Are Future Psychologists Willing to Accept and Use a Humanoid Robot in Their Practice? Italian and English Students’ Perspective

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Daniela Conti¹  Allegra Cattani²  Santo Di Nuovo³  Alessandro Di Nuovo¹ 

[1] Faculty of Arts, Engineering and Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom;School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom;Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania

关键词: socially assistive robotics;    cross-cultural analysis;    humanoid robot;    psychological practice;    UTAUT model;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02138

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Despite general scepticism from care professionals, social robotics research is providing evidence of successful application in education and rehabilitation in clinical psychology practice. In this article, we investigate the cultural influences of English and Italian psychology students in the perception of usefulness and intention to use a robot as an instrument for future clinical practice and, secondly, the modality of presentation of the robot by comparing oral vs. video presentation. To this end, we surveyed 158 Italian and British-English psychology students after an interactive demonstration using a humanoid robot to evaluate the social robot’s acceptance and use. The Italians were positive, while the English were negative toward the perceived usefulness and intention to use the robot in psychological practice in the near future. However, most English and Italian respondents felt they did not have the necessary abilities to make good use of the robot. We concluded that it is necessary to provide psychology students with further knowledge and practical skills regarding social robotics, which could facilitate the adoption and use of this technology in clinical settings.

【 授权许可】

CC BY