Naturalistic social cognition: Empathic accuracy in mixed-sex dyads.

The research paradigm that W. Ickes and his colleagues (e.g., Ickes et al; see record 1986-27142-001) developed for the study of naturalistic social cognition was used to explore the phenomenon of empathic accuracy in the initial, unstructured interactions of 38 mixed-sex (male–female) dyads. The results indicated that an important aspect of empathic accuracy, content accuracy, could be measured reliably (α?=?.94) with the procedure used. The results further indicated that content accuracy was, to a large extent, an emergent product of social interaction processes occurring at the level of the dyad. Although many of the findings could be explained in informational terms, some significant motivational influences were observed as well. For example, content accuracy was influenced by the partner's physical attractiveness and, more generally, by the perceiver's apparent interest in the partner (as indexed by various thought/feeling measures). The individual difference variables of grade point average (GPA) and self-monitoring also predicted the subjects' levels of content accuracy; however, gender and self-report measures of empathic skills and empathic accuracy did not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naturalistic ethics and the social sciences.

This article discusses naturalistic ethics and the social sciences. It is noted that some of those who believe science is (or should be) ethically neutral have fallen into a naturalistic fallacy. The author believes that we all have equal cause to reject the naturalistic fallacy and what he calls the "counternaturalistic fallacy," that is, the belief that ethics cannot have a naturalistic basis but must have supernatural origins or sanctions. The fallacy of these points of view are discussed in this article, as well as evolutionary ethics and human nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes.

Social behavior is ordinarily treated as being under conscious (if not always thoughtful) control. However, considerable evidence now supports the view that social behavior often operates in an implicit or unconscious fashion. The identifying feature of implicit cognition is that past experience influences judgment in a fashion not introspectively known by the actor. The present conclusion--that attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes have important implicit modes of operation--extends both the construct validity and predictive usefulness of these major theoretical constructs of social psychology. Methodologically, this review calls for increased use of indirect measures--which are imperative in studies of implicit cognition. The theorized ordinariness of implicit stereotyping is consistent with recent findings of discrimination by people who explicitly disavow prejudice. The finding that implicit cognitive effects are often reduced by focusing judges' attention on their judgment task provides a basis for evaluating applications (such as affirmative action) aimed at reducing such unintended discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion, social cognition, and the salience of aversiveness in social encounters.

Conducted 2 studies to determine whether introverts and extraverts systematically differ in their expectations, recall, and evaluation of social encounter. In Study 1, 102 male undergraduate students (classified as either introvert or extravert based on the Extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) evaluated games on rating scales. All Ss rated the competitive game as more arousing and potentially punishing than the cooperative game, but introverts anticipated that the competitive game would be less friendly and likable than did the extraverts. In Study 2, 61 undergraduates believed they would participate in either a cooperative or a competitive game. Ss were shown slides of all other Ss (teammates and opponents), as well as bogus biographical information. Ss were then asked to recall information and evaluate each S on rating scales. Introverts recalled more information about opponents than about their own teammates and rated all Ss less positively during the competitive encounter. For extraverts, this pattern was reversed. Results are discussed in terms of individual differences in the salience of aversiveness in social encounters. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A metaphor-enriched social cognition.

