بررسی صفات شخصیتی باریک و پنج عامل بزرگ در رابطه با استفاده از اینترنت

The relationship between Internet usage and the Big Five as well as three narrow personality traits was examined using 117 undergraduates as study participants. Results indicated that total Internet usage was negatively related to three of the Big Five traits – Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion as well as two narrow traits – Optimism and Work Drive, and positively related to Tough-Mindedness. The results of a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that Work Drive added significantly to Extraversion and Conscientious in the prediction of total Internet usage, producing a multiple correlation of 0.349 (p < 0.01). Results were discussed individually by trait, in terms of broad versus narrow personality traits, and regarding suggestions for future research.

In recent years, there has emerged a limited, but growing, research literature on personality traits in relation to Internet usage (e.g., Hamburger & Ben-Artzi, 2000; Leung, 2002; Scealy, Phillips, & Stevenson, 2002). There are several important reasons why this area of research merits attention. Personality traits represent relatively enduring characteristics of individuals that show consistencies over their lifespans and across a wide range of situations (Pervin & John, 1997; Shaffer, 2000). Moreover, personality traits have been found to be related to a broad spectrum of human activities and types of behavior, including school attendance (McShane, Walter, & Rey, 2001), gambling behavior (Blaszczynski, Walker, Sagris, & Dickerson, 1999), parent–infant bed sharing (Kelmanson, 1999), confessing to crimes in police interrogations (Watanabe & Yokota, 1999), blood donations (Paunonen & Nicol, 2001), housing behavior (Sweaney, Pittman, & Montgomery, 1984), music listening preferences (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003), leadership behavior (Judge & Bono, 2000), behavioral aggression (Wu & Clark, 2003), television-viewing (Persegani et al., 2002), drug use (Sussman, McCuller, & Dent, 2003), sexual behavior (Kalichman, Chain, Zweben, & Swain, 2003), job performance (Barrick & Mount, 1991), and participation in sports (Freixanet, 1999; O’Sullivan, Zuckerman, & Kraft, 1998). As usage of the Internet is regularly engaged in by many individuals in all walks of life, (NTIA Release, 2000), it is a logical area to investigate from a personality perspective, particularly since level of usage is often discretionary rather than mandated, and thus more likely to reflect personal motives, needs, values, preferences and other personality attributes. In addition, from the perspective of individual development, personality precedes many of the other variables that can and have been studied in relation to the Internet, including attitudes toward the Internet (Lavin, Marvin, McLarney, Nola, & Scott, 1999), computer expertise (Blair, O’Neil, & Price, 1999), computer training (Rozell & Gardner, 1999), time management (Brenner, 1997), social support (Shaw & Gant, 2002), lifestyle characteristics (Ho & Lee, 2001), advertising beliefs (Korgaonkar, Silverblatt, & O’Leary, 2001), tutoring systems (Wheeler & Regian, 1999), information support (Scull, 1999), collaborative knowledge (Chung, O’Neil, & Herl, 1999), innovation adoption factors (Shelley, 1998), and computer anxiety (Chua, Chen, & Wong, 1999) and other computer-related affective states (Coffin & MacIntyre, 1999). From the standpoint of creating a meaningful knowledge base in this area, it is important to establish first whether personality traits account for variation in Internet usage, and which traits are relatively more important. It will then be important to assess which variables explain additional variance in Internet usage above and beyond that accounted for by personality traits. The present study addresses the relationship between personality traits and Internet usage. It is important to consider first the issue of what personality traits to investigate in relation to Internet usage, since there are so many different traits to choose from in the broader psychological literature. Fortunately, there is a general consensus regarding the Big Five model as a unified, parsimonious conceptual framework for personality (Digman, 1990 and Digman, 1997; Wiggins & Trapnell, 1997). Empirical studies have verified the overall factor structure and integrity of the Big Five constructs of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism in many different settings and areas of inquiry (Costa & McCrae, 1994; De Raad, 2000). We therefore chose to examine the Big Five traits in relation to Internet usage. There is, however, a growing debate about whether validity relationships can be enhanced by considering narrow personality traits in addition to the broad, Big Five constructs (e.g. Ashton, 1998; Ones & Viswesvaran, 2001; Paunonen, Rothstein, & Jackson, 1999; Schneider, Hough, & Dunnette, 1996). For the present study, we used two criteria to select narrow traits likely to add variance beyond the Big Five: (1) trait definition and meaning not readily subsumed by accepted Big Five taxonomies (e.g. De Raad, 2000; Digman, 1990); and, since our study involves college students, (2) established, empirical relationships with academic performance. Based on prior research by the second author (Lounsbury et al., 2003; Lounsbury, Loveland, & Gibson, 2002), we selected three narrow traits for inclusion in the present study – Optimism, Tough-Mindedness, and Work Drive. These traits can briefly be summarized as: Optimism – a generalized predisposition toward positive expectations, Tough-Mindedness – appraising information and making decisions based on logic and facts rather than feelings and intuition, and Work Drive – disposition to work long hours and expend extra time and effort to meet achievement-related goals (for more detailed definitions, see Lounsbury & Gibson, 2002; Lounsbury et al., 2002). Before turning to the specific objectives of the present study, we consider the extant research on personality traits and Internet usage. Scealy et al. (2002) found that shyness was related to specific types of Internet usage. Leung (2002) found that loneliness was not significantly correlated with usage of the online instant messaging program, ICQ (“I seek you,”), but was related to amount of self-disclosure. Armstrong, Phillips, and Saling (2000) found that low self-esteem was related to heavy Internet usage. Hamburger and Ben-Artzi (2000) found that extraversion and neuroticism were related to different types of Internet usage. Research Questions We addressed three research questions: (1) Are the Big Five personality traits related to Internet usage (including overall usage and usage by category)? (2) Are the narrow personality traits of Optimism, Tough-Mindedness, and Work Drive related to overall Internet usage? (3) Do the narrow traits add incremental validity beyond the Big Five traits in accounting for overall Internet usage?