Personality and Information Seeking - Literature review Example

PERSONALITY AND INFORMATION SEEKING 29th NOVEMBER, 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………… 3.0 2. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………. 3.0 3. Literature Review……………………………………………………………………… 3.0 4. Researches, Studies and Models………………………………………………………. 5.0 5. Information Seeking and Personality: Medicine………………………………………………………………………….. 6.0 Investments………………………………………………………………………. 6.0 Students of Pakistan University…………………………………………………. 7.0 Organizational Newcomers………………………………………………………. 8.0 Software Developments………………………………………………………….. 9.0 Traveling………………………………………………………………………… 10.0 Specialty Interest…………………………………………………………………. 10.0 Attachment……………………………………………………………………… 11.0 New Media and Communication………………………………………………… 12.0 Medical recovery………………………………………………………………….. 13.0 6. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………….13.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Understanding the relation between personality and information seeking can help in understanding the different seeking behaviors of varied individuals may it be students, teachers, experienced or fresher in jobs etc. In the following study an in depth review of the past literature and theories in context to the topic would be undertaken so as to create a link between the personality, search behavior and learning style. Experiences from variety of field such as medicine, telecommunications, tours and travel, research and academics, investors, fresh and new employees and many other aspects have been undertaken for a deeper analysis and evaluation of the possible link and relation between personality and information seeking process. INTRODUCTION Personality has been approached by many theorists in variety of ways. What is the most important part about personality is that it reflects an individual unique characteristics and traits which make them distinct and different from others. Personality is consistent and enduring and can also change with the change in time or situations. One of the close concepts that is evolved in the study of personality is the sensation seeking which is a characteristic resulting in the need and search for varied novel and complex experiences and willingness to take efforts and search for the sake of such experiences. In words of Phares E J, 1991, “Personality is a unique pattern of characteristic thoughts, feelings and behaviours that distinguishes one individual from the other and prevails for a certain period of time and situation” On the other hand Information seeking is considered to be a practical and positive communicative process of accumulating information from varied sources including the immediate environment. Information seeking has been accepted as a dynamic and non-linear process in the current times under which the information needs and the information seeking behaviours are subjected to constant changes (Cheuk W-Y B, 1999). LITERATURE REVIEW Past studies revealed (Palmer J, 1991: Bowlby J, 1969) that information behaviours can be categorized under different personality heads such as non-seeker group which are just not motivated enough for information seeking, lone and wide ranger group who often worked alone and found solutions to problems just by chance and did a wide search from journals and other sources. Unsettled and self conscious seeker comprise of fresh researchers who visit library more than any other group. Such kind of category is more insecure about the information seeking process. The second last category of confident collectors like to keep an open mind for any kind of new information and possess a good experience in the field of information seeking and lastly the hunters develop their own strategies of information hunt. They possess wide contacts (Palmer J, 1991). Information seeking behaviour is also linked with the attachment style. Secure and anguished people are found to be more curious and inquisitive. They possess a positive and creative attitude towards seeking information. Distressed and agonized people prefer personal contacts whereas avoiding persons tend to lose contact with people. Insecure people find problems in analyzing future certainty and are often found trapped with disorder and ambiguity. Such people often complete their search process in hurry and ended up extracting incomplete or early stage information (Miculincer M, 1997). Literature supports the fact that different personality types behave in different manners when information seeking is the case. According to Kernan B J and Mojena R, 1973, responsible and insecure students tend to overdo, such students generally exaggerate information search. Self confident and dominant students seek less, low esteemed or low self confidence people generally give up the search process in the preliminary stages only (Bandura A, 1986). The fast surfers are considered to be unmotivated and insecure; they have problems in finding relevance to the context, face lack of time, and choose documents on the basis of ease and comfort. Deep divers are ambitious, motivated, goal oriented and structured. They like to search information in order to extend their topical knowledge. Deep divers are quality conscious and retrieve reliable and scientific information whereas broad scanners are explorers of information; they like to sought information from a wide range of sources and enjoy flexible information seeking. On the whole personality definitely influences how an individual approaches information seeking (Heinstorm J, 2002). Each search style exhibiting a different personality attribute has benefits depending on search task and search stage, for instance deep drivers are certainly effective but need to be more explorative. Broad scanners are creative but then they need to be more focused. RESEARCHES, STUDIES AND MODELS One of the most useful models in understanding the personality as a predecessor to information seeking is the Miller and Jablin model (1991). The model emphasizes on the underlying concept of the information seeking tactics and habits of organizational newcomers (Miller, V. D. and F. M. Jablin, 1991). Many of the traits have been examined under the theory but ‘personality’ is focused on discretely. It’s been state that often; personality