The average age of students was 28.4 years old, while 79.77% of the respondents were women and 20.23% were men. No significant differences were found among the students in the period (Table 1).

Table 1

Note: QVAr: Questionário de Vivências Acadêmicas - Reduzido.

Significant differences were found in regard to school year: differences in the 1^st year concerned the studying and institutional items (p = 0.039 and 0.000); for the 2^nd year, they concerned the interpersonal and institutional items (p = 0.014 and 0.005). No significant differences were found between the morning and night periods among 3^rd year students, while significant differences were found between the morning and night periods among 4^th year students in regard to the personal and interpersonal items (p = 0.056 and 0.038). No differences were found among 5^th year students in either of the periods (Table 2). The results considering comparison between 5^th year students and those from previous years include: 1^st and 5^th year students presented differences in regard to the personal (p = 0.004), studying (p = 0.001) and institutional (p = 0.001) items; 2^nd and 5^th year students in the interpersonal (p = 0.050) and institutional (p = 0.023) items; 3^rd and 5^th year students presented differences for the personal item (p = 0.000); and no significant differences were found between the 4^th year and 5^th year students in regard to the dimensions assessed by QVAr (Table 3).

Table 2

Note: QVAr: Questionário de Vivências Acadêmicas - Reduzido.

Table 3

Note: QVAr: Questionário de Vivências Acadêmicas - Reduzido.

First, a comparison was performed between students attending the morning and night periods in accordance with year in school. Difficulties were verified among 1^st year students in regard to adapting to studying, which may be related to the fact that many students in the night period work during the day and those studying in the morning had recently left high school. In regard to this subject (that of comparing college students attending different schools years and day periods), Fogaça et al. (2012) support the idea that students attending the night period usually experience academic activities as if they were a second job. Many of these students work during the day and attend the university at night. In the case of this study, entering college represents a considerable change in the lives of students attending both periods (morning and night).

First and 2^nd year students presented difficulties adapting to the institution. These difficulties occur because it is a time period in which students are still unsure whether they made the right choice in regard to entering the program. Those attending the 2^nd year still experience challenges in regard to interpersonal relationships. These difficulties, among the institution's students who responded to the questionnaire, may be related to the fact that, from the 2^nd year on, students begin activities of basic supervised training in which the classroom is divided into smaller groups and each group is under the responsibility of one supervisor. Various tasks performed in these training programs require cooperation, in addition to posing conflicts in emerging interpersonal relationships.

No statistically significant differences were found among 3^rd year students, therefore the conclusion is that at this point the students are already well adapted to the institution and to people and are more autonomous in the performance of their academic activities. The results, however, show statistically significant differences among 4^th year students in regard to the personal and interpersonal items. Concerning the personal item, the 4^th year may represent a critical time in the lives of Psychology students in the institution under study, because at this point, supervised training activities are initiated. Of particular interest is clinical training, a time when students have their first contact with individuals from the community who are interested in the psychotherapy service provided by the school clinic at the university. Because these are unusual situations in the lives of psychology students, it is only natural that they experience significant emotional responses, such as anxiety. In regard to difficulties faced in interpersonal relationships, these difficulties may be related not only to the school clinic but also to other supervised training programs developed outside the university, which are also initiated in the 4^th year. Finally, significant differences were not found among 5^th year students, which may be related to the fact that these students are better adapted to the university. Even though students still attend supervised training programs in the 5^th year, apparently these do not pose many difficulties for students, possibly due to the fact that the programs are no longer a novelty by the 5^th year.

The study's second analysis involved comparing the 5^th year students to those from all the remaining years. Differences were found between 1^st and 5^th year students in regard to the studying, personal and institutional items. This result is understandable because 1^st year students are less mature than those in the more advanced years. The difficulties 1^st year students experience with studying are possibly due to the fact that enrolling in a undergraduate program represents a big change in their lives, while 5^th year students are better adapted. In regard to the personal item, 1^st year students are also expected to experience more anxiety because the university represents new experiences, while 5^th year students had already been exposed to stressful events. Additionally, 5^th year students rarely doubt their choice regarding the program, while 1^st year students may still be unsure.

Second year and 5^th year students showed significant differences in the interpersonal and institutional items. We have already mentioned that the 2^nd year students begin basic supervised training programs in which small groups are formed and each is under the responsibility of one supervisor. In this situation, many of the tasks require cooperation, a context in which interpersonal problems may emerge. This should no longer be a problem for 5^th year students since, at this point, they have already been exposed to situations of supervised training involving tasks that require greater cooperation. The 2^nd year represents a critical time for the students in the institutional item because the assessments are no longer performed in groups (as is the case in the 1^st year). Individual assessments may pose more stress and difficulties for students, who may doubt their choice of program or school, as a result.

