Psychological applications on the internet: A discipline on the threshold of a new millennium

The rapid developments in computers and information technology over the past decade has had an impact on psychology, which has moved in this context from local computer applications to network applications that take advantage of the Internet. This article critically reviews various psychological applications in use on the Internet, with special emphasis given to their promises and advantages as well as to their shortcomings and problems. Specifically, 10 types of psychological Internet applications are reviewed: information resources on psychological concepts and issues; self-help guides; psychological testing and assessment; help in deciding to undergo therapy; information about specific psychological services; single-session psychological advice through e-mail or c-bulletin boards; ongoing personal counseling and therapy through e-mail; real-time counseling through chat, web telephony, and videoconferencing; synchronous and asynchronous support groups, discussion groups, and group counseling; and psychological and social research. Following a discussion of ethical and related concerns, a call is voiced for intensive research and international brainstorming.     

Web2.0环境中顾客参与的实现型快乐感形成机制

随着以用户间交互为特征的Web 2.0理念的深入发展,顾客期望借助互联网参与到价值的生产与创造过程中,以期通过自我潜能发挥和自我价值展示寻求获得一种有别于享乐型快乐感的实现型快乐感.以往顾客参与研究大多关注其经济利益、如何管理、影响因素、获得的实际利益,而对于顾客参与过程中的心理机制和参与后的心理收获研究不多.本研究以互联网为背景,从顾客视角出发,科学采用实验、实证等多种方法,并尝试采用生理仪器(如多导仪、脑电核磁共振仪等)采集顾客行为和生理的客观数据,利用自我决定理论对顾客参与过程的心理反应和参与后的心理收获进行系统探讨,构建顾客参与过程的心理动态模型.     

Illusion of control in Internet users and college students.

When people try to obtain a desired event and this outcome occurs independently of their behavior, they often think that they are controlling its occurrence. This is known as the illusion of control, and it is the basis for most superstitions and pseudosciences. However, most experiments demonstrating this effect had been conducted many years ago and almost always in the controlled environment of the psychology laboratory and with psychology students as subjects. Here, we explore the generality of this effect and show that it is still today a robust phenomenon that can be observed even in the context of a very simple computer program that users try to control (and believe that they are controlling) over the Internet. Understanding how robust and general this effect is, is a first step towards eradicating irrational and pseudoscientific thinking.     

Internet versus paper‐and‐pencil survey methods in psychological experiments: Equivalence testing of participant responses to health‐related messages

Despite experiments being increasingly conducted over the Internet, few studies have tested whether such experiments yield data equivalent to traditional methods' data. In the current study, data obtained via a traditional sampling method of undergraduate psychology students completing a paper‐and‐pencil survey (N = 107) were compared with data obtained from an Internet‐administered survey to a sample of self‐selected Internet‐users (N = 94). The data examined were from a previous study that had examined the persuasiveness of health‐related messages. To the extent that Internet data would be based on a sample at least as representative as data derived from a traditional student sample, it was expected that the two methodologies would yield equivalent data. Using formal tests of equivalence on persuasion outcomes, hypotheses of equivalence were generally supported. Additionally, the Internet sample was more diverse demographically than the student sample, identifying Internet samples as a valid alternative for future experimental research.     

Comparing the results of laboratory and World-Wide Web samples on the determinants of female attractiveness

The Internet provides a new method to obtain subjects. Arguments supporting the use of the Internet as an experimental medium include the ease of data collection, limited resources needed, and ability to gain a sample more representative of the population. However, it has not been demonstrated that the Internet provides the conditions necessary to yield valid data. This paper compares results from experiments conducted over the Internet and in a laboratory. Correlating the means from the Internet samples to the laboratory samples on important interactions yielded values near 1.0, indicating that the two data sets are driven by the same psychological variables. Further evidence of the validity of these Web studies comes from regression analyses. However, more studies of this sort are needed to further identify what types of experiments may be validly conducted over the Internet.     

Application of color displays to problems in the undergraduate laboratory

Some topics in psychology are difficult to master without dynamic visual displays. This paper describes a few applications of computer-driven color graphics displays in an undergraduate laboratory in neuropsychology. The paper includes the advantages, disadvantages, and cost of this approach, as well as student reactions and evaluations.     