factor is ignored or overlooked in the information seeking research. Personality traits may focus on the individual differences which take on a prominent role in predicting patterns which lead to information seeking, for instance, performance, leadership, communication etc. What needs to be taken care in proposing a personality and information seeking research is the perfect blend of appropriate traits, mediating variables and proper measures. The five factor model of personality can be great help whereby personality traits related to Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness have been highlighted (Heinstorm J, 2000). Neuroticism is a measure the impact of emotional control. Low levels of neuroticism indicate emotional stability while high neuroticism reveals high level of negative emotions. Resistant individuals require strong stimuli and need to be provoked constantly in respect to information seeking process. Openness to experiences represents broad interests, liberal and high novelty traits. As information seekers, they put in the depth, breadth and variability of imaginations and creative to add on to their cognitive experiences. The extraversion-introversion dimensions describe the character of the individual. Extroverts are frank, adventurous, and sociable, hence they see information from all sources that come across their way, and on the other hand the introverts are shy, quiet, reserved, and unsociable and limit their information seeking process to few areas that can be handled independently without much interference or intervention of external sources. For instance in a study personality traits of males and females were studied, under which it was found that male users were more prone to leisure use in terms of extroversion and less inclined towards information seeking services in terms of neuroticism while on the contrary female users were less inclined towards social services in terms of extroversion and more inclined towards social services from studied from the perspective of neuroticism (Amichai-Hamburger, 2007) Agreeableness is linked to altruism; kind and gentle attitude hence adopt a flexible approach in formation seeking. Consciousness is a goal directed behaviour, hence they persist and retain to their goals and objectives, completely determined. They are not very flexible but in-depth information seekers. These personality traits are reflected in the learning styles which further can be elaborated and analyzed to the research style. For instance conscientiousness is related to intrinsic motivation, better organization or work and time and a good seeking attitude. Openness is related to critical evaluation, searching literature whereas neurotism lacks concentration, no extra information search in-depth knowledge (Shouwenburg H C, 1995). Information Seeking and Personality: Medicine In a study conducted by Lu H, Plamgreen C P, Zimmerman S R, Lane R D, and Alexander, (2006), related to the concept of personality and information seeking, a special area of online health information seeking is explored. A cross sectional survey was conducted in Taiwan whereby 535 respondents were intervened out of which 243 were males and 292 were females. Sensation seeking scales, decision making scales and the intention to seek STD, HIV information were the main measures adopted for the study. The main findings of the study revealed that high and low sensation seekers actually differed in seeking information and also the impulsive and rational decision makers differed in their information seeking behavior regarding the HIV/AIDS information on internet. The study clearly indicates that personality traits do have a deep impact on the information search which may be further affected by the experience, curiosity or habit. Information Seeking and Personality: Investments A very different unique study was conducted by Michael C and Smith (2007) to related personality and information seeking attitude about a mutual fund investment. In this study, the main highlights were the Americans. The study aimed to find whether the Americans had sufficient knowledge to make decisions regarding mutual fund investments or not. ‘Personality’ was taken as an independent variable; ‘Investor’ was the dependent variable , before the investment decision was made, ‘Information seeking effort’ was taken to be the dependant variable. As per the research personality is composed of four main factors including Extraversion versus Introversion, Sensing versus Intuition, Thinking versus Feeling, and Judging versus Perceiving. A survey was conducted where 101 college and university students were collected out of which only 81 students were interviewed to identify the mutual fund information, as per preference indicator criteria. The results of the survey supported the fact that remarkable differences were noted as far as the basic level information search was concerned. The judging overpowered perceiving preference in accordance with searching information through external sources and personal contacts. Quantitative information search was preferred more in comparison to qualitative search for mutual funds. On the whole different personality and their information seeking roles were identified (Michael C and Smith (2007). Information Seeking and Personality: Students of Pakistan University A study was undertaken to determine the information seeking behaviour of the students in various Universities of Pakistan. A different perspective has been added in the study whereby it has been said that information seeking behaviours also change due to different cultures. Intuition and self evaluation have been taken as components of personality. Data was collected from 1000 respondents randomly selected from nine various different universities of Pakistan through the mode of questionnaires. The methodology adopted in the study included the use of survey and questionnaires of 5 point likert scaling. Multiple regression and correlation tools were used for further analysis. Seven independent including self evaluation and intuition as personality variables and two independent variables were considered. The results supported the fact that the impact of Self-evaluation on Information Seeking Behaviour displayed an extremely high positive relationship (0.49) which further