TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ VALUE-SEMANTIC ATTITUDES TO INFORMATION SECURITY: A STRUCTURAL AND CONTENT ANALYSIS
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Author(s): | Kulebyaev M. A., |
| Number of journal: | 2(75) | Date: | June 2026 |
| Annotation: | This article describes the results of a diagnostic study examining the value-semantic attitudes of students at a technical university to information security. The study is based on the theoretical premise that information security culture encompasses not only cognitive, technical, and behavioral components, but also a value-semantic component that acts as an internal regulator of safe behavior in the digital environment. The analysis focuses on two key parameters of value-semantic attitudes: external (normative- sanctioned) and internal (personal-semantic, reflexive) regulation. The author proposes a set of diagnostic methods, including Sh. Schwartz’s portrait value questionnaire, adapted to the information security context, a semantic differential for assessing the subjective significance of key concepts, and open-ended projective questions. The article presents the results of a pilot study conducted with 186 first-to fourthyear students at the Volga Region Institute (MADI branch). The author highlights the following significant results: empirical confirmation of the hypothesis regarding the dominance of external (instrumental, normative-sanctioned) value orientations in the field of information security among students of a technical university, with a weak expression of internal (personal-semantic) ones; the identification of a persistent gap between the verbal acceptance of information security norms and their internalization at the level of personal meanings; the development of a typology of value- semantic attitudes to information security (“normative- conformist”, “utilitarian-pragmatic”, “reflexivevalue”). An analysis of projective responses made it possible to record the dominance of motives for avoiding sanctions and instrumental protection over the ethical and value-based foundations of safe behavior. Based on the conducted diagnostics, the author concludes that the proposed diagnostic tool is an effective means for identifying the structure and content of students’ value-semantic attitudes to information security. The obtained data allow us to substantiate the need to move from an information-preventive model for the formation of an information security culture to an axiologically oriented one aimed at developing internal value-semantic foundations for safe behavior in the digital envir onment. | ||
| Keywords: | information security culture, value-semantic orientations, technical university students, diagnostics, axiological approach, digital security, professional education, value types, internalization, Volga Region Institute of MADI |
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| For citation: | Kulebyaev M. A. Technical university students’ value-semantic attitudes to information security: a structural and content analysis. Biznes. Obrazovanie. Pravo = Business. Education. Law. 2026;2(75):545—553. DOI: 10.25683/ VOLBI.2026.75.1586. |
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