When looking at social behaviors and group psychology, it is important to use theoretical frameworks that accurately reflect the environmental factors contributing to how people interact.

This is why in the past few years, a revisionist approach in social sciences has emerged in the field of “Cyberpsychology”. As a study of social behaviors, this field of research endeavors to frame human interactions specifically through technology,

Previously, the large majority of social research has been based in theoretical models dating back 30-50 years, with occasional update studies serving to examine the same evidence to see how it has changed. Even now, research done about human behavior cites heavily from social science evidence that was observed before pagers existed.

Cyberpsychology is a field that currently lacks strong theoretical modeling, but is growing in its evidence base. Studies in this field examine how people impact one another specifically through our technology, ranging from examinations of social media dynamics to perceived empathy in one-to-one text dialogues.

In some cases, these kinds of studies have already been done, but always from a theoretical base of pre-technology research. Cyberpsychology researchers are endeavoring to flip the table over, begin again, and frame human systems as they occur within the context of technology.

Source: http://www.psypag.co.uk/…/uploa…/2013/06/PsyPag-107-web.pdf