DOMINANCE OF SOCIAL COGNITION IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social cognition in social psychology

Social cognition in social psychology

Introduction

Social cognition emerged as a dynamic new field in psychology in the late 1970s. Social cognition emerged as a dynamic new field in psychology in the late 1970s (Hogg, 2001). Now, many years later, top researchers in this discipline are taking stock: How has social cognition affected social psychology as a whole? In what ways has social cognition proved a catalyst for new theory, methodology, and controversy? Such discussions are present in Social Cognition: Its Impact on Social Psychology. Each chapter in this much anticipated book provides a summary of psychology prior to the adoption of social cognition as a systemic approach, and further discusses how this approach has changed the face of social psychology today (Hewstone, 2001).

Social Psychology is a very broad subject but the definition that describes it best is the scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by real or imagined presence by other people. There are many contributing factors and situations that support the theory of Social Psychology. The most prominent factors included the Social behavior and Social cognition. Social psychology is the scientific study of the way people think about, feel, and behave in social situations. It involves understanding how people influence, and are influenced by, the others around them (Hogg, 2001).

Dominance of Social cognition

One of the important factors of Social Psychology is Social Cognition this is the way that we think about ourselves and the social world. There are two types of social cognition one is automatic pilot or low effort thinking it is processed unconsciously, unintentionally, and effortlessly. We use this type of cognition to help us understand new situation by drawing on previous experiences. We use schemas to organize our knowledge and impressions about the world around us. We use them to help us notice, process and remember this information and be able to use it as a comparison when new situations arise as to how to react (Potter, 1996). The other type of social cognition is High-effort thinking it is conscious, intentional and requires effort. However due to it being a conscious and controlled way of thinking it requires mental energy. There for we can only consciously be thinking of one thing at a time. This allows when we are tired or preoccupied to be more open to acceptance of false information since it is more difficult to suppress thoughts that we would rather forget or would rather not deal with. It has been observed since antiquity that language acquisition in human children fails to emerge unless the children are exposed to language. Thus, language acquisition is an example of an emergent behavior. In this case, the individual is made up of a set of mechanisms 'expecting' such input from the social world (Hogg, 2001).

Cognition means the process of knowing, and cognitive psychology is the study of all mental activities related to acquiring, storing, and using ...