Institute for Social Psychology of Internet and Communication
MISSION AND VISION
SPIK, or the Institute for Social Psychology of Internet and Communication (in Polish: Instytut Społecznej Psychologii Internetu i Komunikacji), acts as a part of the Warsaw School of Social Psychology (SWPS). SPIK is an interdisciplinary endeavor bridging psychology with computing and art.The Institute emerged as a response to the needs of contemporary science and business. The goal is to create psychologists who will understand the mechanisms underlying the modern information society.
Our graduates perfectly fit into all environments where technology meets social communication and social change. They become natural members, or even leaders, of teams composed, on one hand, of computer and technology professionals, and on the other of people coming from the business and media world.
SPIK: successfully combines Psychology, Computing and Art
Contemporary social psychology transcends and complements a vast amount of sciences and their applications. With impressive advances in methodology and research techniques it has become a powerful tool providing answers to the important questions concerning human nature.
It becomes more and more obvious to researchers and practitioners that the human factor plays a decisive role in all micro and macro processes (e.g. modern economy recognizes the role of trust for macro level economic phenomena).
It is no longer possible, or at least not desired, to design a working environment without referring to the extensive knowledge on human needs, limitations and conditions that ensure best performance.
The new categories of knowledge and
skills emerge and grow where different sciences meet social psychology. Our program combines three areas: psychology, computer science and art. We offer courses in:
- Psychology: Dynamical Social Psychology, Psychology of the Internet, Psychology of the complexity of conflict, Sports psychology, Neuro-cognitivistics
- Computing: Human-Computer Interaction, Programming, modeling and simulation, IT project management
Read more about our program of study in the area of Computing.
- Art: Visual communication, New media art, Psychology of art and visual influence
Read more about our program of study in the area of Art.
Our Initiatives
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ICCC - SPIK runs the sister Center of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College, Columbia University. Through research projects, conferences, education, publications and international collaboration, we try to expand complexity science to the social field and advance our understanding of one of its major challenges: protracted, seemingly intractable conflicts. ICCC web page: www.iccc.edu.pl
- Education with TP internet - Following the idea of cooperation between academic institutions and business for public interest, SPIK implemented in the years 2005-2007 together with the Polish Telecom TP a high quality training program for school teachers of physics, mathematics, history, biology, and informatics. Read more
- ROSE - ROSE is an internet coordinated network of schools and e-learning professionals. Our instructors are trained in Instructional Design, Information Technology and Project based teaching. They coordinate through the internet and form a learning community with diverse teaching knowledge and experience.
- Flesztival - Festival of Internet Animations and Graphics aka Flesztival is now one of the largest yearly events in Poland devoted to young computer art. One part of it is a contest for the best animation and computer graphic with very prestigious awards. On the educational level, Flesztival also includes art workshops and lectures conducted by widely recognized Polish modern artists.
- digiLab - digiLab is the first scientific center in Poland focusing on the internet-based research methodology.
- conferences and art events - we organize conferences and art events, e.g.
- SAI - we co-organized Social Aspects of the Internet conference - the biggest conference in Poland of this kind.
- EnthusiastsArchive.net - It's an Internet archive of amateur films from the Communist era 1945-1989, run jointly by SPIK and the Centre for Contemporary Art (CSW). The exposed pieces of visual art are widely accessible due to the Creative Commons licensing scheme.
Links to business
Due to their unique competences, SPIK graduates are sought after especially by the companies involved in media and computing. Some of the leading brands that SPIK has built a long-lasting connection with are listed below.
- Microsoft – SPIK students participated in the development of software at Microsoft Poland. A few of them reached the country level of the Imagine Cup contest, and one team got the prize at the European level contest, winning over many teams stemming from the pure computer science field.
- Borland – SPIK students and employees developed a unique software toolkit, which helps to teach programming in the Borland environment, under the motto "Delphi for human sciences." Special stress has been put on graphical components.
- Polish Telecom – The cooperation with TP resulted in a large-scale training program for school teachers, which then evolved into the country-wide ROSE initiative of building competence centers for internet-based education.
Contact Information
Instytut Społecznej Psychologii Internetu i Komunikacji
Director: prof Andrzej Nowak
Deputy director: dr Jarosław Milewski
Chodakowska 19/31
03-815 Warsaw, Poland
Room 301
