Computer Anxiety and the Big Five

This paper explores the relationship between personality traits, as described by the Big Five Factors model, and the likelihood of someone suffering from computer anxiety. The research sample was a cohort of Business School Undergraduates. It was found that for this sample there was a small but significant correlation between two of the traits, agreeableness and emotional stability, and computer anxiet

The relationship between computer anxiety, personality and organisational effectiveness.

This study focuses on the relationship between computer anxiety, personality and organisational effectiveness. In the past, there have been a vast array of studies conducted around these three variables. However, there has not been a study that encompasses all three together in one piece of research. The current study serves the purpose of filling a gap in the literature by examining the relationship between computer anxiety and two organisational effectiveness variables, that being; job satisfaction and intention to leave. This study also examines personality in terms of how it may act as a moderating variable between computer anxiety and the two organisational effectiveness variables. Computer anxiety was assessed using the ‘Computer-Anxiety rating Scale (CARS)’ developed by Rosen and Weil (1992). Three of the Big Five dimensions of personality (extraversion, neuroticism and openness to experience) were assessed using an adapted version of the ‘Big Five Inventory (BFI)’ created by John, Donahue and Kentle (1991) (as cited in John and Srivastava, 1999). Job satisfaction was assessed using the ‘Facet Satisfaction Scale’ scale developed by O’Driscoll and Randall (1999), whereas intention to leave was assessed using the ‘Turnover Intentions Scale’ developed by O’Driscoll and Beehr (1994). The sample was comprised of 223 individuals from three separate South African organisations. It was concluded that there was an inverse negative relationship between computer anxiety and intention to leave. Furthermore, there was a weak negative relationship between computer anxiety and openness to experience, as well as a weak positive relationship between computer anxiety and neuroticism. Finally, it was established that there was a weak negative relationship between neuroticism and job satisfaction, as well as a weak positive relationship between neuroticism and intention to leave. Based upon the results of the study at hand, none of the three personality dimensions moderated the relationship between computer anxiety and either of the two organisational effectiveness variables

Investigation of Attitudes Towards Security Behaviors

Cybersecurity attacks have increased as Internet technology has proliferated. Symantec’s 2013 Internet Security Report stated that two out of the top three causes of data breaches in 2012 were attributable to human error (Pelgrin, 2014). This suggests a need to educate end users so that they engage in behaviors that increase their cybersecurity. This study researched how a user’s knowledge affects their engagement in security behaviors. Security behaviors were operationalized into two categories: cyber hygiene and threat response behaviors. A sample of 194 San José State University students were recruited to participate in an observational study. Students completed a card sort, a semantic knowledge quiz, and a survey of their intention to perform security behaviors. A personality inventory was included to see if there would be any effects of personality on security behaviors. Multiple regression was used to see how card sorting and semantic knowledge quiz scores predicted security behaviors, but the results were not significant. Despite this, there was a correlation between cyber hygiene behaviors and threat response behaviors, as well as the Big Five personality traits. The results showed that many of the Big Five personality traits correlated with each other, which is consistent with other studies’ findings. The only personality trait that had a correlation with one of the knowledge measures was neuroticism, in which neuroticism had a negative correlation with the semantic knowledge quiz. Implications for future research are discussed to understand how knowledge, cyber hygiene behaviors, and threat response behaviors relate

Association between the five factor personality dimensions and psychopathology symptoms