Social cognition is the scientific study of the cognitive events underlying social thought and attitudes. Currently, the field's prevailing theoretical perspectives are the traditional schema view and embodied cognition theories. Despite important differences, these perspectives share the seemingly uncontroversial notion that people interpret and evaluate a given social stimulus using knowledge about similar stimuli. However, research in cognitive linguistics (e.g., Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) suggests that people construe the world in large part through conceptual metaphors, which enable them to understand abstract concepts using knowledge of superficially dissimilar, typically more concrete concepts. Drawing on these perspectives, we propose that social cognition can and should be enriched by an explicit recognition that conceptual metaphor is a unique cognitive mechanism that shapes social thought and attitudes. To advance this metaphor-enriched perspective, we introduce the metaphoric transfer strategy as a means of empirically assessing whether metaphors influence social information processing in ways that are distinct from the operation of schemas alone. We then distinguish conceptual metaphor from embodied simulation—the mechanism posited by embodied cognition theories—and introduce the alternate source strategy as a means of empirically teasing apart these mechanisms. Throughout, we buttress our claims with empirical evidence of the influence of metaphors on a wide range of social psychological phenomena. We outline directions for future research on the strength and direction of metaphor use in social information processing. Finally, we mention specific benefits of a metaphor-enriched perspective for integrating and generating social cognitive research and for bridging social cognition with neighboring fields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beliefs, attributions, and evaluations: Nonhierarchical models of mediation in social cognition.

Presents a method combining experimental design and the LISREL analytic technique of K. J?reskog and D. S?rbom (1978), which allows inference of causal relationships in both directions among cognitive elements. The method is applied to the relationships of 222 undergraduates' attributionally relevant beliefs, attributions, and evaluations in 5 sets of materials. Results indicate that effective causal paths often form bidirectional pairs, so that if a particular cognitive element (A) affects another (B), then B also affects A. The pattern of effects was similar before and after a 48-hr delay, suggesting that the relevant processing takes place during the initial comprehension of the materials rather than during memory storage or retrieval. Results are interpreted in terms of a model of schema-based inference, similar to the early "implicational molecules" proposal of R. P. Abelson and C. M. Reich (1969). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gaze cueing of attention: Visual attention, social cognition, and individual differences.

During social interactions, people's eyes convey a wealth of information about their direction of attention and their emotional and mental states. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of past and current research into the perception of gaze behavior and its effect on the observer. This encompasses the perception of gaze direction and its influence on perception of the other person, as well as gaze-following behavior such as joint attention, in infant, adult, and clinical populations. Particular focus is given to the gaze-cueing paradigm that has been used to investigate the mechanisms of joint attention. The contribution of this paradigm has been significant and will likely continue to advance knowledge across diverse fields within psychology and neuroscience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion responsivity, social cognition, and functional outcome in schizophrenia.

Social functioning deficits have long been a defining feature in schizophrenia, but relatively little research has examined how emotion responsivity influences functional outcome in this disorder. The goal of the current study was to begin to elucidate the relationships between emotion responsivity, social cognition, and functional outcome in schizophrenia. Participants were 40 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and 40 controls. Each participant completed measures of emotion responsivity, social cognition (both emotion and social perception), and functional outcome. Individuals with schizophrenia demonstrated somewhat reduced emotion responsivity for positive and negative stimuli, as well as deficits in both social cognition and functional outcome, in comparison with controls. Additionally, results indicated that both social perception and emotion responsivity were positively correlated with functional outcome. Importantly, the relationship of emotion responsivity to functional outcome was not mediated by social perception and showed a significant relationship to functional outcome independent of social cognition. This finding suggests that emotion responsivity is an important factor in understanding functional outcome in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceiver, target, and situational influences on social cognition: An interactional analysis.

Examined the mechanisms through which characteristics of the perceiver and the social context interact with attributes of the stimulus person to determine cognitive and affective outcomes of social cognition processes. Based on the assumption that perceivers process social information to predict and control their hedonic outcomes, it was hypothesized that the relative salience of particular behaviors of a stimulus person would be affected both by perceivers' characteristic social motives and by the nature of their social relationship with the stimulus person. Moreover, the associated features of social cognition, perceivers' liking for the stimulus person, and their expectations about the pleasantness and success of an anticipated interaction, were predicted to be based on a related pattern of interactions between perceiver motivation, the behavior of the stimulus person, and the nature of their social relationship. These hypotheses were tested by having 160 male dominant and dependent (as assessed by the Dominance scale of the California Psychological Inventory and the Succorance scale of the EPPS) undergraduates observe a stimulus person, who was either assertive or unassertive and either affiliative or disaffiliative, under the expectation of either cooperating with or competing against that person in a future interaction. Findings support the hypotheses. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect and facilitative self-control: Influence of ecological setting, cognition, and social agent.

Three components of a situation--the ecological setting, the child's cognition, and the social agent--were imbued with positive, neutral, or negative affect to determine if they were functionally related to the continued maintenance of performance at a motor task by 108 1st and 2nd graders. Maintenance of performance is discussed in terms of facilitative self-control, and theoretical linkages to cognitive self-reinforcement and distractibility-frustrative nonreward theories are proposed. The most powerful effects occurred when the affect of the ecological setting was changed: Ss who experienced a happy room (happy pictures and faces) persisted longer than those in the sad or neutral room. Also, Ss who thought about happy things persisted longer than Ss who thought about sad or neutral things, but only when the E acted happy and recently had told the S a happy story. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social cognition and social competence in adolescence.

Investigated whether social cognition is related to effective social behavior, using 2 samples of 9th and 12th graders as Ss. Social competence was defined as the attainment of relevant social goals in specified social contexts, using appropriate means and resulting in positive development. The social goal chosen was being able to behave effectively in challenging social situations involving salient social objects. Nine measures of social cognition and 4 other measures were used to predict 4 measures of social competence, each dealing with performance in specific challenging social situations. Taken together, these predictors accounted for a large proportion of variance in social competence, especially when a composite criterion was used. Significant age and sex differences were obtained for many of the predictor and criterion variables, and there also appeared to be important developmental differences in the validity of social competence judgments. Factor analysis results suggested that social competence represents a domain of human functioning that is at least partly distinguishable from a cognitive or general competence domain. These results were substantially replicated in a 2nd sample. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responsible behavior: The importance of social cognition and emotion.

Traditionally, the development of responsible behavior has been a primary aim of American education. Responsible behavior entails self-motivation and self-guidance, and not obedience and compliance to rules merely in response to external supervision, rewards, and punishment. External factors certainly play a major role in responsible behavior, but so too do social cognition and emotion. The purpose of this article is to present a brief review of research linking social cognition and emotion to responsible behavior. Implications for school psychologists are discussed, with a particular emphasis on the importance of developing and implementing prevention and intervention programs that address the multiple components of responsible behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial identity, social context, and race-related social cognition in African Americans during middle childhood.

This study examined the effect of changes in racial identity, cross-race friendships, same-race friendships, and classroom racial composition on changes in race-related social cognition from 3rd to 5th grade for 73 African American children. The goal of the study was to determine the extent to which preadolescent racial identity and social context predict expectations of racial discrimination in cross-race social interactions (social expectations). Expectations of racial discrimination were assessed using vignettes of cross-race social situations involving an African American child in a social interaction with European Americans. There were 3 major findings. First, expectations for discrimination declined slightly from 3rd to 5th grade. Second, although racial composition of children's classrooms, number of European American friends, gender, and family poverty status were largely unrelated to social expectations, having more African American friends was associated with expecting more discrimination in cross-racial interactions from 3rd to 5th grade. Third, increases in racial centrality were related to increases in discrimination expectations, and increases in public regard were associated with decreases in discrimination expectations. These data suggest that as early as 3rd grade, children are forming attitudes about their racial group that have implications for their cross-race social interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical validation of affect, behavior, and cognition as distinct components of attitude.

Evaluated the validity of a prevalent model of attitude structure that specifies 3 components: affect, behavior, and cognition. Five conditions needed for properly testing the 3-component distinction were identified. Consideration of the tripartite model's theoretical basis indicated that the most important validating conditions are (a) the use of nonverbal, in addition to verbal, measures of affect and behavior; and (b) the physical presence of the attitude object. Study 1—in which 138 undergraduates attitudes toward snakes were examined, through the use of measures such as the Mood Adjective Check List, semantic differential, and distance of approach—indicated very strong support for this tripartite model. The model was statistically acceptable, its relative fit was very good, and the intercomponent correlations were moderate. Study 2, with 105 Ss, was a verbal report analog of Study 1. Results from Study 2 indicate that higher intercomponent correlations occurred when attitude measures derived solely from verbal reports and when the attitude object was not physically present. (74 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human cognition in its social context.

