虚拟社会心理学:现实,探索及意义

Virtual Social Psychology: Exploration and Implication

虚拟世界成为人类日常生活的一个重要组成部分,对人的思想、感情和行为产生不同程度的影响,对这些问题的研究逐渐成为社会心理学领域一个新的研究范式。我们认为,虚拟社会心理学研究的热点问题和重要结论主要关注人在虚拟世界中的自我表现,虚拟的人际关系、虚拟团体表现,及虚拟世界中的创造性合作。研究发现,虚拟社会心理学既有与现实世界一致的地方,也有很多独特的现象,有必要成为中国心理学家关注的一个新研究领域。

As an intergraded part of our daily lives virtual world has affected individual human thoughts, feelings and behavior in different degrees. How much social psychology could be benefited from these changes is an important question for social psychologists. This article summarizes the recent developments in the field of virtual social psychology, and identifies three questions that are promising for social psychological research, particular for cross-cultural comparisons. First, how is online self-presentation different than that in face-to-face communication, and how online users perceive other users＇ offline identity？ Second, how much social psychological phenomena about online interpersonal relationships such as the online romantic relationships, online friendship, cyber bullying, and social presence in Virtual Places, different from the off-line social psychology. Third, how much group performance and group creativity can be benefited from the new digital technologies. Implications for social psychology are discussed.