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Verhalen over technologie ; Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar de acceptatie van nieuwe technologieën door de jaren heen

Kip, Hanneke (2011) Verhalen over technologie ; Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar de acceptatie van nieuwe technologieën door de jaren heen.

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Abstract:The goal of this qualitative study is to make an inventory of facilitating and inhibiting factors that contribute to the acceptance and use of technologies by the elderly. These factors are showed in a describing way, and they are connected to two different classifications of elderly people. The data is collected by means of semi-structured interviews, conducted of a research group consisting of elderly people with an age ranging from 65 to 80. This study used a group of 30 respondents with a mean age of 72,5 and a standard deviation of 4,6. The facilitating and inhibiting factors with accompanying subfactors were found in these interviews by means of the grounded theory approach. The research group is characterized in two ways, of which the first one is based on speed of adoption. This classification not only focuses on the present but also on the past. The second characterization is based on six different lifestyles and only focuses on the present. After the facilitating and inhibiting factors were mapped, they were connected to the different groups of elderly people. This approach made it possible to make comparisons between different groups to show which factors are important for a smooth acceptance of technologies by specific groups of elderly people. Based on found results some conclusions can be drawn. Convenience is the most mentioned facilitating factor, and the same goes for the inhibiting factor Uselessness. Intrinsic factors like Personality are more important for persons who are fast with the acceptance of new technologies, while external factors like Persons and Environment have more influence on members of the slower groups. The analysis of the lifestyles made clear that the factors found for the three fastest lifestyles correspond to some of the most important factors found for the fast groups. The same goes for the slower lifestyles. The three individual were found to be the fastest, and they mentioned the facilitating factors Personality and Necessity more often. The three slowest groups were categorized as collective, and all mentioned the inhibiting factor Personality. Convenience and Uselessness are again very important for all groups. Because of the qualitative nature of this study and the emphasis on the narrative approach, some new and relatively unknown factors were discovered. These factors are barely or not at all mentioned in existing research. This study can also facilitate the creation of interventions focused on the acceptance of technology by the elderly, because the important factors for different groups of elderly are mentioned. Because of this, interventions will be able to be more tailored to the intended target groups
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60956
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