Seminar by Siavash Atarodi
From cognitive psychology to Trust Theory
This thesis, which was part of a European research project, focuses on the problem of the reluctance of elderly people to use ICTs. More specifically, it focuses on the psychosocial factors that influence the attitudes of people aged 62 and over towards ICTs. We conducted six studies in this framework, divided into two areas. The first axis, including two studies, adresses public strategies and practices for orienting older people towards ICTs. In the first one we analyzed the practices of the organizations involved in the orientation of the elderly towards gerontechnologies in the Lorraine region of France. It emerges that the access routes are very different according to the counties and communities, but also according to the first interlocutor requested by the elderly person and his / her relatives. The second study aimed to analyze public strategies and regulations encouraging and facilitating the use of ICT based services for the elderly in six regions of Europe. Different stages of development of these strategies emerged and a north / south lag was observed. In the second axis, with four studies, we examined from different angles the factors influencing the attitudes of the elderly towards ICTs. Our third study addressed the perceptions of older persons regarding ICTs and their perceived needs. We identified 22 perceptual items divided into eight components forming a scale of perceptions of ICTs as well as a scale of perceived needs including two components. The fourth study assessed the impact of previous experience with ICTs on perceptions of ICTs. We carried out analyzes of the variance of ICT perceptions depending on whether a computer was owned or not and the followup of computer literacy courses. The results showed that computer ownership and course tracking were associated with significantly more positive perceptions of ICTs. The fifth study analyzed the impact of the region of residence on perceptions of ICTs. We compared the perceptions of the elderly in six regions of the EU. We found coherence between public strategies for orienting older people to ICTs and the perceptions of older people regarding ICTs. Finally, our latest study focused on the analysis of factors influencing attitudes toward ICTs for different types of activities. Depending on the dependent variable, different factors were found, including perceptions of ICTs, perceived needs, prior experience, region of residence and sociodemographic variables.
