Categories of Computer Use and Their Relationships with Attitudes Toward Computers

AbstractA comprehensive questionnaire consisting of attitude and use items was administered to the entire student body of a 4-year undergraduate university. A response rate of 38% resulted in 1,444 completed surveys. A principal component factor analysis supported the a priori assumption that there were 5 independent categories of computer use. Respondents indicated different levels of computer use. Word processing was the application used most frequently. Other uses included e-mail for task and nontask activities and mathematical and statistical computations. Moreover, significant differences were observed between the mean attitudes of the low and high users of all the different categories of use. Respondents who reported higher use of computers indicated a more positive attitude toward computers on all the different attitude scales. Finally, significant correlations were observed between the attitude items and the categories of use. The results suggest that computers are used for several different activities and the level of use is related to attitudes toward computers.Keywords: attitudescomputers