Relationship between psychological suzhi and internet addiction among chinese college students

Purpose Despite concerns about the effect of internet addiction, little is known about how psychological suzhi impacts the internet addiction of college students. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between psychological suzhi and internet addiction among college students. Design/methodology/approach Using the college student psychological suzhi scale and internet addiction test, 2,070 college students from 11 universities in North China, East China, South China and Southwest China were tested. Findings The detection rate of internet addiction in this college sample of students was 18.8%. There was a significant negative correlation between students’ psychological suzhi and internet addiction (r = −0.408, p < 0.01). Hierarchical regression analysis showed that adaptability and individuality in psychological suzhi significantly negatively predicted college students’ internet addiction tendency (p < 0.001). Originality/value This study is the first to show a relationship between psychological suzhi and internet addiction in college students. In detail, the adaptability and individuality of college students’ psychological suzhi are protective factors related to internet addiction. The results also suggested that the authors can prevent and intervene in internet addiction by modifying college students’ adaptability and individuality.

Perceived Formal and Informal Sanctions in Deterring Cybercrime in a College Sample

The threat of formal sanctions is the criminal justice system’s primary tool to discourage online and offline deviant behavior. Yet, scholars have expressed strong concerns about the effectiveness of formal sanctions to deter cybercrime. Even more surprising is the sparsity of deterrence research in the cybercrime literature. This study examined the effects of perceived formal and informal sanctions on digital piracy, computer hacking, and online harassment in a large American college sample. Perceived formal sanctions was negatively correlated with software piracy, media piracy, password cracking, accessing accounts, sending mean messages privately online, and posting mean messages. Higher levels of perceived formal sanctions did not significantly predict any form of cybercrime, however, when controlling for informal sanctions and deviant peer associations. The implications of the findings for our ability to deter deviant behavior in cyberspace are explored.

The Bad Test-Taker Identity

There is widespread belief that test-taking ability is an influential component of academic success distinct from domain knowledge and comprehension. Most of today’s college students took many more tests over the course of their primary and secondary education than students of previous generations, and also participated in regular training to strengthen their test-taking skills. Although such training and experience should equalize students on any isolated test-taking ability, the present study reveals that the vast majority students in a college sample believe that students can simply be bad test-takers. Moreover, the majority of students believe that they themselves are bad test-takers, a perspective which is maladaptive in light of relevant research. Accordingly, the data show that students who identify in this way also tend to possess other maladaptive academic attitudes.

Re-conceptualizing Machiavellianism and Social-Cognitive Skills

Machiavellianism is presumed to encompass advanced social-cognitive skill, but research has generally suggested that Machiavellian individuals are rather deficient in social-cognitive skill. However, previous research on the matter has been limited to measures of (a) Machiavellianism that are unidimensional and saturated with both antagonism and disinhibition and measures (b) only one type of social-cognitive skill. Using a large college sample ( N = 461), we examined how various dimensions of Machiavellianism relate to two types of social-cognitive skill: person-perception skill and general social prediction skill. Consistent with some prior theorizing, the planful dimension of Machiavellianism was positively related to both person-perception and general social prediction skills; antagonistic dimensions of Machiavellianism were negatively related to both skills; either agentic or cynical dimensions of Machiavellianism were generally unrelated to both skills. Overall, the current evidence suggests a complicated relationship between Machiavellianism and social-cognitive skill because Machiavellianism encompasses features that blend deficiency, proficiency, and average levels of social-cognitive skills.