Development and evaluation of a scale for measuring practitioners' attitudes toward computer applications

摘要

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a scale designed to measure practitioners' general attitudes toward clinical computer applications — the Practitioners' Attitudes Toward Computer Applications Scale (PATCAS). The PATCAS contains 35 items linked to seven structural variables. Results of a study of 227 practicing psychologists indicated that the PATCAS showed several desirable properties. Internal consistency was satisfactory for the seven PATCAS scales and excellent for the total score, and intercorrelations among the seven scales were moderately high. In terms of validity, the PATCAS was found to be related to several measures of computer use. Finally, scores on the PATCAS were found to be related to practitioner characteristics including sex (men's attitudes toward computers were generally more favorable than women's), theoretical orientation, and work setting. Suggestions are made for appropriate applications of the PATCAS.