SPICE: A Software Tool for Studying End-user’s Insecure Cyber Behavior and Personality-traits

Insecure cyber behavior of end users may expose their computers to cyber-attack. A first step to improve their cyber behavior is to identify their tendency toward insecure cyber behavior. Unfortunately, not much work has been done in this area. In particular, the relationship between end users cyber behavior and their personality traits is much less explored. This paper presents a comprehensive review of a newly developed, easily configurable, and flexible software SPICE for psychologist and cognitive scientists to study personality traits and insecure cyber behavior of end users. The software utilizes well-established cognitive methods (such as dot-probe) to identify number of personality traits, and further allows researchers to design and conduct experiments and detailed quantitative study on the cyber behavior of end users. The software collects fine-grained data on users for analysis

Mode of administration and the stability of the OPQ32n - Comparing Internet (controlled) and Paper-and-pencil (supervised) administration

no abstract availableDissertation (MCom (Industrial Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006.Human Resource Managementunrestricte

Constructing A Well-Being: Exploring Knowledge Construction In Dbt Skills Training Using Art And Activity Theory

Through Arts-based Research, constructed within the theoretical basis of the Activity System, participants engaged with dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program content to develop a cohesive and meaningful project. Participants are conceptualized as reliable experts in their own experience, and as active agents of knowledge construction. Participants generate profound and relevant insights into their experiences – insights that can enhance DBT practice, expand research methodology, and build conceptual connections across theories. The Arts-based Activity System offers a theoretically-backed methodology that can disrupt the harmful parallels between the development of the disorders DBT is intended to treat and the dominant research paradigm into DBT. In this paradigm shift, participants are regarded as empowered to construct their wellness by leveraging the tools and settings of DBT, rather than as passive objects of research and recipients of care. Additionally, this study constructs an argument for the use of Arts-Based Activity Theory as a research methodology to investigate social knowledge construction in communities whose knowledge construction may be otherwise be unavailable to researchers. Finally, this study builds a conceptual connection between the Reflective Practitioner Theory and Activity Theory by contextualizing participant reflections as parts of an Activity System

Interrelationships among attachment style, personality traits, interpersonal competency, and Facebook use

Online social media has become a popular way to communicate and develop interpersonal relationships. Facebook use in particular has become an important topic for researchers and clinicians, as young adults are increasingly integrating this use into their daily lives and social behavior. As empirical work on the personality traits and interpersonal competency associated with use and the potential consequences of use on social behavior is still emerging, the present study sought to investigate the interrelationships among constructs relevant to the developmental tasks associated with emerging adulthood, including adult attachment style, Five Factor Model personality traits, interpersonal competency, and Facebook use. Using data collected from 617 emerging adults in college, we utilized structural equation modeling to develop a model explaining the interrelationships among the constructs under study in order to further the research in this area. Results yielded a well-fitting model that explained the interrelationships among these latent constructs in the data, which suggested that insecure attachment had direct and positive effects on neuroticism, direct and negative effects on extraversion, direct and negative effects on interpersonal competency, and indirect effects on Facebook use. In addition, only extraversion and not neuroticism was related to interpersonal competency and Facebook use, when first accounting for attachment style. Interestingly, interpersonal competency did not seem to play a prominent mediating role between these personality traits and Facebook use. These results highlight the role of attachment style, and its importance in both developing personality traits, interpersonal skills, and online social behavior, which aligns well with the attachment theory framework. Lastly, we discussed future directions for research, as well as theoretical and practice implications for psychologists

CYBER SECURITY @ HOME: The Effect of Home User Perceptions of Personal Security Performance on Household IoT Security Intentions

This study explored potential human factors predictors of home user security intentions through the lens of past performance, perceived self-efficacy, and locus of control. While perceived self-efficacy and locus of control are elements in several organizational and individual security models, past performance has been less frequently studied. The variable, past performance, which has been referred to in other studies as prior experience, knowledge, and information security awareness, is usually a single question self-assessment of familiarity or comfort with technology. This study explores user technical prowess in further depth, using formal technical education, informal technical education, employment in an IT/CS field, and self-reported email and internet security measures as a measurement of technical ability. Security intentions were determined by best practices in hardware security, network security, and IoT device protection. Studying IoT security in home users is important because there are 26.6 billion devices connected to the Internet already, with 127 devices are being added to the network every second, which creates a very large attack surface if left unsecured. Unlike organizations, with dedicated IT departments, home users must provide their own security within their network. Instead of building security around the user, this research attempts to determine what human factors variables effect intentions to use existing security technologies. Through an online survey, home users provided information on their background, device usage, perceived ability to perform security behaviors, level of control over their environment, current security intentions, and future security intentions. Hierarchical linear regression, path modeling, and structural equation modeling determined that past performance was consistently the strongest predictor of security intentions for home users. Self-efficacy and locus of control had varying results among the disparate methods. Additionally, exposure to security concepts through the survey had an effect on user security intentions, as measured at the end of the survey. This research contributed an initial model for the effects of past performance, self-efficacy, and locus of control on security intentions. It provided verification for existing self-efficacy and locus of control measurements, as well as comprehensive, modular security intentions survey questions. Additionally, this study provided insight into the effect of demographics on security intentions

A Theory of Personalised Nudging: Integrating Heterogeneity and Behavioural Science into Political Decision-Making

While successful, behavioural nudges have often been one-size-fits-all, inducing different behaviours from different people despite both people being nudged in the same way. This is called the problem of heterogeneity, and one proposed solution is to personalise behavioural nudges. One area where personalised nudges may be of pertinent interest is the online political advertising space. In recent years, concerns regarding the use of social media sites as part of highly targeted political campaigns have grown. For any personalised nudging programme, this is area of social significance. This thesis investigates two strategies for personalising nudges using an experimental approach. Following an RCT experimental design (n = 962), the effect of impersonal nudges embedded into hypothetical political advertisements are first examined. The first part of this study finds limited evidence that impersonal nudges can influence decision making. In the second part, two strategies for personalising nudges are used to investigate if personalisation renders nudging more effective in this domain. These strategies involve personalising the type of nudge shown to a participant (so-called delivery personalisation) and personalising the outcome which a participant is nudged towards (so-called choice personalisation). Across all personalisation strategies (choice, delivery, and both combined), this thesis finds personalised nudges are statistically significantly more effective at influencing political decision-making than impersonal nudges and not nudging at all. Furthermore, data from the personalisation stage suggests further refinement of this experiment is possible, and so the effects of personalisation may be even greater than observed here

Personality Type and Language Learning Strategy use by University Students: Where the MBTI and SILL Intersect

This thesis explores the relationship between personality type, as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (“MBTI®”), and the learning strategies employed by learners enrolled in undergraduate foreign language courses at the University of Waterloo. The R.L. Oxford© Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (“SILL”) version 5.1, designed specifically for speakers of English learning a new language, will be used by participants to self-assess current learning strategies (Oxford, 1990). The quantitative portion of the study cross tabulates the data generated from these two electronically administered surveys in an attempt to identify clusters of personality types and learning strategies and determine if any statistically significant correlations between personality type and student learning strategies exist. This study could not prove a higher percentages of any particular type(s) tends to enrol in second language acquisition courses, nor that a corresponding or any set of preferred learning strategies are used. An exploratory research approach is taken for the qualitative portion of the study to examine the language used by participants when answering non-prompted open-ended questions. Specifically, keywords and common phrases from the responses are used to determine if they are predictive of an MBTI type preference. The language the participants used to respond to the short answer questions did not point toward any type preferences; however, a more detailed examination with larger writing samples may be warranted to confirm this finding