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From Fear to Flow: Personality and information interaction

Jannica Heinstrom, Abo Akademi University, Finland

 - introduces a little researched area which is current and needed in our Information Age
 - explores how personality traits may influence attitude, behaviour and reaction to information
 - provides an overview of the psychological aspects and individual differences in information seeking behaviour and examines reasons behind individual search differences other than personality
 - assesses the implications for information services and how practitioners can customize their information services to match customers with different attitudes, needs and styles

From Fear to Flow explores how personality traits may influence attitude, behaviour and reaction to information. Consideration is made for individual differences in information behaviour and reasons behind individual search differences. The book reviews personality and information behaviour and discusses how personality may influence the attitude towards information. Reaction to information is examined in contexts such as everyday life, decision-making, work, studies and human-computer interaction.

ISBN 1 84334 513 7
ISBN-13: 978 1 84334 513 8
July 2010
240 pages  234 x 156mm  paperback  
£45.00 / US$75.00 / €55.00

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About the author

Dr. Jannica Heinstrom has a masters degree in Psychology and a PhD in Information Studies from Abo Akademi University, Finland. She is currently a full time researcher at the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries, Rutgers University, USA. She has extensive research experience in the field of psychological mechanisms of information behaviour, with an emphasis on personality differences. Her work has won numerous prices, including the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, Outstanding Paper Award, 2005.

Contents

Introduction
 - Making the most of strengths
 -  The whole is more than the sum of the parts

Personality
 - Trait theory
 - Consistency
 - Genetic base
 - Five-factor model

Openness to experience – the exploration dimension
 - Introduction
 - Open information interaction
 - Innovation and discovery
 - Joy of learning
 - Intuitive decision-making
 - Incidental information acquisition
 - Curiosity
 - Tip-of-the-tongue experience
 - Risk-taking
 - Cautious information interaction

Conscientiousness – the persistence dimension
 - Introduction
 - Conscientious information interaction
 - Dedication and thoroughness
 - Work achievement
 - The goal in mind and heart
 - Careful decision-making
 - Laid-back information interaction

Extroversion – the social dimension
 - Introduction
 - Interpersonal information interaction
 - Flexibility and pragmatism
 - Sensation seeking
 - Reflective information interaction

Agreeableness – the trust dimension
 - Introduction
 - Interpersonal information interaction
 - Flexibility and pragmatism
 - Sensation seeking
 - Reflective information interaction

Agreeableness – the trust dimension
 - Introduction
 - Agreeable information interaction
 - Competitive information interaction

Negative affectivity – the emotional dimension
 - Introduction
 - Anxiety versus depression
 - Anxious perception
 - Anxious interpretation
 - Frenetic information seeking
 - Depression
 - Aggression
 - Pessimism
 - Negative emotionality as a barrier
 - Supporting the library anxious
 - Avoidance in a work context
 - Decision-making and relevance judgment

Need for cognition

Positive emotionality
 - Introduction
 - Mood
 - Incidental information acquisition
 - Motivation
 - Happily prolonging uncertainty
 - Flow

Self-efficacy and self-confidence
 - Introduction
 - Self-assured information interaction
 - Confident decision-making
 - Efficiency in a work context
 - Insecure information interaction

Locus of control
 - Introduction
 - Responsible information interaction
 - Helplessness

Monitoring and blunting
 - Introduction
 - Intensive information seeking
 - Dispositional coping
 - Arousal
 - Monitoring and trait anxiety
 - Information avoidance

Uncertainty orientation
 - Introduction
 - Uncertainty-oriented information interaction
 - Certainty-oriented information interaction
 - Uncertainty orientation and other traits

Broad scanning, fast surfing and deep diving
 - You have your own unique talents in information
 - interaction – capitalize on them!
 - Strengths in information interaction
 - Openness to experience
 - Conscientiousness
 - Extroversion
 - Agreeableness
 - Negative affectivity
 - The full picture
 - Five dimensions
 - Personality and information interaction 2.0 forward

Discussion