Psychological Determinants of Virtual Personality Image

Abstract

The transitivity of the modern world triggers new forms of interpersonal interaction. Virtual image is an important part of on-line social cognition. The present research featured factors that determine the construction of virtual personality, its psychological characteristics, functions, and patterns. The authors identified and described three groups of conditions that shape virtual personality, i.e. environmental, functional, and psychological. The latter play the most important role in the image formation process. They define relations in small groups, self-attitude, self-esteem, focus, and motivation. The authors developed a questionnaire of Substantive and Compositional Features of Virtual Personality. The study also involved the Personality in Virtual Space questionnaire and the methods of diagnostics of interpersonal relations and self-attitude. The statistical analysis of the experimental data was based on Varimax rotation. The psychological determinants appeared to be closely related to each other and were grouped into seven factors.