125 years of the American Journal of Psychology: a historical overview

The American journal of Psychology celebrates 125 years of publication this year. From its inception, the Journal has attempted to record and communicate the results of research conducted in laboratories of psychology. It has also provided its readers with laboratory plans and designs for apparatus for research and demonstrations and described experimental procedures to facilitate the conduct of research. Its attention to reviews of books over a wide range of psychological topics and its inclusion of articles that provide historical perspectives on the development of psychology and its concerns broaden the context in which laboratory research is carried out. This brief overview of the Journal's history offers a perspective on the role of the Journal in, and its contributions to, the development of scientific psychology.     

“So wat do u want to wrk on 2day?”: The Ethical Implications of Online Counseling

Internet counseling is an area of rapid expansion in the field of applied psychology. Internet counseling or psychotherapy involves a variety of activities such as psychoeducation, individual therapy, and automated self-help interventions delivered via the Internet. Although other professional societies such as the National Association of Social Workers, the American Counseling Association, and the National Board of Certified Counselors have tackled the issues of Internet counseling ethics head on, the American Psychological Association has been conspicuously absent from this debate. Yet online therapy clinics are operating, and intervention efficacy is being studied. This discussion provides an overview of online counseling modalities, details the ethical concerns associated with each, and offers suggestions for the ethical practice of online counseling.     

中国青少年互联网心理与行为研究及展望

本文回顾了近十年来中国青少年互联网心理与行为的研究成果,从研究主题的角度进行了聚类分析,并与国外青少年互联网心理与行为研究进行了对比。发现中国青少年互联网心理与行为研究主要聚焦于网络成瘾方面,同时也在网络欺负、网络亲社会行为、网络自我表露等领域有较为丰富的研究成果。现有研究存在研究领域相对狭窄、研究内容深度不足、研究方法较为单一等问题。结合青少年互联网使用特点和时代发展与变迁,本文从大数据、新媒体、电子竞技三个方面展望了未来中国青少年互联网心理与行为研究的方向,对互联网时代下的心理学研究具有理论和实践的启发意义。     

Children, adolescents, and the internet: a new field of inquiry in developmental psychology

With this special section on children, adolescents, and the Internet, we survey the state of a new field of inquiry in developmental psychology. This field is important because developmentalists need to understand how children and adolescents live in a new, massive, and complex virtual universe, even as they carry on their lives in the real world. We have selected six empirical articles to showcase various aspects of child and adolescent development in this virtual universe. These articles reflect three major themes of this new field: communication on the Internet; cognitive development, academic achievement, and the Internet; and adolescents in a globalized Internet world. These three sections reflect one of our major editorial goals: to sample various relevant aspects of development as they relate to the Internet. The selection of articles reflects a second editorial goal: to sample both the positive and negative aspects of the virtual world in which children and adolescents are increasingly living. Another of our editorial goals was to sample as large an age range as possible. We also utilized a very broad definition of development. Last but not least, we sought out and found methodological diversity.     

Linked Gopher and World-Wide Web services for the American Psychological Society and Hanover College Psychology Department

The Internet is a vast and unorganized collection of information, making it difficult to find desired information. This paper describes the World-Wide Web (WWW) pages and Gopher directories designed to provide easy access to psychological resources set up by both the American Psychological Society (APS) and a college psychology department. The types of resources found at these sites include links to APS job listings, electronic journals, and psychology departments with Internet directories of information. One particular resource that is highlighted concerns the development of WWW tutorials in sensation and perception. These tutorials are offered as examples of how the WWW can be used to supplement texts and classroom instruction.     

Religious factors in moral decision-making: Towards an integrated,socio-cultural,developmental, model

Abstract

For far too long, developmental approaches in the psychology of religion have paid insufficient attention to the richness and variety of social and cultural factors in human development and their relationship to religious belief, practice, belonging, identity, and world views, and often, related framing of spiritual questions, concerns, and disciplines. If scholars in the psychology of human development and psychology of religion have offered critical appraisals of the shortcomings of the neo-Piagetian, cognitive-developmental models that have dominated the scientific literature, and offered promising contributions and needed correctives to the omissions of cognitive-developmental approaches, the field is still in need of an integrated, socio-cultural developmental approach to human development and religious functioning. In this article we propose one way of moving toward a more integrated approach in these fields, with special attention to the advantages of such an effort in the study of religious elements in moral decision-making and moral development.     

