Investigating the Information Seeking Anxiety and its Relationship with the Thinking Styles: A Case Study

Authors

Sajedeh Akbarzadeh, Department of Medical Library and Information Science, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranFollow
Maryam Kazerani(corresponding author), Department of Medical Library and Information Science, Faculty of ParamedicalSciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.kazerani.m@gmail.com.(Corresponding Author).Follow
Maryam Shekofteh, Department of Medical Library and Information Science, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranFollow
Parisa Naseri, Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of ParamedicalSciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.Follow

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the present research was to investigate the information seeking anxiety of postgraduate students its relationship with the thinking styles.

Methodology: This applied research was conducted through survey-descriptive method. The research population included 315 postgraduate students at The School of Allied Medial Sciences of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The research samples consisted of 173 postgraduate students studying during 2015-2016 academic years. The research instrument was a questionnaire of information seeking anxiety and the thinking styles.

Findings: The results showed that the extent of information seeking anxiety among most of the students was at the average level. There was a significant difference between both genders in relation with the anxiety barriers related to information resources, and anxiety barriers related to the computer and Internet. The hierarchical thinking style had the highest GPA of 19.23 while the internal thinking style had the lowest GPA of 15.8 which made this style to be in the 12^th rank. There was a negative significant relationship between the judiciary thinking style and the information seeking anxiety (p=0.02, r=-0.16). There was a positive significant correlation between the local thinking with the information seeking anxiety (p=0.02, r=-0.17), between the conservative thinking style and information seeking anxiety (p=0.001, r=0.31), and between the monarchic thinking style and the information seeking anxiety (p=0.01, r=0.18).There was a significant difference between various majors in terms of the barriers related to the computer and Internet (p=0.001, t=4.24), barriers related to the library (p=0.001, t=3.17) and the total information seeking anxiety (p=0.02, t=2.36).

Conclusion: It is a need to revisit the librarie's conducts and the information resources .The students had to identify the factors in the information seeking anxiety and their thinking styles so that they could reduce the extent of their information seeking anxiety.