Flow experience among information and communication technology users

The use of technologies is more common in daily life; working with technologies might be associated with positive experiences such as flow. However, there is little empirical research on flow experiences in technology settings. The main aim of this study was to confirm the three-dimensional construct of flow, i.e., absorption, enjoyment, and intrinsic interest, among 517 Information and Communication Technology users [234 students whose mean age was 23 yr. (SD = 3.8)] from different areas of study, mainly Law, Public Administration, Chemistry, and Psychology, and 283 employees [whose mean age was 33 yr. (SD = 7.8)] of 21 different companies from various sectors of production, namely, public administration, industrial production, and services. Analysis showed, as expected, flow is a three-dimensional psychological construct and invariant among samples of technology users. Practical and theoretical implications as well as further research are discussed.     

Politics on the move: The democratic control of the design of sustainable technologies

This article examines how “design rationality” could help remediate the controversy over environmental degradation. Drawing on the case of designing sustainable forms of traffic management, it argues that this will only be effective to a limited degree. “Policy conversation” does indeed take place but within a coalition of actions that pushes a particular set of solutions. This facilitates due procedure but erodes political legitimacy, thus potentially reproducing an intractable controversy. The article suggests a five-phase model of democratic control as an alternative. He primarily works in the field of sociology of technology and environment. He is presently involved in a research project on the social redefinition of mobility, analyzing the translation of sustainable development into new institutional arrangements.     

Emotional encounter: Researching young people's intimate spaces in their information & communication technology practices

This article discusses the role and place of emotions in research and, particularly, in researching young people's intimate spaces in their information and communication technology (ICT) practices. It echoes Harris and Hutington's remarks (2001) that we cannot claim to explore and understand people's social life, without taking into account the potentially powerful role played by emotion. In this paper, I show how adopting a relational position in terms of theoretical framework, such as I have developed it, has two main implications: First, it considers the exploration of young people's intimate sphere of emotion as a central task; second, it involves discussing the methodological tools that render such an exploration possible. I present how I translated these implications, by means of an ethnography of young people's practices in Montreal and, notably, by recursive interviews. Finally, I show how emotions cross over, and are imbricated in, both young people's practices and in my relationship with the young people themselves, showing all the great wealth of this emotional encounter.     

Recipient design in tacit communication

The ability to design tailored messages for specific listeners is an important aspect of human communication. The present study investigates whether a mere belief about an addressee’s identity influences the generation and production of a communicative message in a novel, non-verbal communication task. Participants were made to believe they were playing a game with a child or an adult partner, while a confederate acted as both child and adult partners with matched performance and response times. The participants’ belief influenced their behavior, spending longer when interacting with the presumed child addressee, but only during communicative portions of the game, i.e. using time as a tool to place emphasis on target information. This communicative adaptation attenuated with experience, and it was related to personality traits, namely Empathy and Need for Cognition measures. Overall, these findings indicate that novel nonverbal communicative interactions are selected according to a socio-centric perspective, and they are strongly influenced by participants’ traits.     

Organizational culture, creative behavior, and information and communication technology (ICT) usage: a facet analysis.

Despite the prominence of organizational culture (OC), this concept is controversial and its structure has yet to be systematically analyzed. This study develops a three-pronged formal definitional framework on the basis of facet theory (FT) and explores behavior modality, referent, and object. This facet analysis (FA) of OC accounts successfully for variation in both creative behavior at work and the usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs). An analysis of data collected from 230 employees in the financial industry indicates that a radex structure was obtained for work and ICT. The behavior modality facet ordered the space from center to periphery, and referents facet relates to the direction angles away from the origin.     

Psychology of communication technology use in the workplace.

It is generally understood that employees in organizations misuse technology in specific ways--by sending and receiving personal email, frequenting chat rooms, and using the Web for non-work-related reasons. However, little research has focused on what motivates this type of use. The present study extends existing communication technology and organizational literatures by going beyond usage assessments and examining how an employee's psychological state influences motivations for non-work-related communication technology use during company time.     

Truth and democratic education

The connection of education to democracy is an issue of central importance to communities committed to liberty and justice. In her influential book Democratic Education Amy Gutmann addresses this connection. In doing so she takes up a position regarding democracies and the teaching of truth which is indefensible, and which removes any ban on manipulating citizens. Also indefensible is Gutmann's position concerning publicly-funded community colleges and universities. These she deems nonselective institutions; a mistake that obscures the unequal distribution of opportunities for democratically-required education. The outcome is to reveal Gutmann's analysis of democratic education and democratic participation to be, in important respects, inadequate.     

On the communication of information by displays of standard errors and confidence intervals

A survey of practices regarding the presentation of information about reliability of means in psychological research publications over the last century reveals some advance in quality of communication, greater for tabular presentations than for graphic presentations, but also substantial room for improvement. In this article, problems of interpretation and communication associated with presentations of standard errors and confidence intervals in research reports are examined from both statistical and psychological perspectives. Four general principles of effective communication are proposed and illustrated in application to presentations of data from common psychological research designs, with special attention to problems arising in connection with repeated measures.     

Psychology and its role in information technology

This paper discusses a role for psychology in the development of information technology. Because of the popularity of psychology as an undergraduate major, psychology’s expertise in measurement, and the assertion of some that cognitive science provides the scientific basis for advancements in information technologies, psychology has a responsibility as a discipline to advance information technology and to educate students about this technology. Studies suggest that higher education in psychology can facilitate reasoning about general issues. A process-oriented course in psychology and computers is suggested as a way of incorporating computer literacy into the psychology curriculum. The role of the Society for Computers in Psychology is also discussed.     

Evaluating information technology in teaching and learning

The effectiveness of instructional technology depends on appropriate evaluation of the technology, with special focus on outcomes. Because evaluation assesses how effective the technology is in enabling learners to master a particular subject, what students learn becomes an important criterion for evaluation. But how and when to assess learning and comprehension is an important and continuing problem. This paper deals withstrategic evaluation, which emphasizes technical accuracy, pedagogical soundness, substantive fidelity, integrative flexibility, and cyclic improvement. Effective strategic evaluation is a continuing process-ranging from querying immediate comprehension, to modifying instruction, to assessing long-term effects.     

Agricultural policy and strategic investment in information technology

In this article the perspective shifts to the “upstream” end of the agricultural knowledge and information system (AKIS). Because knowledge policy and strategic decision-making are not the prerogative of the public sector, organizations such as cooperative unions and multinational companies are included. After considering the influence of the changing environment on the nature of the AKIS, the role of knowledge management and policy in the emerging knowledge and information market is examined. Special attention is given to public and private R&D. The article then looks where information technology (IT) fits in and what considerations determine strategic investment in IT projects and sustained services. Some of the European experiences with this strategic investment are evaluated.     

Unique ethical problems in information technology

A distinction is made between moral indoctrination and instruction in ethics. It is argued that the legitimate and important field of computer ethics should not be permitted to become mere moral indoctrination. Computer ethics is an academic field in its own right with unique ethical issues that would not have existed if computer technology had not been invented. Several example issues are presented to illustrate this point. The failure to find satisfactory non-computer analogies testifies to the uniqueness of computer ethics. Lack of an effective analogy forces us to discover new moral values, formulate new moral principles, develop new policies, and find new ways to think about the issues presented to us. For all of these reasons, the kind of issues presented deserve to be addressed separately from others that might at first appear similar. At the very least, they have been so transformed by computing technology that their altered form demands special attention.