A Path Analytic Study Of Individual Characteristics, Comput

A path model is developed and tested of individual difference variables as antecedents of computer anxiety and attitudes toward microcomputers among managers. The results of path analysis of questionnaire data gathered from 166 managers provide moderate support for the proposed model and the pattern of linkages specified among the variables. The results indicate that education is negatively related to computer anxiety and that external locus of control and math anxiety contribute to increased computer anxiety. Managers' age, education, external locus of control, and the feeling-thinking dimension of cognitive style are found to be directly related to attitudes toward microcomputers. However, math anxiety and external locus of control affect microcomputer attitudes only indirectly, through their impact on computer anxiety, which is the strongest predictor of negative attitudes toward microcomputers.