The mapping of Spanish social psychology through its conferences: a bibliometric perspective

This study of papers gathered from the proceedings presented at Spanish social psychology conferences explores the use of bibliometrics for studying scientific disciplines. A reference database of all the papers included in the conference proceedings of events held from 1983 to 2000 was generated and classified by thematic area, paper type and author institutional affiliation. The references were laid out on contingency tables and mapped with correspondence analysis. The results show that there is a growing number of co-authored papers and a predominance of empirical over theoretical paper types. Some institutions have a higher concentration of theoretical papers while others work mostly in the areas of organizational and health psychology. In terms of empirical papers, there is a tendency towards generating more qualitative-based studies over the span of time captured by this work. There are also a number of papers written about such areas as cultural psychology that points to the emergence of an interest in critical social psychology. Concluding remarks underline the role of conferences and scientific meetings as an important indicator of the dynamic development of a scientific discipline.     

THE IMPORTANCE OF INSTRUMENT MAKERS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: THE CASE OF ALFRED BINET AT THE SORBONNE LABORATORY

The importance of instrument firms in the development of psychology, and science in general, should not be underestimated since it would not have been possible for various leading psychologists at the turn of the twentieth century to conduct certain experiments without the assistance of instrument makers, as is often the case today. To illustrate the historical perspective introduced here, the example of Alfred Binet is taken, as he is an interesting case of a psychologist working in close collaboration with various French instrument designers of the time. The objective of this article is twofold: (1) to show the considerable activity carried out by early psychologists to finalize new laboratory instruments in order to develop their research projects; (2) to reassess the work of a major figure in French psychology through his activity as a designer of precision instruments. The development of these new instruments would certainly have been difficult without the presence in Paris of numerous precision instrument manufacturers such as Charles Verdin, Otto Lund, Henri Collin, and Lucien Korsten, on whom Binet successively called in order to develop his projects in the field of experimental psychology.     

Early applied psychology between essentialism and pragmatism; the dynamics of theory, tools, and clients

The indebtedness of applied psychology to classical laboratory psychology is much greater than is usually assumed. It manifests itself both in the initial use of laboratory apparatus and diagnostic tools and in the conception of vocational fitness as a matter of the same elementary mental functions as those measured in the laboratory. In America this psychological essentialism soon gave way to a more pragmatic approach, aimed at prediction of success. As the history of the psychotechnical movement shows, this transition occurred on the European continent much later. The disparity is explained by differences in the primary audience of the pioneers of practice at both sides of the Atlantic. The development of occupational psychology is used as a case of transition in investigative style in general.     

The dimensions of computing

Computers have become ubiquitous in the psychology laboratory over the last two decades. This paper is an examination of the laboratory computer’s evolution; general evolutionary principles are used to predict future changes.     

Computer problems: are some people jinxed?

To examine the popular notion that some people are 'jinxed' when using computers 111 undergraduate psychology students were 'jinxed' whilst trying to complete a task over the Internet. No evidence was found to support that notion.     

A case study report on integrating statistics, problem-based learning, and computerized data analysis

This paper addresses the pedagogical advantages of teaching statistics not as a stand-alone subject in itself, but rather as a topic integrated into teaching hands-on, problem-based computer-assisted data analysis. For over 10 years, such a two-term course has been taught at Drexel University in lieu of the usual statistics courses formerly taken by undergraduate majors in psychology and sociology. One virtue of the courses as currently implemented is that students seem to learn not just how to perform statistical procedures but how to apply them on their own.     

The purposes of laboratory experimentation and the virtues of deliberate artificiality

Critics of the laboratory experiment have maintained that artificiality (the intrusion into the experiment of “unrealistic” conditions) vitiates any possibility of generalizability beyond the confines of the laboratory. It is argued here that such artificiality in laboratory experimentation is a defect or flaw only within the context of verification and may be a distinct virtue in the context of discovery. Indeed it is argued that social psychological experiments may not be artificial enough when contrasted with the most fruitful experiments in the natural sciences. One purpose of an experiment may be to maximize artificiality deliberately so as to discover regularities that do not presently obtain under the “real” conditions outside the laboratory but which are capable of existing. When such observed laboratory regularities produce potentially beneficial outcomes, an attempt may be made to create the specific artificial laboratory conditions outside the laboratory to benefit mankind. This logic, exceedingly common in the natural sciences, has been virtually ignored in social psychology, even in the laboratory experiment, in favor of “realistic” reproduction of existing or reasonably plausible situations. Theoretical benefits of this additional modality of experimentation are illustrated by two recent developments in psychology.