Social Cognition
With Reference to appropriate theory and research, critically discuss those principles, representations, and processes that underpin social cognition and social knowledge about ourselves and others. In so doing, consider those factors that influence the accuracy of our perceptions.
How do we make sense of others and ourselves? Are the judgments we make within a social context formed on the basis of our social knowledge alone? How accurate are our perceptions of the people that occupy our daily lives both those familiar to us as well as strangers? What factors distort or influence these perceptions and other inferences we make of our social world? Social cognition attempts to provide a model framework within which to understand these fundamental questions about how we think about or social world, endeavor to understand it and ourselves, as well as our place in it (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). It is the dominant perspective in understanding social behavior. This essay aims to evaluate the cognitive principles, representations and processes underlying social cognition and social knowledge in the light of appropriate research whilst accounting for the contributing factors influencing the accuracy of our social perceptions. It will begin by evaluating the different ways in which people react to social stimuli and how this can be seen in terms of varying strategies or principles. It will then examine the underlying mechanisms serving these strategies such as how social knowledge is held as cognitive representations and how they are triggered by processes such as categorization. Finally, it will conclude that underlying social cognition are both deliberate and automatic processing and that both comprise many factors which, negatively influence the accuracy of perception.
Social cognition involves cognitive processes that serve to categorize stimuli, process this information and use this cognitively to form impressions or make inferences, which then influence behavior. In
How do we make sense of others and ourselves? Are the judgments we make within a social context formed on the basis of our social knowledge alone? How accurate are our perceptions of the people that occupy our daily lives both those familiar to us as well as strangers? What factors distort or influence these perceptions and other inferences we make of our social world? Social cognition attempts to provide a model framework within which to understand these fundamental questions about how we think about or social world, endeavor to understand it and ourselves, as well as our place in it (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). It is the dominant perspective in understanding social behavior. This essay aims to evaluate the cognitive principles, representations and processes underlying social cognition and social knowledge in the light of appropriate research whilst accounting for the contributing factors influencing the accuracy of our social perceptions. It will begin by evaluating the different ways in which people react to social stimuli and how this can be seen in terms of varying strategies or principles. It will then examine the underlying mechanisms serving these strategies such as how social knowledge is held as cognitive representations and how they are triggered by processes such as categorization. Finally, it will conclude that underlying social cognition are both deliberate and automatic processing and that both comprise many factors which, negatively influence the accuracy of perception.
Social cognition involves cognitive processes that serve to categorize stimuli, process this information and use this cognitively to form impressions or make inferences, which then influence behavior. In