The Relationship Between Personal Attribution Tendency And Pathological Internet Use In College Students:The Role Of Internet Use Preference And Reinforcement Sensitivity

This study aimed to explore the relationship among personal attribution tendency,pathological internet use,internet use preference,reinforcement sensitivity,by surveying 2000 college students from two universities in Harbin and Tangshan City with Multiple Dimensions Multiple Attribution Causal Scale,Chinese Internet Addiction Scale,Internet Use Preference Questionnaire,Behavior Inhibition System/Behavior Activation System Scale.The results showed that:(1)There were significant gender differences in college students' interpersonal external attribution,and the interaction between grade and origin was significant.Interpersonal internal attribution had significant main effect of only child.(2)There were significant gender differences in college students' pathological internet use and the main effect of grade and only child was significant.(3)Internet information preference had significant main effect of grade,origin and only child;internet transaction preference had significant main effect of grade and only child,the interaction between grade and only child was also significant;internet entertainment preferences had significant main effect of origin and only child.(4)There were significant gender differences in college students' reinforcement sensitivity;sensitivity to reward had significant main effect of grade and origin;sensitivity to punishment had significant interaction between grade and origin.(5)There was a significant positive correlation between interpersonal external attribution and pathological internet use,but no significant correlation between interpersonal internal attribution and pathological internet use;interpersonal external attribution and pathological Internet use were positively correlated with internet social preference,internet entertainment preference and internet information preference;reinforcement sensitivity was positively correlated with college students' pathological internet use,interpersonal attribution tendency and internet use preferences.(6)Internet social preference and internet entertainment preference mediated the relationship between interpersonal external attribution and pathological internet use.(7)Reinforcement sensitivity moderated the relationship between internet social preferences,internet entertainment preferences and pathological internet use.Specifically,under the high level of reinforcement sensitivity,internet social preference and internet entertainment preference had significant predictive effect on pathological internet use,while under the low level of reinforcement sensitivity,internet social preference and internet entertainment preference had no significantpredictive effect on pathological internet use.