Background and Objectives: There has been a long dispute among researchers in the field of information science and epistemology about information behaviors and cognitive aspects of individuals’ behavior. Also, one of the important arguments for using information technology to search for information is that these behaviors are influenced by the cognitive and behavioral aspects of individuals. Therefore, one of the important factors that play an essential role in the information-seeking behavior of individuals is psychological factors. Since no systematic review of information-seeking behavior in Iran has been conducted so far, and also considering the importance and advantage of using a systematic review to review background studies, the present study was an attempt to identify the psychological factors affecting information-seeking behavior. Therefore, this study aims to identify the psychological factors affecting the information-seeking behavior of information users by employing a systematic review.
Methodology: In the present study, a systematic method was used as the research method. To investigate the research process, the framework suggested by Arksey & O’Malley (2005) was used as the main guide. This framework includes a set of structured and detailed guidelines for designing, implementing, and reporting results in systematic review studies. These steps include:
The first step was to ask a research question. At this stage, the researcher addresses two questions. The second step was to identify studies in full text related to information-seeking behavior. The third step was to select articles. The primary criterion for entering the study was the relationship between articles and psychological factors in information-seeking behavior in the two databases of the Scientific Information Database and Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Comprehensive Portal of Human Sciences. The fourth step was to extract data from selected articles. At this stage, all articles related to the selected topic were then transferred to the data extraction form based on Excel software, which was designed for the research. The fifth step was data collection, summarization, and reporting.
Findings: Finding showed out of 484 articles, 419 articles (including 322 articles unrelated to the purpose of this study, 28 articles lacking access to its full text, and 68 duplicate articles from both databases) were screened. Thus, 66 articles were screened. After reviewing the titles, this number of 29 articles were not in line with the research goal and were excluded from the review of this article. In the next step, 12 articles were published using the abstract. Finally, using the main text of the article, 25 articles were considered as the sample of the study. Also, findings showed that out of 25 articles, 20 articles were survey method, 3 articles were experimental and 2 articles were library type. Also, 18 articles, their statistical population was related to students, especially graduate students of different universities, 2 articles were related to high school students, 1 article was related to public library users, 1 article was related to clergy men and 1 article was related to faculty members. It is a university science. On the other hand, due to their nature, 2 articles did not have a statistical population. In general, three main components and 16 variables have been effective on information-seeking behavior. The main psychological factors include socio-educational factors (information counseling, and self-efficacy); cognitive factors were comprised of (thinking styles, critical thinking, creativity, curiosity and mental norms, motivational beliefs, cognitive styles, cognitive and metacognitive strategies, epistemological beliefs, self-directed learning and self-regulation); and finally the factors which result in mental and personality disorders (anxiety, excitement, and personality).
Discussion: Psychological factors seem to play an important role in the information-seeking behavior of information users in different societies, and Iranian society is no exception. However, in the published articles in the field of information-seeking behavior, more attention has been paid to information content and less attention has been paid to the psychological characteristics of individuals that originated from the human psyche and mind. In other words, information seekers' information-seeking behaviors rely heavily on psychological factors and personal characteristics.
One of the most important results of the present study is the identification of psychological factors that affect users' information-seeking behavior. This study also provides the opportunity for researchers to be more aware of the gaps in the field of psychological factors in one of the most important areas of information science and epistemology, which is information-seeking behavior in future research.  In general, given that psychological factors play an important role in the information-seeking behavior of information users, programmers must take important steps to improve and improve the quality of information-seeking by focusing on these factors.