Cyberpsychology: The Modern Stage of Development

Abstract

In connection with the intensified development of digital technologies and the active (universal and daily) use of smart phones, computers and/or various gadgets by people of all ages, there emerge two problems. On the one hand, there is anxiety on the subject of types of behavior connected with the assimilation and use of new technologies that might carry along novel and still not fully understood social and psychological risks. On the other hand, one can notice the enthusiasm and “fan” attitude towards gadgets, which are increasingly replacing traditional ways of implementing communicative, labor, cognitive, game and other kinds of activity, mediate dyadic and group relations, as well as act as a new type of media. Thus, there is an increasing interest within the global society in conducting thorough psychological research aimed at identifying the real (not mythological) pros and cons of everyday use of digital technology products and in recommending the boundaries of this application. It is as a psychological discipline that is summoned to elaborate these kinds of answers to the society’s requests that cyberpsychology positions itself. The main goal of the article is to determine whether cyberpsychology is a separate branch of psychological science, or whether cyberpsychological problems are still being solved within the framework of traditional psychological disciplines. The status of cyberpsychology is revealed at the organizational level: the presence of interest in the results, the personnel and personnel training, professional associations, channels for informing the specialists about the results of the work, as well as prospects for the advance of competence. Although the approaches to the solution of organizational problems are largely different in Russia and in Western countries, the article emphasizes the approximation in the development processes of cyberpsychology as an independent branch of psychological science in the near future. The most noticeable organizational steps in this direction have been taken, as the article ascertains, in the very recent years.