indicates that self-evaluation should be absolutely fair and appropriate so that a student can truly judge his influenced behaviour. Ability to use tools and intuition as a part of personality was also found to have a considerable impact on the information seeking behaviour (Qureshi M, Iqbal J, Khan B M, 2008). On the whole, the viewpoint that was derived after the study of Pakistani students was that their information extracting styles had nothing antique or traditional due to involvement of web technologies. They were not much comfortable with the current trends which was a great obstacle or hindrance observed in their common information seeking personality. Lack of awareness and inadequate availability of resources were also some of the barriers to information search apart from their personality factors. The students preferred simple and uniform interfaces and did not like any different database with different search areas. All they wanted was easy and simplest methods of information usage which reflected on their personality style as well. They were not information hunters or confident information collectors but were conscious and unsettled seekers. Its not that all students fall in the same cadre but a general opinion regarding the students based on the research has been drawn. Among the many researches conducted by Heinstorm J (2005), one such study explored the information seeking behaviour from a psychological viewpoint also including personality traits. The study was a quantitative analysis comprising of three questionnaires including the NEO Five-Factor Inventory measuring personality, the ASSIST test measuring approaches to studying, and a questionnaire regarding information behavior. 305 university students were a part of the study. The results were categorized into three main heads of information seekers fast surfing, broad scanning and deep diving groups. Fast surfing was characterized to a surface study approach and low openness to experience and low conscientiousness. Broad scanning group was related to attributes of extraversion, openness, and competitiveness, whereas deep diving group focused on an extensive strategic study approach. Such kind of research certainly adds up to a holistic viewpoint of information seeking patterns useful for students, researchers and other professionals as well. Information Seeking and Personality: Organizational Newcomers In a study by Tidwell M, Sias P (2005), stress on organizational newcomers has been laid. Fresher are supposed to go through numerous socialization processes where information seeking plays a very vital role. To reduce the uncertainty factor, new information collection becomes mandatory. The study reveals how personality factors or attributes affect the data or information collection process. Further the application of the multiple regression analysis points out that few of the personality traits influence information seeking directly while some others through the social cost concept. A direct relationship between extroversion and covert relational information seeking was observed as a major finding. In another project employment of Sense-Making provides a completely new angle to information seeking behaviour and makes use of ISU process. Related to the field of information and library studies, this particular research aims to investigate information seeking and user behavior. Some common factors which are included in the research work are work tasks, education background, perception of the problems, demography, gender and the personality type of the individuals which affect their information seeking behaviour. Three main cadres of professionals namely auditors, engineers and architects were interviewed using a micro moment time line interview method in order to find out the individual seeking behaviour at a particular time-space moment. The main findings of the research stated that individuals at work pass on “situational” information seeking and move from “ISU situation” to another from Time 1 to Time 2, hence displaying different information seeking behavior at different times influenced by their personality traits as well. Information Seeking and Personality: Software Development A special study examined results related with the differences in software developers' creative style which is also a part of individual’s personality adapted from Kirton’s adaption-innovation theory. The research design focused on identifying the relationship between software developers' creativity and their behaviour towards technological innovations. Based on adaption-innovation theory it was pre-expected that innovators would exhibit high levels of job satisfaction in comparison to the less innovative employees. A survey was conducted and feedback from 220 developers collected from two firms that had recently established a client/server development. According to the results there was found a relation between individual’s personality traits that is their creative style and the corresponding attitude towards innovation, job satisfaction, and performance (Gallivan J M, 2003) Information Seeking and Personality: Traveling Information seeking is not only restricted to areas such as education, academics, research etc, but it is depicted in almost every instance and move of all our life. Every individual needs to seek information on numerous areas depending on his situational requirements and needs. One such area, where information search is required is traveling and tourism. The area touches on the aspects which individuals depending upon their unique personalities explore while selecting the places and location for travel .A study undertaken by Hoon Se J, Ri Yoo H, 2008, determines the impact of the sensation seeking personality on collecting travel information emphasizing on the attributes of stimulation and serenity. The past studies have indicated a positive correlation between sensation seeking personality with exciting and adventurous leisure preferences. The use of elaboration likelihood model it was hypothesized that selection of a travel destination in terms of stimulation would certainly have a greater impact on the high sensation seekers, whereas selection of travel locations on the basis of tranquility would result in a deep impact on the low sensation seekers. The final