Prezentace k přednášce v předmětu Jinonické informační pondělky ze dne 8. 12. 2008.

1. Human Behavior in the
Virtual Environments
Alexander Voiskounsky
Faculty of Arts, Institute of Information
Studies & Librarianship,
Charles U, Prague
December 8, 2008

2. Alexander Voiskounsky:
Dept. of Psychology,
Moscow State
University
after M.V. Lomonosov
8/5 Mokhovaya st.,
Moscow 103009 Russia
E-mail:
vaemsu@gmail.com

3. Virtual Environments are usually called Cyberspace
“On a deep psychological level, people often experience their
computers… as an extension of their minds & personalities
– a ‘space’ that reflects their tastes, attitudes, and interests”
Archetypically, we tend to experience cyberspace as a
psychologically human space. Its visual & auditory context
resonates with our experience of the ‘real’ world; compared
to books or media, cyberspace is much more interactive; it
is a social space filled with other people.
Source: A.Barak & J.Suler, in:
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF CYBERSPACE, Cambridge U Press,
2008, 1-9

4. Internet development in Russia
1980s – National Center of Automatic Exchange
of Information (Acad. of Sciences): limited access
of selected representatives of several
organizations (including the MSU), with assisting
operators.
Late 1980’ – enthusiastic Unix programmers
worked on computer telecommunications.
August 1990 – connection to fuug.fi (Helsinki).
19 Sept. 1990 – registration of the domain .su
7 April 1994 – registration of the domain .ru

5. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF THE INTERNET
RESEARCH IN RUSSIA IS ASSOCIATED WITH VYGOTSKY
Vygotsky emphasized that the higher
mental processes (including cognition)
are of social origin, their development is
based on joint actions (especially within
the zone of proximal development, in the
child-adult dyad), on interpersonal
communication, and presumably on
mediated forms of behavior.

6. Theoretical background (continued)
Investigation of mediated forms of behavior is traditional for the
Vygotskian approach in (Russian) psychology.
The main mediating sources are, according to Vygotsky, physical
objects, signs and semiotic systems. Having been internalized (the term
common both for J.Piaget and L.Vygotsky), the signs and the methods of
handling the material objects form the higher psychological processes.
Thus, the individual psychic activity is actually a transformed joint
(usually child-adult) activity. As a result, external and internal (mental)
activities have the same origin and the same structure, as it is stressed by
A.N.Leontiev and by many other Vygotsky’s followers.

7. Theoretical background (continued)
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) originate from
highly developed semiotic (sign) systems that mediate and remediate[1]
almost every human practical or theoretical activity. Thus research in
the field is apt to the paradigm of Vygotskian approach in psychology.
The Internet and the WWW are probably the leading social technologies
within the ICT field. Research of the Internet/WWW usage patterns is
“traditional” within the Vygotskian approach in the Russian psychology.
[1] For remediation, see: Cole, M. (1996). Cultural Psychology: Once and Future
Discipline. Cambridge, MA and London: the Belknap Press of Harvard U Press.

8. Theoretical background (continued)
Computers and the ICT, being primarily semiotic
instruments, are externalized tools, and mediate and/or
remediate human psychic activity.
Unlike the developmental psychology approach,
externalization and not internalization is of primary
interest for anyone doing research of the Internet-mediated
forms of cognitive, communicative, or entertaining
activities. Progress in technologies means that we should
pay much more interest in processes of externalization.

9. CURRENT STATUS
OF THE CYBERPSYCHOLOGICAL
RESEARCH IN RUSSIA

10. The Russian segment of the Internet audience includes
residents of diverse countries – post-Soviets & born abroad.
In the 20th century there were at least four periods of
massive migration from Russia.
SpyLog (www.spylog.ru) tracker: approximately 45-50% of
navigations are made from outside Russia. For example,
Global Internet Statistics (by Language) estimates the
number of Americans who regularly access the Russian
segment of the Internet is over 100,000.
The Russian segment includes: Little Russia in San Antonio,
Texas (http://mars.uthsca.edu/Russian), as well as other
US/Israeli/Ukrainian/Australian sites, blogs, etc.

11. Reasons for Joining the Russian Internet
Community (aka RuNet):
Several ethnic_language_segments, presented
on the Internet, may be called ‘points of
attraction’. These are languages other than
English.
The Russian segment of the Internet is a ‘PoA’.
Method: discussions (F2F or mediated, but not
formal interviews) with non-Russian residents
(N=67), held between 1994 and 2001.

