energy to learn this subject

M5: In generally, my learning motivation with this subject is very high

3.2.3 The psychological hardiness measurement

This measure was based on the measure of psychological hardiness of Cole et al 2004) (cited in Tho et al 2009) It included 7 observed variables,

they displayed bearing and controlling ability of pressures during their course

at university, they were coded from H1 to H7

H1: Despite all changes, I always commit to complete my course at university

H2: When necessary, I’m willing to work hard in order to reach learning goals

H3: When I have problems with my learning, I can always solve them H4: I can always control all difficulties happening to me during the course

H5: Iam always interested in learning challenges during the course H6: I can always deal with unexpected problems during the course H7: In generally, I have high ability to bear pressures during the course

3.3 The pilot research

As we introduced, the measurement scales of concepts in this research had been tested at many developed countries Therefore, it was considered that the pilot survey would be useful in order to test the content and the meaning of words, or if necessary modify measurement scales to be suitable with the context of Lac Hong university in Viet Nam

These measurement scales had been already translated into Vietnamese

in the study of Tho et al (2009) This research used this translation in the questionnaire in order to conduct survey The questionaire in Vietnamese was presented in the appendix 1

The pilot survey was conducted at Lac Hong university using the qualitative method by directly interviewing with 7 independent students (including 4 economics students and 3 technical students) in order to test the words using in the measurement scales (unable to understand, difficult to answer or not, etc)

In conclusion, the pilot survey results would help to eliminate possible weaknesses and flaws, and create the main questionare that would be used in the main research

Table 3.1: The demographical status of participants

The pilot research result

The students who were deeply interviewed about the meaning and the content of the measurement scales of student’s quality of life, learning motivation and psychological hardiness, they all understood the content and the meaning of each statement of the measurement scales Therefore, these measurement scales were used in the main research

3.4 The main research

The main research was conducted by quantitative method with 328 technical students and economics students through qualitative technique of making interview directly

The collected data from the main research was analysed by using SPSS

16 software (Descriptive Statistics, Reliability analysis, Correlation analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), the multi-linear regression analysis) The reason was to verify the measurement model, research model and test the hypotheses

Table 3.2: The main measurement scales

I’m very pleased with the teaching of teachers at this university Q1

I’m very pleased with the material facilities and equipments at

I’m very pleased with the treatment to students at this university Q3

I’m very pleased with the extra – activities of the course at this

I’m very pleased with relationship with my classmates when

Student’s

quality of life

In generally, my learning quality of life is very high at this

I try my best to invest into my learning M1

Investment into this subject is my first priority M3

I use all of my energy to learn this subject M4

Learning

motivation

In generally, my learning motivation with this subject is very high M5

Despite all changes, I always commint to complete my course at

When necessary, I’m willing to work hard in order to reach

When I have problems with my learning, I can always solve them H3

I can awlays control all difficulties happening to me during the

Iam always interested in learning challenges during the course H5

I can always deal with unexpected problems during the course H6

Psychological

hardiness

In generally, I have high ability to bear pressures during the

Sampling

“A population was a group of potential participants to whom you want

to generalize the results of a study” (Salkind 2006) Or a population could be defined as including all people or items with the characteristic one wishes to understand In order to conduct a survey, the population should be defined But in some conditions we couldn’t access all the units of the population because it could waste a lot of time, or some others factors that constraint our efforts In this case, a sample was a good solution, sample was defined as a small percentage of a population

As presented in the research purpose of exploring the impact of learning motivation on student’s quality of life, psychological hardiness among economics students and technical students In this research the population was defined that was all university students who were economics students and technical students at Lac Hong University We used the convenience sampling in order to choose the research sample

About the sample, it had been noted that there were two main sampling methods, probability and non-probability sampling (Salkind 2006) In this research, the non-probability method was chosen due to the assumption that potential students of the sample didn’t have an equal and independent chance

of being selected And the other reason was when time or other factors rather than generalisabilty become critical, non-probability sampling was generally used (Canava et al 2001) This meaned that the findings from the study of the sample could not be confidently generalized to the population In non-probability sampling, there were two main types: convenience sampling and purposive sampling The convenience sampling was the least reliable of all sampling designs in terms of generalisability, but sometimes it could be the only viable alternative when quick and timely information was needed, or for

exploratory research purposes (Canava et al 2001) Convenience sampling was used in this research

Sample size

A sample should be reliable and valid in order to enable us to generalize the findings from the sample to the population under investigation (Canava et al 2001)

In order to estimate the sample size which was used in exploratory factor analysis, Hair et al (1998) mentioned that at least 5 samples should be used to estimate 1 item There were 20 observative items in research model, therefore the sample size should be at least 100 (20*5)

According to Tabachnick & Fidell (1996), when we used the regression analysis, the sample size was defined by the caculation of n >= 50 + 8*m (m was the number of observative items) We had 20 observative items in research model, therefore the sample size was at least 210 (=50 + 8*18)

In order to adapt with the sample size criterias above, the sample size research targeted in this research was from 210 upwards