Areas Of Social Cognition Research Articles

Principles, processes, and puzzles of social cognition: An introduction for the special issue on social cognitive neuroscience

This article introduces the special issue of NeuroImage focused on social cognitive neuroscience. Social psychology has a rich history of making sense of the often paradoxical aspects of social cognition and the social world. This article reviews the principles, processes, and puzzles of social cognition and behavior that have been examined by social psychologists for decades. Five principles of social cognition and behavior are reviewed including: (1) the power of the situation over behavior, (2) blindness for situational influences, (3) social perception and self-perception are constructive processes, (4) blindness for the constructed nature of social and self-perception, and (5) self-processes are social. Four processes of social cognition are reviewed including: (1) cognitive architecture; (2) automaticity and control; (3) motivated reasoning; and (4) accessibility, frames, and expectations. Finally, five areas of social cognition that contain enduring puzzles are described including (1) the self, (2) attitudes, (3) reflective social cognition, (4) automatic social cognition, and (5) social motives. In several of the areas of study reviewed, cognitive neuroscience is well positioned to make important contributions to these research traditions either by allowing for new tests of hypotheses or by allowing for unobtrusive measurement of social cognitive processes.

Acculturation, Social Identity, and Social Cognition: A New Perspective

The authors argue in this article that new approaches are needed in the study of psychological acculturation. They posit that a new model of psychological acculturation should incorporate contemporary work in social and cognitive psychology. The model they present builds on previous research in the areas of social cognition, cultural competence, social identity, and social stigma. Each of these perspectives is discussed in accordance with its relevance to the acculturative processes operating in immigrants. They hypothesize that acculturation is more difficult for those persons who must cope with the stigma of being different because of skin color, language, ethnicity, and so forth. Finally, the authors believe that the theoretical framework present here will lead to more productive insights into the adaptation process of immigrants than has heretofore been the case.

Assessment of Social Skills for Students with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism

Students with high-functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome exhibit deficits in their ability to utilize appropriate social skills across a variety of contexts; however, standardized tests are typically not sensitive to the significance of these deficits. Social skills are a behavioral manifestation of social cognition. A framework will be introduced to summarize areas of social cognition that are generally weak and impacts students' ability to relate to others. A five-step approach to assessment will be reviewed to provide information regarding the origin and nature of students' social cognition and related skills. Finally, informal assessment tools will be defined and described.

DYNAMICAL COGNITIVE MODELS OF SOCIAL ISSUES IN RUSSIA

We examine and model dynamics in three areas of social cognition: (1) political transformations within Russia, (2) evaluation of political trends in other countries by Russians, and (3) evaluation of Russian stereotypes concerning women. We try to represent consciousness as vectorfields and trajectories in a cognitive state space. We use psychosemantic techniques that allow definition of the state space and the systematic construction of these vectorfields and trajectories and their portrait from research data. Then we construct models to fit them, using multiple regression methods to obtain linear differential equations. These dynamical models of social cognition fit the data quite well. (1) The political transformations were modeled by a spiral repellor in a two-dimensional space of a democratic–totalitarian factor and social depression–optimism factor. (2) The evaluation of alien political trends included a flow away from a saddle toward more stable and moderate political regimes in a 2D space, of democratic–totalitarian and unstable–stable cognitive dimensions. (3) The gender study showed expectations (attractors) for more liberated, emancipated roles for women in the future.

Implicit theories of relationships: Assessment and prediction of romantic relationship initiation, coping, and longevity.

