Social Cognition in Psychology

Social Cognition in Psychology Theories Social Psychology Print Social Cognition in Psychology The Way We Think About Others By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Updated on March 16, 2019 Lisa-Blue / E / Getty Images More in Theories Social Psychology Behavioral Psychology Cognitive Psychology Developmental Psychology Personality Psychology Biological Psychology Psychosocial Psychology In This Article Table of Contents Expand Definition Development Research Cultural Differences Criticism View All Back To Top Social cognition is a sub-topic of social psychology that focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in our social interactions. The way we think about others plays a major role in how we think, feel, and interact with the world around us. Defining Social Cognition How exactly do psychologists define social cognition? While there is no single definition, there are some common factors that many experts have identified as being important. Social cognition involves: The processes involved in perceiving other people and how we come to know about the people in the world around us.It involves the study of these mental processes that involved in perceiving, remembering, thinking about, and attending to the other people in our social world.Psychologists are interested in why we attend to certain information about the social world. how this information is stored in memory, and how it is then used to interact with other people.It is not simply a topic within social psychology - it is an approach to studying any subject with social psychology. Using a social-cognitive perspective, researchers can study a wide range of topics including attitudes, person-perception, prejudice, stereotypes, self-concept, discrimination, persuasion, decision-making, and other areas. The Role of Social Cognition For example, imagine that you are getting ready to go on a blind date. Not only do you worry about the impression and signals that you are sending to the other person, you are also concerned with interpreting the signals given by the other individual. How do you form an impression of this person? What meaning do you read into the other persons behavior? This is just one example of how social cognition influences a single social interaction, but you can probably think of many more examples from your daily life. We spend a considerable portion of every day interacting with others, which is why an entire branch of psychology formed to help understand how we feel, think and behave in social situations. The Development of Social Cognition Developmental psychologists also study how social cognition develops over the course of childhood and adolescence. As children grow, they become more aware not only of their own feelings, thoughts, and motives but also of the emotions and mental states of others. As this awareness increases, children become more adept at understanding how others are feeling, knowing how to respond in social situations, engaging in prosocial behaviors, and taking the perspective of others. While there are many different theories that look at how social cognition develops, one of the most popular focuses on the work of the psychologist Jean Piaget. According to Piaget, a childs cognitive development goes through a series of stages. During the earliest stages of development, children are very egocentric. They see the world from their own perspective and struggle to think about how other people may view the world.As children grow older, children become increasingly adept at perspective-taking and have an increased ability to think about how and why people act the way they do in social situations. More recently, research has provided evidence that children develop the ability to think about the perspectives of other people at an earlier age than Piaget previously believed.  Even young preschoolers exhibit some ability to think about how other people might view a situation. One of the most important develops in the early emergence of social cognition is the growth of a theory of mind. A theory of mind refers to a persons ability to understand and think about the mental states of other people. It is the emergence of a theory of mind that is critical to being able to consider the thoughts, motives, desires, needs, feelings, and experiences that other people may have. Being able to think about how these mental states can influence how people act is critical to forming social impressions and explaining how and why people do the things that they do. Questions About Social Cognition So what are some of the different questions related to social cognition that researchers are interested in understanding? Our perceptions of others play such an important role in how we forge relationships, how we interact with others, how we treat others, and how others treat us. Some of the topics that psychologists are interested in when it comes to social cognition include: How do we interpret other peoples feelings and emotions? How do we figure out what they are thinking or feeling? What cues or indicators do we use to make these assumptions?What influence do our thoughts have on our feelings?How do we develop attitudes? What role do these attitudes play in our social lives?How is self-concept formed and how does it influence our relationships with others?What mental processes influence person perception, or how we form impressions of other people? Cultural Differences Social psychologists have also found that there are often important cultural differences in social cognition. When looking at a social situation, any two people may have wildly different interpretations. Each person brings a unique background of experiences, knowledge, social influences, feelings, and cultural variations. Some researchers have found that there are also collective, cultural influences that can affect how people interpret social situations. The same social behavior in one cultural setting may have a very different meaning and interpretation if it was to take place in another culture. As people interpret behavior, extract meaning from the interaction, and then act based upon their beliefs about the situation, they are then further reinforcing and reproducing the cultural norms that influence their social cognitions. Possible Shortcomings One criticism of some of the research on social cognition suggests that it is too focused on individualistic behavior. Because the topic itself is so social, some suggest that many of the information-processing models that have traditionally been used to understand the cognitive processes behind social cognition are too limited. Focusing more on the collective and interactive aspects of human thought may provide a better understanding of how people think about and understand social behavior.