A Comparative Study On The Interpersonal Trust In Internet Communication And Real-life Communication Of College Students

On the basis of developing and revising the Real-life Interpersonal Trust Scale for College Students and the Internet Interpersonal Trust Scale for College Students, this study compared the difference between real-life interpersonal trust and internet interpersonal trust of college students, and explored the relation of real-life interpersonal trust, internet interpersonal trust, interpersonal relationship and personality of college students. The results were as follows:1.The development and revision of the scale:The Real-life Interpersonal Trust Scale for College Students contained 5 factors through three times of factor analysis: reliability, predictability, sentiment experiencing, conversation trust and social role. This scale consisted of 24 items. Concordance coefficient (Cronbachɑcoefficient) of the scale was 0.823, and split-half reliability was 0.719. The Real-life Interpersonal Trust Scale for College Students was tested to be reliable and valid enough to be appliable to measure the real-life interpersonal trust.The Internet Interpersonal Trust Scale for College Students contained 4 factors through exploratory factor analysis: reliability, conversation trust, uncertainty and confidence. This scale consisted of 25 items. Concordance coefficient (Cronbachɑcoefficient) of the scale was 0.853,and split-half reliability was 0.734. The Internet Interpersonal Trust Scale for College Students was tested to be reliable and valid enough to be appliable to measure the internet interpersonal trust.2. The assessment of the two scales:This study used the Undergraduates' Basic Information Inventory, the Real-life Interpersonal Trust Scale for College Students, the Internet Interpersonal Trust Scale for College Students, the Interpersonal Relationships Questionnaire and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to test 462 college students, the results were as follows:(1) The characteristics of interpersonal trust of college students in internet communication and real-life communication.The interpersonal trust of college students in internet communication was good. The factors of reliability, conversation trust and confidence was significantly related to real-life interpersonal trust. The interpersonal trust of college students in real-life communication was not good. The factors of reliability, predictability, conversation trust and social role was significantly related to internet interpersonal trust.In internet interpersonal trust: Female students had significant higher scores than male students; there was no significant difference between college students with and without siblings; students majored in science had significant higher scores than that in art; there was no significant difference between college students with different internet age and in different grade. In real-life interpersonal trust: there was no significant difference between male students and female students, students with and without siblings, students majored in art and that in science; there was significant difference between college students with different internet age and in different grade.(2) The relation of interpersonal trust, interpersonal relationship and personality of college students:Real-life interpersonal trust, interpersonal relationship was positively related to Scale N, P and was negatively related to Scale E, L; internet interpersonal trust was not significantly related to each personality scale; real-life interpersonal trust was positively related to internet interpersonal trust; internet interpersonal trust was not significantly related to interpersonal relationship.On real-life interpersonal trust, interpersonal relationship, internet interpersonal trust, and Scale E, P was significant anticipation factors; On internet interpersonal trust, real-life interpersonal trust was a significant anticipation factor.