readings of the research based on certain hypothesis and facts depicted in the past studies revealed that in terms of stimulation, high sensation seekers (HSS) scored more in comparison to the low sensation seekers (LSS), they were found more involved, conscious, and positive reaction on their part was displayed in regard to the information explored and received to the messages and travel destination. However, there are no significant differences between high sensation seekers and the low sensation seekers when the data was analyzed based on the terms of tranquility. There were no major interactions between message constructions and audience personalities. Information Seeking and Personality: Specialty Interest To gather some in-depth viewpoint on the topic of personality and information seeking, a different line related to medical is a good source of delving deeper into the essence of the notion. Hojat M, Zuckerman M, 2008, recently researched on the relationship between personality and specialty interest as it is an important sphere to determining and forecasting specialty distribution. This study aimed to test the following hypotheses, firstly students who tend to specialize in ‘surgical’ would be more inclined towards impulsive sensation seeking and less towards ‘neuroticism-anxiety'. Secondly the study also aimed to reflect on the students who were inclined to study deeper into the 'hospital-based' specialties would show more interest in 'sociability' and those interested in 'primary care' would also score higher on the same grounds of scalability. Thirdly, gender differences on personality were also focused on. To carry on the search, a total survey of 1,076 students who matriculated at Jefferson Medical College, from the year 2002 to 2006 was undertaken. Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire (ZKPQ) was the tool utilized to measure the five personality factors of 'impulsive sensation Seeking', 'neuroticism-anxiety', 'aggression-hostility', 'sociability', and ‘activity’. the results of this intensive research confirmed that men were more impulsive sensation seekers in comparison to the women participants who were more inclined towards ‘neuroticism –anxiety’ than their opposite sex. The first hypothesis was true that the surgical specialization students are more inclined towards information seeking while the second one was partially true (Hojat M, Zuckerman M, 2008). Information Seeking and Personality: Attachment Attachment, closeness, personal viewpoint of different relationships is also a different aspect of one’s personality. How an individual deals with hid personal relationships, his professional relationships, peers, etc helps in describing his personality traits. Such personality attributes also link themselves with the information seeking pattern which an individual exhibits. In one the medical researches, Roles WS, Simpson J A, Trans S, Martin A M 3rd, Friedman M, 2007, tried to derive our some linkages from the attachment theory. The study concentrated on how adult attachments are associated with information seeking in regard to the individual himself, his partner, and the overall relationship. The results of a peculiar study revealed that individuals who are less attached to their partner have a very limited interest in extracting information about their partner's inner deep thoughts and feelings, more anxiously an individual is attached to his partner , a selective information seeking attitude is observed on intimate topics related to their partner .In the second case a distinct characteristic is observed whereby, an individual emphasizes more on his own and the partners shortcomings and weaknesses. Lastly despite of attachment orientation in the case of an insecure attached partner, individuals have revealed their interest in learning and information seeking about the negative relationship behaviors .On the whole it was observed that selective information seeking does have a crucial impact on the relationships and may help in defining the personality attribute of human attachment that affect important relationship outcomes (Roles WS, Simpson J A, Trans S, Martin A M 3rd, Friedman M, 2007). Information Seeking and Personality: New Media and Innovation Gungahlin study has also shown up some evident results regarding personality and information seeking strategies (Cunningham S, Turner G, 2002). The above mentioned study clearly reveals the fact that the information seeking strategies have an indispensable role in determining how various individuals cope or handle varied choice that they come across in regard to media and telecommunications, information technology and other related arenas. The study claims that the personality factors are activated, when any kind of new media or innovative technology is involved. New media play a vital role for an information seeker in his family and personal context as well whereas on the contrary a specific personality who has an emotional reaction to problem solving generally tends to avoid information search. The study highlighted a very important phase which stated that personality and information seeking strategies do not have any concrete effect on the selection of traditional or old media; the only thing that changes is the attitude towards the new and innovative media technologies or products. Out of the various communication mediums studied, internet was at the highest priority in demand as far as the information search was concerned. Information Seeking and Personality: Medical recovery Another piece of information was retrieved from a book, penned by Berkowitz L, 1981 in which results of the experiment performed by Andrew in the year 1970. On the basis of a personality questionnaire, he divided the samples into various forms such as sensitizers who are complete information seekers, avoiders who completely try to avoid any contact or source of information, neutrals that fall in between the sensitizers and avoiders. Half of the group of each category was made to hear a tape recording that narrated the entire surgical procedure. For the neutral coping group less amount of medication was involved and they were discharged early in comparison to the other groups. However no kind of difference or variations in the readings were observed in the case of