A factor analytic study of the psychological implications of the computer for the individual and society

Measurement procedures including the development and testing of the Cybernetics Attitude Scale and a factor analytic study of the collected data are presented and these findings illumine the problem of the meaning of the computer for the individual and society.

Abstract

The coming of the computer age has provided widespread discussion of the effects on the individual and society of this most recent and powerful intellectual and technological revolution. Discussions of the psychological implications of the computer have produced a literature that is primarily polemic and, in any case, not measurement oriented with respect to identifying basic issues and central attitudes. In this article, measurement procedures including the development and testing of the Cybernetics Attitude Scale (the computer's psychological effect in each of 10 sectors of society) and a factor analytic study of the collected data are presented. The article concludes with a discussion of the research implications of the factor analytic findings and the ways in which these findings illumine the problem of the meaning of the computer for the individual and society.