12. Reasons for Joining the Russian Internet community: cont’d
1. Lack/shortage of attractive web content in ethnic
languages
2. Poor command of official languages of post-Soviet states
by ethnic Russians, residing outside Russia
3. Poor literacy skills in their mother-tongues of non-
Russians in the post-Soviet states: they got formal
education in Russian.
4. Use of Arabic or Latin alphabets in some post-Soviet
states, instead of a modified Cyrillics. A peculiar
sociolinguistic situation: different generations speaking the
same language might soon have no common written
language.
5. Less populated countries: few forums, sites, blogs in
ethnic languages; more diverse views and more valuable
information may be found abroad. Residents of post-
Soviet states are better in Russian than in English.

13. Reasons for Joining the Russian Internet community: cont’d
6. Nostalgia towards older times: chatting from abroad to people
someone used to know earlier, or to new chatters; share
hobbies
7. Media in some post-Soviet states are even less independent
compared to the Russian media: residents of these countries
get access to less censured news
8. Politically-minded people keep group discussions; they blame
the communist regime, and/or the modern regimes
9. Creative people from outside Russia present their artworks to a
wider audience compared to what is available in their states
10. Russian Internet experts are often advanced. Non-Russians
subscribe to the Russian language newsgroups, surf reviews
published on Russian web-sites, discuss technical issues.
11. Speakers of Russian residing outside the former USSR feel
themselves ‘missionaries’: consult in web-related issues,
provide information (folk or avant-garde music, etc.).

14. Actual Research Areas
in ‘Social’ Sciences
Philosophy
Political Science
Education
Culture & Gender Research
Linguistics, Literary & Art Critics
Sociology
Applied Statistics
Economics
Psychology

15. Culture and Gender Research
Research on web cultures in post-Soviet &
post-communist states
Digital divide & inequality of access to the
Web
Role of non-residents in the Russian web
culture
Web-related shift in culture identities
Gender identities on the web
Gender attitudes toward the Internet use
Gender differences in the web use, etc.

16. Psychology (projects)
Identity transformations
Internet addiction
Gender issues on the Internet
Attitudes towards hacking, and motivation of
hackers
Flow in online gaming (comparative study: samples
of Russian, French, US & Chinese gamers)
IT-Giftedness
Psychology of Cyberethics

17. Cyberpsychology is neighbouring:
1. Clinical psychology, with themes:
• Internet addiction, Internet abuse, etc.
• Internet/computer anxiety
• Treatment of stresses, PTSD, phobias
using virtual reality systems
• Treatment & rehabilitation of diseases
(autism, post-stroke, ADHD, etc.)

20. Cyberpsychology is neighbouring:
2. Social psychology, with themes
• New distant communities (incl. social
networks): structure, leadership, rituals
• GroupThink & quality of discussions
• Roles of minorities in new communities
• Polylogues as distinct from dialogues
• Psychological experiments in virtual
communities, etc.

21. Cyberpsychology is neighbouring:
3. Cognitive psychology, themes:
• Use of “external” memory
• Attention span when look at monitor
• Recognition of objects, including correct
eye-tracking
• Decision making in groups
• Information retrieval using browsers
• Construction of hypertexts
• Interfaces for disabled, etc.

22. Cyberpsychology is neighbouring:
4. Educational psychology, with themes
• Psychology of distant education
• Multimedia learning/teaching programs
• Individual vs. group education
• Education in groups of different-age
students
• Etc.

23. Cyberpsychology is neighbouring:
5. Developmental psychology, themes
• Age (including both early & old age)
specifics in the usage on Internet
• Educational web-applications
• Talent & giftedness in computer use
• Etc.

24. Cyberpsychology is neighbouring:
6. Cross-cultural psychology
7. Human-computer interaction
8. Psychophysics
9. Differential and personality psychology
10. Forensic psychology
11. Sport psychology
12. Media psychology
13. Gender psychology, etc.

25. Positive psychology
The concept of FLOW,
introduced by
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi
(American, first in Chicago, now in
California; originally Hungarian)

26. Flow Experience
Flow
experience
Full
satisfaction
High level
of control
Objectives
become
clear
Loss of self-
conscio-
usness
Balance
between
skill and
task
Loss
of sense
of time
Worth of
doing for its
own sake
Concent-
ration
on the task

27. Csikszentmihalyi: flow may be expected when and if the
available skills balance (tightly match) the task challenges
a person chooses,
provided that both the challenges and tasks
are close to the person’s utmost.
Flow is placed at the cutting edge of person's skills, and it
is a moving target.
An increase of acquired skills leads to an
appropriate extension of challenges, in case
the precise matching and the concomitant enjoyment has to
be saved; reciprocally,
any choice of greater challenges
demands an update of the available skills.