Treball Final de Grau en Psicologia. Codi: PS1048. Curs: 2018/2019.The 53-item Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-53), a shorter version of the revised version of the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90-R), is a widely used questionnaire that measures the internalizing symptoms of depression, phobic anxiety and obsessioncompulsion, as well as the externalizing symptom of hostility/aggression, the idea thought disorder of paranoid ideation and also somatization, in addition to the Global Scale Severity Index (GSI). The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between the five-factor model (FFM) personality dimensions and the 46- item Spanish version of the BSI (BSI-46) scales. A sample of 76 participants answered the Spanish version of the Big Five Personality Trait Questionnaire (BFPTSQ) and the Spanish BSI-46. The measures were administered online using the application Qualtrics. We hypothesized that (a) emotional stability would be mainly related to internalizing disorders, paranoid ideation, somatization and, to a lesser extent, hostility/aggression; (b) (low) agreeableness (antagonism) would be related to hostility/aggression; (c) introversion would be related to depression and obsessivecompulsive symptoms; (d) openness would be associated with the symptoms of paranoid ideation; and (e) the GSI would be related to emotional stability, antagonism, (low) conscientiousness and introversion. As predicted, emotional stability (low neuroticism) was related to all scales of psychological disorders. Antagonism was related to hostility/aggression. Introversion was related to symptoms of depression but, contrary to what we had hypothesized, it was not associated with obsessivecompulsive symptoms. Although it was predicted that openness would be associated with paranoid ideation symptoms, the results did not confirm this hypothesis. Finally, the GSI only showed association with emotional stability, although we expected it to be related to antagonism, (low) conscientiousness and introversion. Taking into account the results, we may conclude that the personality dimensions of the FFM are relevant in relation to psychopathological symptoms.El Inventario Breve de Síntomas de 53 ítems (BSI-53), una versión más corta de la versión revisada de la Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90-R), es un cuestionario ampliamente utilizado que mide los síntomas internalizantes de depresión, ansiedad fóbica y obsesión-compulsión, así como el síntoma externalizante de hostilidad/agresión, el trastorno del pensamiento ideación paranoide y también la somatización, además del índice de gravedad global (GSI). El objetivo del presente estudio fue examinar la relación entre las dimensiones de personalidad del modelo de cinco factores y la versión española de 46 ítems de las escalas BSI (BSI-46). Una muestra de 76 participantes contestó la versión española del cuestionario de los cinco factores de personalidad (BFPTSQ) y el BSI-46 en español. Las escalas fueron administradas online utilizando la aplicación Qualtrics. Nuestras hipótesis eran que (a) la estabilidad emocional estaría relacionada principalmente con los trastornos de internalización, la ideación paranoide, la somatización y, en menor medida, la hostilidad/agresión; (b) la (baja) amabilidad (antagonismo) estaría relacionada con la hostilidad/agresividad; (c) la introversión estaría relacionada con la depresión y los síntomas obsesivos-compulsivos; (d) la apertura estaría asociada con los síntomas de la ideación paranoide; y (e) el GSI estaría relacionado con la estabilidad emocional, antagonismo, la (baja) responsabilidad y la introversión. Como se predijo, la estabilidad emocional (bajo neuroticismo) se relacionó con todas las escalas de trastornos psicológicos. El antagonismo estaba relacionado con la hostilidad/agresión. La introversión estaba relacionada con los síntomas de la depresión pero, contrariamente a lo que habíamos hipotetizado, no estaba asociada con los síntomas obsesivo-compulsivos. Aunque se predijo que la apertura estaría asociada con los síntomas de la ideación paranoide, los resultados no confirmaron esta hipótesis. Finalmente, el GSI solo mostró asociación con la estabilidad emocional, aunque esperábamos que estuviera relacionado con el antagonismo, (baja) responsabilidad e introversión. Teniendo en cuenta los resultados, podemos concluir que las dimensiones de personalidad del Modelo de Cinco Factores son relevantes en relación con los síntomas psicopatológicos

Individual Differences in Cyber Security

A survey of IT professionals suggested that despite technological advancement and organizational procedures to prevent cyber-attacks, users are still the weakest link in cyber security (Crossler, 2013). This suggests it is important to discover what individual differences may cause a user to be more or less vulnerable to cyber security threats. Cyber security knowledge has been shown to lead to increased learning and proactive cyber security behavior (CSB). Self-efficacy has been shown to be a strong predictor of a user’s intended behavior. Traits such as neuroticism have been shown to negatively influence cyber security knowledge and self-efficacy, which may hinder CSB. In discovering what individual traits may predict CSB, users and designers may be able to implement solutions to improve CSB. In this study, 183 undergraduate students at San José State University completed an online survey. Students completed surveys of self-efficacy in information security, and cyber security behavioral intention, as well as a personality inventory and a semantic cyber security knowledge quiz. Correlational analyses were conducted to test hypotheses related to individual traits expected to predict CSB. Results included a negative relationship between neuroticism and self-efficacy and a positive relationship between self-efficacy and CSB. Overall, the results support the conclusion that individual differences can predict self-efficacy and intention to engage in CSB. Future research is needed to investigate whether CSB is influenced by traits such as neuroticism, if CSB can be improved through video games, and which are the causal directions of these effects

What Twitter Profile and Posted Images Reveal About Depression and Anxiety

Previous work has found strong links between the choice of social media images and users' emotions, demographics and personality traits. In this study, we examine which attributes of profile and posted images are associated with depression and anxiety of Twitter users. We used a sample of 28,749 Facebook users to build a language prediction model of survey-reported depression and anxiety, and validated it on Twitter on a sample of 887 users who had taken anxiety and depression surveys. We then applied it to a different set of 4,132 Twitter users to impute language-based depression and anxiety labels, and extracted interpretable features of posted and profile pictures to uncover the associations with users' depression and anxiety, controlling for demographics. For depression, we find that profile pictures suppress positive emotions rather than display more negative emotions, likely because of social media self-presentation biases. They also tend to show the single face of the user (rather than show her in groups of friends), marking increased focus on the self, emblematic for depression. Posted images are dominated by grayscale and low aesthetic cohesion across a variety of image features. Profile images of anxious users are similarly marked by grayscale and low aesthetic cohesion, but less so than those of depressed users. Finally, we show that image features can be used to predict depression and anxiety, and that multitask learning that includes a joint modeling of demographics improves prediction performance. Overall, we find that the image attributes that mark depression and anxiety offer a rich lens into these conditions largely congruent with the psychological literature, and that images on Twitter allow inferences about the mental health status of users.Comment: ICWSM 201