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The basic psychological features of online environments shape how people and groups behave in those realms. But that's only half the story. Online behavior will always be determined by how those features interact with the characteristics of the people in those environments. A variety of systems might be useful in classifying those characteristics. We might focus on specific features of the user, such as the person's computer skills, goals for using the internet, demographic characteristics (age, social-economic status, occupation, etc). There also are several comprehensive theoretical systems in psychology that could help us examine how various personality types behave in cyberspace - for example, the Myers-Briggs system or Guilford's personality model.
In this book I've described cyberspace as a psychological extension of the individual's intrapsychic world. It is a psychological space that can stimulate the processes of projection, acting out, and transference - that can alter sensory experience and can even create a dream-like state of mind. A theory that specializes in understanding the intrapsychic world and the various dimensions of consciousness would be especially useful in understanding this "person" side of the person/environment interaction.
Psychoanalytic theory fits that bill very well. It contains a very rich, comprehensive model of personality types resulting from 100 years of research and clinical practice. Nancy McWilliams' book Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (Guilford Press, 1994) is an excellent resource that summarizes and integrates the various psychoanalytic concepts about major personality types. For each of these types, McWilliams explores the characteristic affects, temperment, developmental organization, defenses, adaptive processes, object relations, and transference/countertransference phenomena. The personality styles discussed are:
psychopathic (antisocial)
narcissistic
schizoid
paranoid
depressive and manic (impulsive)
masochistic (self-defeating)
obsessive and compulsive
hysterical (histrionic)
dissociative
collection for CE credit.
Click here for information
The basic psychological features of online environments shape how people and groups behave in those realms. But that's only half the story. Online behavior will always be determined by how those features interact with the characteristics of the people in those environments. A variety of systems might be useful in classifying those characteristics. We might focus on specific features of the user, such as the person's computer skills, goals for using the internet, demographic characteristics (age, social-economic status, occupation, etc). There also are several comprehensive theoretical systems in psychology that could help us examine how various personality types behave in cyberspace - for example, the Myers-Briggs system or Guilford's personality model.
In this book I've described cyberspace as a psychological extension of the individual's intrapsychic world. It is a psychological space that can stimulate the processes of projection, acting out, and transference - that can alter sensory experience and can even create a dream-like state of mind. A theory that specializes in understanding the intrapsychic world and the various dimensions of consciousness would be especially useful in understanding this "person" side of the person/environment interaction.
Psychoanalytic theory fits that bill very well. It contains a very rich, comprehensive model of personality types resulting from 100 years of research and clinical practice. Nancy McWilliams' book Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (Guilford Press, 1994) is an excellent resource that summarizes and integrates the various psychoanalytic concepts about major personality types. For each of these types, McWilliams explores the characteristic affects, temperment, developmental organization, defenses, adaptive processes, object relations, and transference/countertransference phenomena. The personality styles discussed are:
psychopathic (antisocial)
narcissistic
schizoid
paranoid
depressive and manic (impulsive)
masochistic (self-defeating)
obsessive and compulsive
hysterical (histrionic)
dissociative
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