The Psychology of Cyberspace - Home Page/Table of Contents

John Suler, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Rider University - suler@voicenet.com

The purpose of this online hypertext book (web site) is to explore the psychological dimensions of environments created by computers and online networks. It is intended as an evolving conceptual framework for understanding the various psychological components of cyberspace and how people react to and behave within it. This framework is the basis for my ongoing research on what I call "the psychology of cyberspace" - or simply "cyberpsychology." I hope it will serve as a useful framework for other researchers as well.

Anyone is welcome to contribute ideas and resources to this ongoing project. If you have feedback on the articles here, or if you know of any information, papers, web sites, etc. available on the internet that can be linked to this web site, please let me know. I would like to see this site become an evolving "nucleus" or "community" of research, information, and links for those who are interested in the psychology of cyberspace. This online hypertext book was created in January of 1996 and will continue to expand over the months to come.

Below is the table of contents for the various sections and articles in this book. Clicking on a bullet will produce a pop-up window containing an abstract of that article. Some browsers may not support this feature. However, there also is an article and page index that contains summaries of all the articles as well as their date of publication and revision. This book also contains a subject index similar to those in hardcopy books and a search engine. All links on this home page produce a pop-up window that is placed on top of this page. To the right of each of the 6 sections below, the large graphic is a link to the part of the overview article that summarizes that section.

\|\| Overview and "Guided Tour" \|\|	.
1. The Basic Psychological Qualities of Cyberspace Cyberspace as a psychological space The basic psychological features of cyberspace Networks as "mind" and "self" The psychology of avatars and graphical space Cyberspace as dream world The black hole of cyberspace Online lingo Internet Demographics
2. The Psychology of the Individual in Cyberspace Transference to one's computer and cyberspace Identity managment in cyberspace Regressive behavior in cyberspace Online gender-switching Personality types in cyberspace Adolescents in cyberspace Unique roles in cyberspace Addiction to computers and cyberspace Wizards: The heart of an online community Y2K and apocalyptic thinking On being a "god"
3. The Psychology of Cyberspace Relationships In-person versus cyberspace relationships Transient and long term online relationships E-mail communication and relationships Transference among people online Cyberspace romances Subtlety in multimedia chat Psychotherapy in cyberspace Avatar psychotherapy Computerized psychotherapy
4. Group Dynamics in Cyberspace Social psychology of online groups and communities Developmental stages of mailing lists Making virtual communities work Early history of an online community Wizards: The heart of an online community Therapy and support groups in cyberspace Unique groups in cyberspace TextTalk: Communicating with typed text in chat rooms A simple decision-making method for e-mail groups Group games using avatars The Geezer Brigade: Steps in studying an online group Managing deviant behavior in online communities
5. Research Methods in Cyberpsychology Publishing online Intensive case studies One of Us: Participant observation research Steps in studying an online group: The Geezer Brigade
6. The Palace Study This subsection of The Psychology of Cyberspace is a collection of articles about my ongoing, intensive case study of the online multimedia community known as the "Palace." Combining features of MOOs and chat rooms, the Palace is a visual and spatial environment where members interact with text, sounds, and graphical representations of themselves called "avatars."

Article and Page Index
a list of the articles on this site
by date of publication/revision Subject Index
alphabetized list of subjects and
terms appearing in the articles Search Engine
search for key words
in the articles

Other Cyberpsychology Resources on the Web

Download The Psychology of Cyberspace

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Come over to the Psychology of Cyberspace Forum located on the Behavior Online web site.
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