28. Main antecedent of flow – precise matching
between skills and challenges

29. Psychology Projects (cont’d)
The next slide will be illustrative of the
development of computer hackers’ intrinsic
motivation, namely the flow motivation.
It is illustrated as a balance/counterbalance of
the available skills & of task challenges.

30. Inexperienced hacker
Low challenges
Low skills
Challenges match skills
Experienced hacker
High challenges
High skills
Challenges match skills
SKILLS
CHALLENGES
Wannabee
hacker
High challenges
Low skills
no matching
FLOW
RENOVATION
Averagely experienced
hacker
average challenges
average skills
Challenges match skills
Occasional hacker
Low challenges
High skills
no matching
FLOW CRISIS
FLOW CRISIS
FLOW
RENOVATION

31. Cyberethics Meets Developmental Psychology
Open-ended questions on moral judgments show:
Adolescents/kids often fail to transferAdolescents/kids often fail to transfer
well-known moral norms to lesswell-known moral norms to less
known, e.g.known, e.g. virtualvirtual environments.environments.
In the Cyberspace they lack ‘‘ethicalethical
sensitivity’sensitivity’, that is, the ability to
distinguish moral/immoral behavior.

32. What is needed, world-wide:
research of Web-related moral viewsresearch of Web-related moral views
& judgments of& judgments of
children/adolescents;children/adolescents;
 education program to be workededucation program to be worked
out & taught, to update Web-relatedout & taught, to update Web-related
moral values of K-12 students;moral values of K-12 students;
 teach globe-wide, *every* language:teach globe-wide, *every* language:
Cyberspace is global indeed.Cyberspace is global indeed.

33. References
Voiskounsky A. Current problems of moral
research and education in the IT environment.
Human Perspectives in the Internet Society:
Culture, Psychology and Gender. K.Morgan,
C.A.Brebbia, J.Sanchez, A.Voiskounsky (eds.).
WIT Press: Southampton, Boston, 2004, pp. 33-
41.
Voiskounsky A.E. Virtual Environments: the need
of advanced moral education. Ethics of New
Information Technology. Proceedings of the 6th
Internationаl Conference of Computer Ethics:
Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE2005). Ed. by Ph.
Brey, F. Grodzinsky, L. Introna. Enshede, the

34. References (cont’d)
Babaeva J.D., Voiskounsky A.E. (2002). IT-
Giftedness in Children and Adolescents.
Educational Technology & Society, vol. 5(1),
154-162.
Voiskounsky A.E., Smyslova O.V. (2003).
Flow-Based Model of Computer Hackers’
Motivation. CyberPsychology & Behavior, Vol.
6, № 3, 171-180.
Voiskounsky A., Smyslova O. (2003). Flow in
computer hacking: A model. Lecture Notes in
Computer Science, v. 2713.Springer, 176-
186.

35. References (cont’d)
Voiskounsky A.E. (2008). Flow Experience in
Cyberspace: Current Studies and
Perspectives. Psychological Aspects of
Cyberspace: Theory, Research, Applications.
(Ed. A. Barak). N.Y.: Cambridge University
Press, 70-101.
VOISKOUNSKY A.E. (2008).
CYBERPSYCHOLOGY AND COMPUTER-
MEDIATED COMMUNICATION IN RUSSIA:
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. RUSSIAN
JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, V. 1, №
1, 78-94.

36. References (cont’d)
Arestova, O., Babanin, L., Voiskounsky, A. (1999).
Psychological Research of Computer-Mediated
Communication in Russia. Behaviour and
Information Technology, 18 (2), 141-147.
Voiskounsky A. (1998). Investigation of Relcom
Network Users. F.Sudweeks et al. (eds.). Network
and Netplay: Virtual Groups on the Internet. AAAI
Press/The MIT Press, 113-126.
Voiskounsky A.E., Babaeva J.D., Smyslova O.V.
(2000). Attitudes towards computer hacking in
Russia. Cybercrime: Law Enforcement, Security and
Surveillance in the Information Age. Ed. by
D.Thomas & B.Loader. Routledge, 56-84.

37. THE END
(for today)