The Psychology of the Internet

This timely volume explores the psychological aspects of cyberspace, a virtual world in which people from around the globe are acting and interacting in many new, unusual, and occasionally alarming ways. Drawing on research in the social sciences, communications, business, and other fields, Patricia Wallace examines how the online environment can influence the way we behave, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Our own online behavior then becomes part of the Internet's psychological environment for others, creating opportunities for shaping the way this new territory for human interaction is unfolding. Since the Internet--and our experience within it--is still young, we have a rare window of opportunity to influence the course of its development. With a new preface that incorporates many of the changes online and in the field since the hardcover edition was published, the paperback edition of The Psychology of the Internet includes the latest coverage of e-commerce, workplace surveillance and datamining, all areas of recent intense public concern. Patricia M. Wallace is Executive Director of the Center for Knowledge and Information Management at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. She is author of an interactive psychology CD-ROM called PRISM and of the textbook Introduction to Psychology, Fourth Edition (with Jeffrey Goldstein). Dr. Wallace is also the principal investigator on grants from the Annenberg Projects/Corporation for Public Broadcasting dealing with language learning through CD-ROMs and the Internet.