Theme 3: Research and theory - Pre-reflections

Computers in Human Behaviour

Impact factor: 2,694

The journal Computer in Human Behaviour is a scholarly journal with the main goal of examining how we humans use computers and how this usage affects our psychology. The articles, along with research, reviews and announcements, that are published concern how using computers affect human development, learning, personality and social interactions. Interactions is also the key focus of the journal as it addresses human interactions with computers and not the actual computers.

Anxiety about internet hacking: Results from a community sample

This article, published in Computers in Human Behaviour during 2015, addresses the how the risk for being hacked can cause anxiety as it threatens our individual online security and integrity. Through an online survey with 304 participants, the authors investigated what the subjects felt regarding the subject.

The findings were concluded that the concern for being exposed for data breach, did affect the subjects levels of anxiety somewhat. Not as much as anticipated but still to some extent. They also found that everyday issues and life hassles affected anxiety levels significantly more. I found it interesting how despite no previous experience of data breach all participant knew what consequences it could lead to, such as depletion in finances and privacy and integrity violation. Nor did their respective background and personalities have any noticeable effect on increased anxiety.

The authors conclude with the suggestion that people should invest in safeguarding themselves online. As of now, most of the subjects were unprotected.

1. Briefly explain to a first year university student what theory is, and what theory is not.

The concept of theory has varied through the ages but the core remains similar. Theory is based upon a reasoning based on facts and empirical studies. Sutton and Staw define theory as: “Theory is the answer to queries of why.” Theory can be determined as the logic explanation of an event or observation and is used to explain why that event occurred.. References from others work, diagrams or data however, can not be classified as theory.

2. Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

One of the major theory, which is also the most central, is that there is a rising concern and growing recognition that all our electronic and connected devices are at risk of data breach. Simply due to them being connected and often unprotected. This theory is best represented as type IV: Explanation and Prediction (EP) according to Gregor’s categorisation. It describes the current situation of what has happened up until now, how, why and where and also mentions what this insecurity could imply.

3. Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

By using these theories, I as a reader, understood from the beginning of the paper what their aim was and how they wanted to achieve it. The theories were clear and relevant in order to answer their question. This makes further research easy to conduct and the authors also give suggestions on how and what can be done in that case. However, the choices of theories and participant location steered the outcome and might have differed of the audience had been wider or broader. 99,3% recided in the US and the rest in Canada, a fact that could have affected the results.