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Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations
Published on: September 16, 2015
Coping with uncertainty in college: a TMIM-based study on incoming first-year university students
Jiaxin Lin1, Manyu Liao2, Zhuowen Feng1
1College of Literature and News Communication, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China.
Frontiers in Psychology
|July 13, 2026
Summary
First-year students manage pre-enrollment uncertainty by seeking information, influenced by anxiety and their expectations. New media literacy and information overload shape this process.
Area of Science:
- Communication
- Psychology
- Education
Background:
- Incoming university students face significant pre-enrollment uncertainty.
- The Theory of Motivated Information Management (TMIM) provides a framework for understanding information seeking behavior.
- Cognitive appraisals like anxiety, outcome expectancy, and efficacy expectancy play crucial roles in managing uncertainty.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how Chinese first-year university students manage pre-enrollment uncertainty through information seeking, guided by TMIM.
- To investigate the moderating roles of information overload and consumption-oriented new media literacy.
- To integrate these factors into the TMIM framework for a comprehensive understanding.
Main Methods:
- Survey data collected from 417 incoming first-year Chinese university students.
- Structural equation modeling (SEM) used for data analysis.
- Analysis focused on the relationships between uncertainty discrepancy, anxiety, expectancies, information seeking, information overload, and new media literacy.
Main Results:
- Uncertainty discrepancy positively predicted anxiety.
- Anxiety was associated with outcome expectancy (positive) and efficacy expectancy (negative).
- Information overload strengthened the link between anxiety and outcome expectancy; new media literacy had differentiated moderating effects on expectancies and information seeking.
Conclusions:
- Incoming students' information-seeking behavior is complex, influenced by psychological states and cognitive appraisals.
- Information overload and new media literacy significantly moderate the information management process for students.
- The study extends TMIM by incorporating information overload and new media literacy, offering insights into uncertainty management in digital environments.
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