Computer self efficacy, computer anxiety, attitudes towards the ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

530 A. Durndell, Z. Haag / Computers in Human Behavior 18 (2002) 521–535analyses, applied to computers, see computing as part of a masculine dominatedtechnology which pays little heed to human values and is often connected to a militaryor aggressive purpose. It could be argued that the Internet can be viewed as anextension of this as opposed to being a medium encouraging human equality, or asWeiser (2000) puts it, much of the research fails to confirm the Internets ‘GreatEqualizer’ metaphor. The Internet’s use as a source of pornography emphasises thislack of equity. Sussman and Tyson (2000), with reference to computer mediatedinteraction, argued that gendered power differentiation in communicative styletranscends the medium. In other words, if gendered power relations exist in theworld, they are to be expected in computer use and Internet use as well.Thus, the results obtained in the current study appear to indicate that the literatureon Internet use and attitudes is liable to follow the existing equivalent literatureon computing, in particular in tending to produce evidence of a gender effect. Theprecise nature of this effect with regard to the Internet, and how it manifests in differentsituations will no doubt be quite complex, as with the computing literature,but this study does provide some evidence of the direction in which it may go.It was indicated in the Introduction that there was some evidence and historybehind the contention that the countries of ex Communist East Europe may notproduce the gender effects with respect to technology that have been frequentlyidentified in the West (Alting & Brand, 1992). On the other hand, as these countriesleave their past behind, it is possible that a side effect could be that they will begin toproduce the technological gender effects of their western mentors. There has beensome argument as to whether the Soviet system really did produce much genderequality. Buckley (1989), for example, used the phrase ‘womens’ double burden’ forthe situation in the USSR where women had to both be responsible for bringing upchildren and going out to work in order to survive. It also may have been the casethat really high status technology in the military industrial complex was primarily inthe hands of men in the Soviet Union. On the other hand, as Durndell et al. (1998)found, when women engineers in Bulgaria were explicitly asked about the largenumber of women engineers to be found in their country, they tended to give creditto the former system, particularly to its achievements in education. The unificationof Germany was a special and extreme case where two states were turned into one,and where relative gender neutrality for technology in the old East Germany rapidlybecame male dominated in the new unified Western dominated state (Nickel, 1993).It may be doubtful that other states will quite follow this pattern with its specialcircumstances. However, Durndell et al. (1997) and Durndell et al. (2000) producedsome evidence that this may be beginning to happen more slowly elsewhere, and theexistence of the significant gender results found in this study in Romania supportsthat point of view.Finally, the reported uses to which the Internet was put by this sample provides apattern not too dissimilar to that found elsewhere (Miller & Durndell, 2001), perhapsrather surprisingly in the light of the relatively poor technological provision inRomania. Table 4 shows that males were on occasions more likely to report usingthe Internet for particular purposes, but that there was also a certain amount ofsimilarity in the uses that males and females reported for the Internet. Males were
A. Durndell, Z. Haag / Computers in Human Behavior 18 (2002) 521–535 531also more likely to report themselves as being amongst the heaviest users of theInternet, as measured by reported time spent online per week. Other studies, such asSherman et al. (2000) and Odell, Korgen, Schumacher, and Delucchi (2000) indicatea similar picture whilst varying in detail. The big picture seems to be that whilstthere might be a declining, though still existing, difference between males andfemales in overall use of the Internet, there are remaining variations in use betweenthe genders.In conclusion, this study would seem to support the contention that the researchliterature on the use of computers probably will extrapolate to the Internet, and thatthis will include the frequent finding of variations due to gender, in contradiction tothe hopes of some Internet enthusiasts. This study also tends to support the point ofview that the emerging countries of Eastern Europe will not be immune to the genderrelated effects of technology as found in the west. Finally, it would be useful todevelop measures of attitudes, anxiety and self efficacy towards the Internet.Appendix A. Corrected item–total correlations Computer Anxiety Items (CARS)Item1. I feel insecure about my ability to interpret a computer0.44printout2. I look forward to using a computer on my job 0.693. I do not think I would be able to learn a computer0.47programming language4. The challenge of learning about computers is exciting 0.525. I am confident that I can learn computer skills 0.666. Anyone can learn to use a computer if they are patient and 0.53motivated7. Learning to operate computers is like learning any new skill, 0.59the more you practice, the better you become8. I am afraid that if I begin to use computers more I will become 0.40more dependent upon them and lose some of my reasoning skills9. I am sure that with time and practice I will be as comfortable 0.68working with computers as I am in working by hand10. I feel that I will be able to keep up with the advances happening 0.65in the computer field11. I would dislike working with machines that are smarter than 0.43Iam12. I feel apprehensive about using computers 0.7313. I have difficulty in understanding the technical aspects of0.46computers14. It scares me to think that I could cause the computer to destroya large amount of information by hitting the wrong key0.59
Page 5 and 6: 1. Concerned aspects of Internet ex
Page 7 and 8: A. Durndell, Z. Haag / Computers in
Page 9: A. Durndell, Z. Haag / Computers in
Page 13 and 14: A. Durndell, Z. Haag / Computers in
Page 15: A. Durndell, Z. Haag / Computers in

Computer self efficacy, computer anxiety, attitudes towards the ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?