在见证了社会计算与计算社会科学的勃兴之后,心理学和信息科学在网络信息时代相遇,催生出心理信息学这门新兴交叉学科。该学科旨在利用计算机与信息科学技术,通过开展网络调查和实验、开发和利用移动设备、建立数据库和分类体系、使用开源软件和数据挖掘技术等,获取、整理和分析心理学研究资料。其对大规模复杂数据的掌控能力,使心理学家可以从新的高度和视野,针对现实和虚拟网络中的个体与群体心理现象展开研究,重新检视已有理论假设并探索新发现。但是,心理信息学在展现巨大潜力的同时,也在技术和研究设计、伦理和研究规范、研究重心与人才培养等诸多方面面临挑战。
Psychoinformatics, a product of the information era, is an inter-disciplinary research area that incorporates computational techniques and information sciences to study human mind. It innovated how scholars acquire, organize, interpret and synthesize traditional psychological data. With its advantage to handle large dataset it shows great potential in exploring psychological mechanisms and behavioral patterns at both individual and group levels. Psychology researchers are able to inspect existing psychological theories and hypotheses from a novel perspective. The current review aims to provide guidance for readers to witness the development of this emerging psychological field. Future challenges will be discussed as well.