prepared or unprepared sensitizers because all the patients had already extracted maximum information about the surgery process. For the avoider groups, preparations had to be increased in regard to medications and other processes used. The experiment results clearly indicated that personality traits do influence the effect on the event predictability on recovery based on the information seeking attitude. In another follow up study conducted by Sime in the year 1976, self report ratings regarding information seeking were retrieved from the staff. However no kind of relation between information seeking and recovery measures were obtained except in the case of high fear patients who were reported to receive little information had the least recovery rates on the whole. Increased rate of information input in the case of moderate fear patients resulted in deteriorating recovery rates (Berkowitz L, 1981). Whitmire examined the information seeking behaviour of 20 senior graduates while working on varied research project. Whitmire use Kuhltau’s Search Process model along with four other models related with the human psychology study. As a result she found that student’s basic belief that right and wrong answers exist for everything question or situation to the contrary belief that all knowledge is contextual deeply affected their choice of research topics. The two beliefs represented the two different personality traits of individuals based on which the selection of topic was actually based. CONCLUSION After analyzing a variety of experiences on personality and information seeking process it is well indicated fact that there exists a well defined correlation between both the variables. Different personality traits of an individual determine the extent, kind and sources through which the information is collected and interpreted. The efficient use of optimum information and its apt application is deeply affected by the kind of personality an individual possess and reflects. Personality is also reflected from culture to culture and country to country as observed in few of the case studies undertaken , analyzed and mentioned in the report for instance personality traits and information seeking behaviour of individuals in Taiwan, Australia and Pakistan. Though there are certain factors that do have an impact on the information such as availability of information, adequate resources, still attributes which are unique to one person have a deep impact on the information collected by him as observed in the cases of information hunters, deep divers, unsettled and self conscious seekers, confident collectors etc. on the whole it can be said that personality aspects are directly linked with information seeking behaviour. Concept of self and self image is also explored in the determination of individual’s information seeking process. Words: 4,041 REFERENCES Amichai-Hamburger Y. 2007. Preface: Internet and well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 893-897. Bowlby, J. 1969. Attachments style and loss. New York: McGraw-Hill Bandura A, 1986, Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.) Berkowitz L, 1981, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Published by Academic Press Cheuk, W-Y, B. (1999, May). The derivation of a “situational” information seeking and use process model in the workplace: Employing Sense-Making. Paper presented at a non-divisional workshop held at the meeting of the International Communication Association, San Francisco. Cunningham S, Turner G, 2002, the Media and Communications in Australia, Published by Allen & Unwin, 2002 Heinström, Jannica (2000). The impact of personality and approaches to learning on information behaviour."  Information Research, 5(3) Available at: http://informationr.net/ir/5-3/paper78.html Heinstro¨m, J., 2005. “Fast surfing, broad scanning and deep diving: the influence of personality and study approach on student’s information seeking behavior,’ Journal of Documentation”, 64(2): 228-248. Heinstrom Jannica . Fast surfers, broad, scanners and deep divers: personality and information seeking behaviour. . Åbo Akademi University Press, 2002. Hojat M, Zuckerman M, 2008, Personality and specialty interest in medical students. Med Teach, 30(4); 400-406 Hung-Yi Lu, Philip C. Palmgreen, Rick S. Zimmerman, Derek R. Lane, Linda J. Alexander. Cyber Psychology & Behavior. October 1, 2006, 9(5): 577-583. Jeong, Se Hoon. And Hwang, Yoo RI. 2008, Effects of Framing Travel Information: The Moderating Role of Sensation Seeking Personality.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Sheraton New York. Retrieved on 29th November, 2008, http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/1/2/0/3/p12036_index.html Kernan B J, Mojena R, 1973, Information Utilization and Personality, The Journal of Communication, 23(3);315-327 Miller, V. D. and F. M. Jablin 1991. Information seeking during organizational entry: Influences, tactics, and a model of the process. Academy of Management Review, 16(1): 92-120. Michael C and Smith 2007, Personality and the information seeking efforts of potential investors, Dissertation, retrieved on 29th November, 2008, \ Miculincer, M. 1997. Adult attachment style and information processing: individual differences in curiosity and cognitive closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 1217-1230. Phares, E. J. (1991). Introduction to psychology. (3rd. ed.) New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Palmer, J. 1991. Scientists and information: II. Personal factors in information behaviour. Journal of Documentation, 3, 254-275. Qureshi M, Iqbal J, Khan B M, 2008, Information Needs & Information Seeking Behaviour of Students in Universities of Pakistan, Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 4(1): 40-47, 2008 Roles WS, Simpson J A, Trans S, Martin A M 3rd, Friedman M, 2007, Attachment and information seeking in romantic relationships. Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 33(3), 422-38 Schouwenburg H C. 1995. Personality and academic competence. Poster presented at the seventh meeting of the International Society for Study of Individual Differences, Warsaw, Poland. Tidwell M, Sias P, Personality and Information Seeking, Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 42, No. 1, 51-77 (2005) Read More