Avoiding negative information as a strategy for emotion regulation

The aim of the paper is to investigate whether the personality trait negative emotionality and sense of coherence influence emotionally motivated information avoidance, i.e., avoidance of negative information that potentially evoke anxiety or worry. Data from 412 respondents was collected in a survey which measured negative emotionality, sense of coherence and information avoidance. A conceptual model is proposed, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to analyse the data.Results. Negative emotionality was found to influence information avoidance not only directly, but also indirectly through the manageability dimension of sense of coherence. In other words, manageability mediates the relationship between negative emotionality and information avoidance. The study contributes by showing that personal inclinations impact emotionally motivated information avoidance across contexts.Peer Reviewe

A phenomenographic approach to the effect of emotions on the information behaviour of doctoral students: A narrative inquiry

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. This article is to examine how emotions affect the doctoral student’s journey by analyzing diverse aspects of the information behaviour that emerged from their narratives through a phenomenographic perspective. Narratives are a rational way of communication that focuses on how people perceive different phenomena regarding themselves, their inner thoughts, their states of mind, and how it affects their lifeworld’s. This phenomenographic study employs interview data from 36 doctoral students. The data collected from the narratives were studied drawing from the variation theory and iterative data analysis resulted in categories of doctoral student experiences and their emotional journey. The holistic phase of the thematic analysis revealed a relatively balanced interplay of positive and negative emotions. The rich data obtained in the phenomenographic approach exposed significant links between participants’ heightened emotions in five common themes during looking for information, their interactions with key individuals (supervisors and peer) and situations in their doctoral lives. Whilst this paper focuses on the approach taken to explore the narratives, recommendations are made based on the findings and to further explore the information-seeking behaviour patterns of doctoral students

A framework for understanding user requirements for an information service: Defining the needs of informal carers

This journal article was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology [© American Society for Information Science and Technology], and the definitive published version is available at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117946195/grouphome/home.htmlThe aim of this research was to develop a conceptual framework that would help to collect and understand the information needs of a target community. Many information behaviour frameworks already exist, however; although they share some features, they tend to focus on different aspects of the person and their interaction with information. It was proposed that a synthesis of these frameworks could lead to a comprehensive framework. Previous research was analysed and an initial framework defined. This was piloted and adapted and then applied to data on informal carers. This led to further adaptation. Informal carers are people who care for another person, generally a relative, for more than fourteen hours per week and are not paid for this. The data stemmed from 2 sixty interviews that were transcribed and coded. This paper presents the data on informal carers and their information experience using the final framework. This serves to demonstrate how the framework sensitizes the researcher to certain types of significant data, enables the organization of the data, indicates the relationships between different types of data and, overall, helps to provide a rich picture of the target community’s information needs. In conclusion the paper discusses the differences and advantages of the framework in relation to previous work and also the limitations of the study and possible further research

Exploratory information searching in the enterprise: A study of user satisfaction and task performance

No prior research has been identified which investigates the causal factors for workplace exploratory search task performance. The impact of user, task and environmental factors on user satisfaction and task performance was investigated through a mixed methods study with 26 experienced information professionals using enterprise search in an oil and gas enterprise. Some participants found 75% of high value items, others found none with an average of 27%. No association was found between self-reported search expertise and task performance, with a tendency for many participants to overestimate their search expertise. Successful searchers may have more accurate mental models of both search systems and the information space. Organizations may not have effective exploratory search task performance feedback loops, a lack of learning. This may be caused by management bias towards technology not capability, a lack of systems thinking. Furthermore, organizations may not ‘know’ they ‘don’t know’ their true level of search expertise, a lack of knowing. A metamodel is presented identifying the causal factors for workplace exploratory search task performance. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with search staff from the Defence, Pharmaceutical and Aerospace sectors indicates the potential transferability of the finding that organizations may not know their search expertise levels

Fast surfing for availability or deep diving into quality - motivation and information seeking among middle and high school students

Introduction. Information literacy education is central for students as a building block for functioning citizenship in an information rich world. To support students' development of information skills we need an awareness of underlying factors behind information seeking habits. This article will discuss whether differences in middle and high school students' information seeking may relate to their approaches to studying. Method. The sample consisted of 574 students, grades 6 to 12, who independently sought information in order to learn about a curriculum topic. Data were collected at three stages of the students' information seeking process with use of four survey instruments, including an adapted version of the ASSIST test. Analysis. The analysis of the ASSIST test and the structured questions was quantitative. The open questions were coded through an axial coding process and analysed qualitatively. Results. Students with different study approaches tended to focus on different information seeking aspects in addition to shared commonalities. Students with a surface approach prioritized easily available sources, deep students were aware of quality aspects, and strategic students organized and structured their searches. Conclusion. The search patterns resemble information seeking styles found in previous research. Level of engagement in the search task seems to be highly influential on information seeking behaviour

From fear to flow: personality and information interaction

From Fear to Flow explores how personality traits may influence attitude, behaviour and reaction to information. Consideration is made for individual differences in information behaviour and reasons behind individual search differences. The book reviews personality and information behaviour and discusses how personality may influence the attitude towards information. Reaction to information is examined in contexts such as everyday life, decision-making, work, studies and human-computer interaction.Introduces a little researched area which is current and needed in our Informati

Five personality dimensions and their influence on information behaviour

This article emphasize the importance of considering psychological mechanisms for a thorough understanding of users of information services. The focal point is the relation between personality and information seeking which is explored through a quantitative analysis of 305 university students' personality traits and information habits. It is shown that information behaviour could be connected to all the personality dimensions tested in the study - neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, competitiveness and conscientiousness. Possible explanations for these relations are discussed. It is concluded that inner traits interact with contextual factors in their final impact on information behaviour

Designing for uncertainty

Our highly digitized world brings us into contact with networked information systems with the potential to help us locate information quickly and easily at the touch of a button. But it is far from easy to quickly find the exact information we need. Every new resource added increases the time needed to locate the right information. The increasing scale of resource collections continues to drive the need for innovative methods of organizing and providing access to the information within these collections (Bates, 1999). This panel will discuss the prospect of designing for uncertainty - that is creating information systems based on the premise that (in certain situations) uncertainty can be a powerful mediating strategy for people