Belief in romantic destiny holds that potential relationship partners are either meant for each other or they are not. As hypothesized, a longitudinal study of romantic relationships revealed that the relation between initial satisfaction and relationship longevity was stronger for those who believe in romantic destiny. In addition, belief in destiny was associated with avoidance coping strategies in dealing with relationship stressors, and with taking more responsibility for ending the relationship. Belief in growth independently holds that successful relationships are cultivated and developed, and was associated with long-term approaches to dating, relationship-maintaining coping strategies and, once the relationship had ended, disagreeing that it seemed wrong from the beginning. Implications and future research avenues are discussed. Individuals have different beliefs about what makes for a good relationship (Fletcher & Kininmonth, 1992; Fletcher & Thomas, 1996). Indeed, the area of social cognition in close relationships continues to thrive, and relationship beliefs and knowledge structures have become a major focus (Berscheid, 1994; Fletcher & Fincham, 1991; Fletcher & Fitness, 1993). In addition, researchers are continually being urged to consider more fully the impact of cognition on relationships , and vice versa (Baldwin, 1992; Fiske, 1992; Ickes & Gonzales, 1996; Kenny, 1994; Reis & Knee, 1996; Schneider, 1991). One type of knowledge structure that has garnered much attention in the achievement and social judgment literatures, but no attention from relationship researchers, is the construct of implicit theories (Dweck, 1996; Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, 1995; Dweck, Hong, & Chiu, 1993). Implicit theories distinguish between the belief that attributes are fixed (or destined) and the belief that attributes are developed (or grown). These implicit theories can take on fascinating meaning when applied to relationships in that one can believe that relationships are destined and that relationships are characterized by growth. The present research examined how destiny and growth beliefs influence the initiation, coping, and longevity of romantic relationships.

Psychology and Common Sense

This article examines the nature of the relationship between psychology and common sense. It is postulated that common sense may be categorized in three ways: (a) as a set of shared fundamental assumptions, (b) as a set of maxims or shared beliefs, and (c) as a shared way of thinking. It is further argued that psychology has and should have a different re- lationship with each area. The role that conceptual analysis and other research techniques can play in investigating commonsense cognitive schemata is dis- cussed. It is concluded that common sense is a valuable but inherently dangerous resource available to psy- chologists. This article concerns the relationship between psy- chology and common sense. Clearly, the nature of that relationship will vary depending on the area of psychology considered. At a prima facie level, com- mon sense does not have much to offer such areas as neurophysiolo gy in contrast to social psychology or social cognition. For this reason, in addition to the fact that I know more about social psychology and the related area of social cognition, this article focuses primarily on these two areas. To set the scene for the subsequent analysis, let us draw the battle lines. Philosophers, particularly those from the ordi- nary language school, have often adopted eulogistic attitudes toward common sense. For example, R. S. Peters (1960), in his book The Concept of Motivation, argues that The difficulty about developing a science of psychology is that, in a sense, we already know too much about human behaviour, albeit in a rather uncoordinated manner. Com- mon-sense, which is incorporated in the concepts of ordinary language, has creamed off most of the vital distinctions. Psychology has the task of systematizing what is already known and adding bits of special theory to supplement common-sense, (p. 155) Probably the most explicit appeal to common sense in the formulation of psychological theory has been made by the dominant approach in social psy- chology today—attribution theory. The genesis of at- tribution theory can be traced to Fritz Heider and the publication in 1958 of his book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Heider's view is that much of what is called naive psychology is embodied in the conceptual structures underlying everyday language. Thus, through conceptual analysis of everyday lan- guage, Heider attempted to provide a systematic, con- ceptual explication of commonsense psychology. Hei- der argued that the analysis of this conceptual struc- ture can play an important role in describing the naive psychologist's cognitive processes and in de- veloping a theory to explain those processes. In short, Heider took common sense seriously. In Heider's words, The ordinary person has a great and profound understanding of himself and other people which, though unformulated or only vaguely conceived, enables him to interact with others in more or less adaptive ways. (p. 2) This emphasis on common sense was maintained by those who followed Heider. Harold Kelley (1973), one of the central figures in the subsequent devel- opment of attribution theory, writes,

Constructive processes in person cognition.

The notion of constructive memory processes is imported from research on eyewitness memory to the area of social cognition. Mere questioning about the applicability of personality attributes to a target person is shown to affect subsequent memory-based judgements of that person. These constructive influences are to be distinguished, conceptually, from the global notion of priming effects. In Expt 1, the target person was first described as an extravert; afterwards, subjects had to indicate whether either desirable aspects of extraversion (self-confidence) or undesirable aspects (exhibitionism) apply to the target or not. Mere questioning resulted in a congruent judgment bias towards the questioned attributes that did not generalize to a global halo effect. Experiment 2 replicated the basic finding and demonstrated that this phenomenon is independent of a generation effect (i.e. the memory advantage of self-generated inferences). These results are interpreted in terms of (a) a reframing of the categorical distribution representing the information about the target person in memory and (b) a regressive tendency to assume intermediate default values rather than extreme values for questioned attributes under uncertainty. Alternative explanations in terms of demand effects or a conformation bias cannot provide sufficient accounts. The relevance of constructive processes to understanding self-fulfilling prophecies and other phenomena in social interaction is discussed.

