Cognitieve Sociale Psychologie

by Roos Vonk, Henk Aarts, Ap Dijksterhuis

Dit boek geeft een overzicht van de huidige stand van zaken op het gebied van de sociale cognitie, een deelgebied van de psychologie dat is gericht op het dagelijks denken en doen van mensen in hun interactie met de medemens.

Onderwerpen die aan de orde komen zijn onder andere: onderzoeksmethoden, attributie en vertekeningen in gevolgtrekkingen, sociale schema's, stereotypen en discriminatie, persoonswaarneming en zelfpresentatie, automaticiteit en controle, beslissen en heuristieken, en affect.

Het boek geeft een up-to-date beeld van een vakgebied waarin de laatste jaren grote vorderingen zijn geboekt in het doorgronden en ontrafelen van het denken, voelen en doen van mensen in de dagelijkse contacten met anderen. De auteurs zijn allen internationaal erkende onderzoekers in hun vakgebied. Beschrijvingen van wetenschappelijk experimenteel onderzoek worden afgewisseld met voorbeelden uit het dagelijks leven.

Het boek voldoet in wetenschappelijk opzicht aan de hoogste standaard, maar is tegelijkertijd uiterst studentvriendelijk en toegankelijk. Hierdoor os het geschikt voor studenten psychologie op universitair en HBO-niveau.

Genres: Nonfiction

403 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Roos Vonk is a Dutch professor of social psychology at the Radboud University of Nijmegen. She studied at Leiden University, received her PhD in 1990, and became professor at Nijmegen University in 1999.

Actively popularizing psychology, she writes books on the subject for both the general and the academic audience, and also gives lectures, management training, and writes columns (for instance, in Psychologie Magazine and Intermediair).

Roos Vonk has published articles and books on flattering, vulnerable egos, first impressions, flirting, intimate relationships, power and leadership, self-image and self-knowledge. She's also done research on overconfidence, emotional incontinence, and ways for self-improvement.

Reviews

[jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cognitieve Sociale Psychologie is an academic textbook meant for an advanced course that shows the depth of social psychology by actively exploring its cognitive component. I think it succeeds in doing this, especially compared to the introductory books on social psychology I’ve read and reviewed (see: academic psychology shelf). It doesn’t fall victim to constantly stating the obvious, though the chapter on scientific research methods could’ve been cut down a bit, since I think the writers could have assumed that an advanced psychology student would have already known about several of the methods they cover.

Anyhow, this book contains extensive chapters on: attribution, schemas, stereotypes, perceptions of people, automaticity and control, decision making and choosing, and the relationship between affect/emotions and cognition. Different chapters were written by different academics, all contributing to their own areas of expertise (i.e., you’ll find psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis, who specializes in unconscious behaviour, writing on automaticity and control and contributing to the chapter on stereotypes).

Design-wise, it’s unfortunately nothing to write home about. The text isn’t that dry, mainly thanks to many relatable and nicely worded examples/case studies, but it is presented in a very unadorned manner. No illustrations (just a few diagrams), no highlighted key words, no summaries, and though there are page breaks, new paragraphs don’t start with an indentation. I usually don’t make a problem of that, but if I’m confronted with huge chunks of text without any pop-up/highlight effects, illustrations, or anything else of the sort that breaks the text, it gets boring really fast.

Still, the actual content is pretty solid and complete, and it’s nice to see an academic psychology book that attempts to dig a little deeper into its own material by playing up its cognitive component. When ignoring the format of the book, I enjoyed the text and read it with pleasure. Its style of writing is engaging, too, though you’ll find that some of the writers have a bit more talent for it than others.

Obviously recommended for people interested in social psychology with a more cognitive twist, though this book is also very useful for those wishing for a full, in-depth overview of the social psychology field.