Psychological type and cognitive style as antecedents of computer attitude components.

[摘要] The current research report seeks to investigate the relationship betweenpsychological type/cognitive style, and computer attitude components, namelycomputer anxiety. computer confidence, and computer liking, in a sample offull-time banking employees. Psychological type is assessed by means of thedichotomous preferences of extraversion-introversion (E-I), thinking-feeling(T-F) , and sensing-intuition (S-N), based on Jungian personality theory, andoperationalised by the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. The T-F and S-Npreferences, being mental processes 0'1 judging or perceiving, may also beinterpreted as cognitive styles. Pertinent to the current investigation is theimpact that certain demographic variables have on computer attitudes, interms of their relationship with, and their ability to predict computer attitudes.Research results provide moderate support for the proposed hypotheses. Norelationship was found between the extraversion-introversion preference andcomputer attitudes. People with a sensing preference exhibited more positiveattitudes towards computers than people with an intuition preference, Peoplewith a thinking preference indicated less computer anxiety and more positivecomputer attitudes as a whole than their feeling counterparts. No relationshipwas found between the T- F preference and computer liking or confidence.Age and previous computer experience were found to have the strongestrelationships with computer attitudes, suggesting that these two demographicscould predict computer attitudes more effectively and conclusively thanpersonality variables. No relationships were found for gender differences andcomputer attitudes, contrary to previous research.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand