Social Cognition

by Susan T. Fiske (Editor), Shelley E. Taylor (Editor)

This is a revision of a market leader in social cognition written by two well-known and respected authors. The text is designed to provide a critical overview of the theories and methods in the newly emerging field of social cognition. The major theme of the book is that normal cognitive processes account for much of how people understand themselves and others. In basic research, social cognition theories of attribution, psychological control, social schemata, attention, person memory, and social inference have become central to the field. In a recent poll, social psychologists predicted that topics within a cognitive approach would be the most popular research area in the coming decade.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Reference, Social Science, Philosophy, Neuroscience, Academic

Paperback

First published January 28, 1984

About the author

Susan Tufts Fiske is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University. She is a social psychologist known for her work on social cognition, stereotypes, and prejudice.

Reviews

[Mike]

The social cognition "bible". It's a book that Laurie Rudman recommended in her Attitudes and Social Cognition course.

[Santiago Aguirre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una lectura valiosa para ampliar el conocimiento psicológico. En la práctica clínica se tienden a colocar del lado aspectos cruciales sobre la psicología social. Como profesionales es importante mantenerse informado sobre las maneras en las que los grupos pueden influir en las personas.

La obra fue interesante e hizo un buen trabajo en transmitir tanta información de manera concreta. Me pareció interesante que se reconozca el trabajo que falta en el campo y espero en el futuro continuemos entendiendo los efectos de la cognición social en el individuo.

[Hamilton Carvalho · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of work put into this book, which provides a great overview of social cognition. There are, however, four major drawbacks in my view: 1. It portrays lots of research within social psychology that have not withstood the test of replication (the so-called replication crisis in social psychology). This can be corrected in new editions, though; 2. It gives much weight to neuroscience when it should have been providing both an evolutionary lenses and a cross-cultural perspective to the discussed behaviors; 3. Hence, most reported studies were done with WEIRD subjects, making it difficult to generalize to populations living outside industrialized countries; 4. Finally, it is inexcusable to ignore the work of Keith Stanovich on the tripartite model of the mind. Several theoretical issues and conundrums discussed in the book could be better understood under the light provided by the (great) work done by Stanovich and colleagues.

[J. Keck]

A must read for students of psychology who would understand Cognitive-Behavioral Psychology. The text provides a basis for understanding elements of social cognition, attribution theory, and social schemata, along with many processes of social cognition.