Suicide and Alcohol: Conceptualizing the Relationship From a Cognitive‐Social Paradigm

This article presents a formulation of the association between alcohol consumption and suicidal behavior derived from recent advances in the area of social cognition. It is suggested that the social cognitive mechanism of alcohol‐induced myopia may serve an important role in developing a comprehensive conceptualization of the alcohol‐suicide relationship. Implications for practitioners and ethical considerations of further research in this area are discussed.

Can the Ecological Model Guide Social Work Practice?

The ecological model holds conceptual appeal to describe how people interact with their environments. However, this model remains too abstract for it to usefully guide practice. Theory and research in the area of social cognition, that is, how people make sense of their surroundings and then respond to what they see, are used to explicate a basic component of the ecological model: that people create niches for themselves from their environments. Using this concept of the niche to operationalize the person-environment interaction, suggestions for assessment and intervention planning can be made.

Giving (Course) Credit Where Credit’s Due!

Giving (Course) Credit Where Credit's Due! Social Cognition: Special Issue on Depression. N. A. Kuiper and E. T. Biggins (Eds.). New York: Guilford, 1985. (144 pp.) After examining Social Cognition's Special Issue on Depression, one could be forgiven for concluding that American psychology students are the nearest human equivalent of the experimental laboratory rat currently in existence. Every aspect of students' cognitive functioning, it would seem, is eagerly being researched by industrious social and cognitive psychologists, while the motivation of the students to experience such an onslaught is enhanced by the awarding of credits toward their course requirements. Although this introduction may seem unduly unkind, it intends to draw the attention of the unwary to the fact that the bulk of the work in this issue of the journal tells us a great deal about mildly dysphoric 19 to 20 year olds, but we do not yet know how such samples relate to clinically depressed populations. Thus, before therapists can be specifically influenced by the findings reported in the volume, the work itself needs to be replicated with clinical populations meeting recognized diagnostic criteria for depressive illnesses. This important point having been made, I need to indicate that this volume on depression is of interest to cognitive psychotherapists, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to researchers in this field. As Shaw points out in the volume, clinicians need exposure to sociocognitive research to enhance and broaden their conceptual understanding of depression. In recent years, researchers in the areas of social cognition and depression have emphasized the need to identify the cognitive structures and processes involved in depression and have seen the importance of studying social interactions. Some degree of integration of the two fields may, therefore, be of mutual benefit. This special issue of Social Cognition contains six research and two review articles. Several of the studies reported explored the cognitive content or structure of possible vulnerability factors for depression. In regard to content, Anderson and Arnoult demonstrated that the most important attributional dimension predictive of an individual's level of depression (or loneliness or shyness) is controllability. They postulated that a certain attributional style led to low expectations of success, low motivation, and low performance. Because there seems to be a common attributional style in depression, loneliness, and shyness, one might conclude that a common treatment approach is warranted. Rholes and colleagues also focused on cognitive content. They demonstrated that cognitions associated with anxiety focus on threat of loss, whereas those associated with depression focus on loss. It is interesting that they also found loss cognitions were related to anxiety. This finding can presumably be explained by the fact that, clinically, depression and anxiety frequently occur together. The cognitions explored were state-dependent and did not predict future depressive episodes. Hopelessness and dysfunctional attitudes were shown to be more stable cognitive structures that functioned as longer-term vulnerability factors for depression. Kuiper et al. pursued the theme of content by examining the nature of selfreferent information processing in individuals with cognitive vulnerability to depression. …

Differential contributions of majority and minority influence.

