Psychology conference to focus on online matters

A conference investigating the issues surrounding social networking on the internet is to be hosted by the University of Wolverhampton.

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The two day event, entitled ‘Social networking in cyberspace’, will see academics from various disciplines presenting their research on on-line communication and social interaction.

The conference will be held on Monday 15 July and Tuesday 16 July at the University’s City Campus, and has been organised by CRUW (Cyberpsychology Research at the University of Wolverhampton).

Attending the event will be three keynote speakers – Professor Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University, Dr Karen Douglas from the University of Kent and Professor Simeon Yates from the Institute of Cultural Capital (University of Liverpool/Liverpool John Moores University).

Their talks will underline the diversity of research topics in this area of study, and will centre on on-line gambling, cyber-hate and the manner in which communication has evolved in a digital age.

Speaking about the conference, Dr Chris Fullwood, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton and co-ordinator of CRUW, said: “The conference aims to shed some light on a number of interesting research questions.

“For example, how does being on-line influence the manner in which we communicate with others? Do people make more negative judgements of us on-line? Do individuals treat others differently in cyberspace?

“The conference will be of interest to academics studying on-line behaviour as well anyone who is interested in how humans interact with technology and in the on-line world.”

Registration for the conference is now open until Sunday 7 July.

For more information and to register attendance, visit: http://www.wlv.ac.uk/snic2013