Presents a model of how the human cognitive system operates in its natural social context. The model focuses on both input and output variables that have been ignored in the development of most other cognitive theories. On the input end, the model emphasizes the role of prior knowledge and the goal-directed nature of social information processing. On the output end, the model emphasizes various types of social judgments and affective reactions, as well as memory and behavioral decision making. The model is designed to provide a general conceptual framework for integrating much of contemporary social cognition research. As such, it is consistent with, and occasionally subsumes, more molecular theories of specific social phenomena. An indication of the model's applicability to cognitive heuristics, representation of self, and the role of affect in information processing is included. Predictions of the model (e.g., the effects of information on both recall and judgments when the information is processed for different purposes) and the empirical evidence bearing on them are discussed. (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Political conservatism as motivated social cognition.

Analyzing political conservatism as motivated social cognition integrates theories of personality (authoritarianism, dogmatism-intolerance of ambiguity), epistemic and existential needs (for closure, regulatory focus, terror management), and ideological rationalization (social dominance, system justification). A meta-analysis (88 samples, 12 countries, 22,818 cases) confirms that several psychological variables predict political conservatism: death anxiety (weighted mean r=.50); system instability (.47); dogmatism-intolerance of ambiguity (.34); openness to experience (-.32); uncertainty tolerance (-.27); needs for order, structure, and closure (.26); integrative complexity (-.20); fear of threat and loss (.18); and self-esteem (-.09). The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and justification of inequality and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of implicit social cognition: Measurement, theory, and applications.

Reviews the book, Handbook of implicit social cognition: Measurement, theory, and applications edited by Bertram Gawronski and Keith B. Payne (see record 2010-13147-000). The comprehensive overview of theoretical models, empirical findings, and practical applications of research in implicit social cognition provided within this book is timely and warranted. The editors were successful in clearly outlining that implicit social cognition theory and measurement. A primary strength of this volume is the way in which seemingly divergent areas of research have been organized into five distinct sections, each of which builds upon the previous sections to provide a comprehensive understanding of implicit social cognition. Even the novice researcher may benefit from the practical guides to implicit theory and measurement. This book would be especially interesting and useful for active researchers across a variety of domains who are interested in understanding how implicit processes can influence human behaviour. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking about oneself and others: The relational-interdependent self-construal and social cognition.

These studies focus on the relational-interdependent self-construal's association with implicit or indirect cognitive processes. In the relational-interdependent self-construal, the self is defined largely in terms of close relationships, resulting in variation in self-related processes. In Studies 1 and 2, the relational self-construal was associated with positive implicit evaluations of relational concepts and with tightly organized cognitive networks of relational terms. Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that this self-construal was associated with memory for and implicit organization of relational information. In Studies 5 and 6, the relational self-construal was positively related to the degree to which participants described themselves and a friend similarly. The implications of the relational self-construal for theories of relationship cognition and for other self-related cognitive processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The comprehension and validation of social information.

The information one acquires in daily life concerns specific people and events about which one has prior knowledge. A theory of social cognition is proposed to account for the comprehension and verification of such information. The theory views comprehension as a process of constructing situation models of new information on the basis of previously formed models about its referents. The theory specifies the conditions in which statements about familiar people and events (e.g., "Jane Fonda does aerobics") are spontaneously recognized as true or false in the process of comprehending them. It further specifies the conditions in which these spontaneous validity judgments of a statement will influence perceptions of its implications when the statement is made in a social context. The comprehension of both single statements and multiple pieces of information in combination is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)