The comparison between the 3^rd year and 5^th year students shows significant differences in the personal item. One variable that would explain this result is integrated assessment, which all 3^rd year students in all the programs at the university must take part in. The integrated assessment refers to a test containing a considerable number of multiple-choice and discursive questions addressing content from all the program's courses for a semester, in addition to general knowledge. This special assessment was once applied for 5^th year students only, but it was being introduced to the 4^th year (5^th and 6^th semesters) students at the time of this study's data collection. Because it was a novelty for these students, it may have being a stressful event, leading students to experience anxiety. The 5^th year students, in turn, were better adapted to this assessment. Finally, 4^th and 5^th year students showed no other differences because both had already faced considerable exposure to the teaching institution, its standards, and to the program itself and related situations.

These results show that the lives of students involve various situations with stressful events that may lead to emotional responses such as anxiety and sleep disorders, among other factors, that are extremely distressful during academic life (Charkha, Abarghuei, & Hayati, 2013; Fogaça et al., 2012; Pagnin et al., 2014; Yussuf, Issa, & Buhari, 2013). When facing these situations, people have to develop coping strategies that will result or may result in adapting to adversities the environment imposes (these situations or contexts) (Bardagi & Hutz, 2011). In Psychology, analyses regarding a topic like this draw the attention of different areas or approaches. According to Sidman (2009), for instance, emotional responses such as anxiety may result from the relationships people establish with their physical and social environments. The physical/natural environment refers to something that is outside of the body: people are often threatened by the cold, heat, rain, or tsunamis, among other manifestations, and people build shelters, dams, store food, etc., in order to adapt to adversities.

The authors contend that environment also refers to people's bodies (internal environment). In this sense, people perceive that, as they get older, threats that come from their own body's interior intensify. People seek defenses against the constraints of their own bodies by performing routine exams and acquiring health plans, among other measures to ensure their wellbeing.

Sidman (2009) also notes one type of environment with which we establish relationships, while many of these relationships are woefully coercive: the social environment. This type of environment refers to other people. In social relationships, people represent environments to each other. People establish relationships and many of these are considered coercive based on the interactions people establish, i.e., children and criminals are punished in order to avoid the repetition of socially unacceptable behavior. In the context of education (primary or higher education), coercion is also present. Many students consider low grades to be a punishment and many study as a means to avoid aversive/stressful events.

Skinner (1972) was an important behavioral analyst and contributed to the topic of education. According to him, experiences at school are loaded with adversities for many years. These experiences are openly aversive. There were times when children in elementary school for instance, performed their tasks to avoid the wooden paddle or rattan cane. Children basically acted to avoid or escape punishment. It occurred in the past and still occurs, based on the numerous aversive events such as teachers' anger, jokes or teasing from peers, competitions and comparisons, low grades, and failure, among others. Therefore, school environments (and university environments, as well) are full of stressors that are always challenging and coercing people and the result is usually harmful side effects, many of which are emotional side effects, such as anxiety.

Skinner (2003) notes that many of the relationships within school (as in many situations of life) are extremely aversive. Many students do not learn or simply give up education possibly because they feel constrained. Studying is, in many cases, maintained in order to avoid aversive events, such as low grades and failure. Studying is seldom maintained under the control of the more natural consequences of learning. Much of what is done at schools is, therefore, correlated with punishment. Skinner is against the use of punishment to exert control; instead he reflects upon the ideal model of school, the school of the future. He considers that instead of schools being undesirable places, schools should be pleasant places free of punishment. Schools should be well-planned facilities with a good appearance. Students should go to school not because they would be punished otherwise, but because they would feel attracted to it.

Based on the previous analysis, we recommend that pedagogical processes integrate and encourage the adoption of healthy lifestyles, leading students to see stimuli received both from the internal and external environment as ordered, structured and clear information, i.e., promoting the resilience to respond to the requirements of a stressful situation.

This study's objective was accomplished based on the assumption that students in higher education present different behavior during their academic trajectory in order to adapt to the college environment. Changes in the personal, family and social contexts may interfere in academic performance when not well administered by the student him/herself or by the institution. A successful adaptation depends not only on the student, but also on the institution, which has to meet the needs of its students in regard to adapting to institutional standards and assessments. This study sought to describe the academic experiences of a group of psychology students (from the 1^st to the 5^th years) using a convenience, but limited, sample, which hinders generalization of data.

There is a need to deepen the study of the phenomenon of the "academic experience of Psychology students" in order to expand it to other educational contexts: both public and private schools, taking into account different strategies of evaluation, supervised training and clinical programs to complete the profile of Psychology students.