In most studies comparing majority and minority influence, there is an emphasis on influence in the sense of “prevailing.” Within this context, evidence exists that majorities exert more public influence and that minority influence, when it occurs, tends to operate primarily at the latent level. In the present formulation, it is proposed that the differences between majority and minority influence are in fact more extensive once influence is considered in a broader context. In particular, it is proposed that exposure to persistent minority views fosters greater thought about the issue. Furthermore, this thought tends to be divergent rather than convergent, and as a result, people tend to be better decision makers because they attend to more aspects of the situation and reexamine premises. By contrast, it is proposed that exposure to persistent majority views fosters convergent thinking and leads to an unreflective acceptance of the majority position. Three experimental studies are reported that directly test some of the propositions, and the formulation is linked to available knowledge in the areas of social cognition, creativity, and problem solving both at the individual and group levels. Finally, some practical implications of this formulation for small group decision making and for society at large are offered.

Implicit Conceptualizations of Depression: Implications for an Interpersonal Perspective

Recent conceptualizations of depression have focused on the quality of the interactions between depressed individuals and others, and on the role these interactions may play in maintaining or exacerbating the depression. The behavior of depressives is hypothesized to engender negative affect and hostility in those with whom they interact. Although the behavior of depressives undoubtedly exerts a strong influence on nondepressed others, research from the areas of social cognition and person perception suggests that the cognitive representations nondepressed individuals routinely use to organize their perceptions of others also exert a strong influence on their interpersonal behavior. Further insight into the interpersonal sequence hypothesized to maintain depression may be obtained, therefore, by examining the cognitive representations people use to organize their impressions of others and the effects these structures have on subsequent interactions. The present paper integrates research from the areas of person perception and social cognition with research specifically addressing the manner in which depressed individuals are perceived. The implications of this integration are discussed with reference to proposed interactional theories of depression, and directions for future research are suggested.

Psychology and common sense.

This article examines the nature of the relationship between psychology and common sense. It is postulated that common sense may be categorized in three ways: (a) as a set of shared fundamental assumptions, (b) as a set of maxims or shared beliefs, and (c) as a shared way of thinking. It is further argued that psychology has and should have a different re- lationship with each area. The role that conceptual analysis and other research techniques can play in investigating commonsense cognitive schemata is dis- cussed. It is concluded that common sense is a valuable but inherently dangerous resource available to psy- chologists. This article concerns the relationship between psy- chology and common sense. Clearly, the nature of that relationship will vary depending on the area of psychology considered. At a prima facie level, com- mon sense does not have much to offer such areas as neurophysiolo gy in contrast to social psychology or social cognition. For this reason, in addition to the fact that I know more about social psychology and the related area of social cognition, this article focuses primarily on these two areas. To set the scene for the subsequent analysis, let us draw the battle lines. Philosophers, particularly those from the ordi- nary language school, have often adopted eulogistic attitudes toward common sense. For example, R. S. Peters (1960), in his book The Concept of Motivation, argues that The difficulty about developing a science of psychology is that, in a sense, we already know too much about human behaviour, albeit in a rather uncoordinated manner. Com- mon-sense, which is incorporated in the concepts of ordinary language, has creamed off most of the vital distinctions. Psychology has the task of systematizing what is already known and adding bits of special theory to supplement common-sense, (p. 155) Probably the most explicit appeal to common sense in the formulation of psychological theory has been made by the dominant approach in social psy- chology today—attribution theory. The genesis of at- tribution theory can be traced to Fritz Heider and the publication in 1958 of his book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Heider's view is that much of what is called naive psychology is embodied in the conceptual structures underlying everyday language. Thus, through conceptual analysis of everyday lan- guage, Heider attempted to provide a systematic, con- ceptual explication of commonsense psychology. Hei- der argued that the analysis of this conceptual struc- ture can play an important role in describing the naive psychologist's cognitive processes and in de- veloping a theory to explain those processes. In short, Heider took common sense seriously. In Heider's words, The ordinary person has a great and profound understanding of himself and other people which, though unformulated or only vaguely conceived, enables him to interact with others in more or less adaptive ways. (p. 2) This emphasis on common sense was maintained by those who followed Heider. Harold Kelley (1973), one of the central figures in the subsequent devel- opment of attribution theory, writes,