SOCIAL COGNITION
Associate Professor Graham Tyson
Social Cognition is concerned with the processes by which we think about and try to make
sense of other people, ourselves and social situations (Fiske & Taylor, 1991) . Consequently,
research in social cognition focuses on cognitive structure and process, e.g. attention,
memory, inference and concept formation, but in relation to the perception of people and
social situations. (Fiske, 2004) .
Initially, members of the SCCS focused largely on the attributional aspect of social cognition.
Working within an attribution theory framework, we have researched the implicit theories (also
sometimes referred to as lay explanations, lay theories or social representations) that people
hold with regard to a problem or condition. Implicit theories contain an individual’s
understanding of the causes of a problem. These theories influence both the individual’s
attitudes towards people with the problem and beliefs about how the problem should be
treated. The fact that different people can have different implicit theories has important
implications. For instance, the results of one of our studies shows that parents of children with
ADHD are more likely to stress the stable, internal causes of ADHD behaviour (i.e.,
neurological and genetic factors) and minimize the impact of psychosocial factors such as
parenting behaviour and the home environment. Conversely, parents whose children do not
have ADHD tend to place more importance on the psychosocial factors. For the parents of
children with ADHD, not only does their implicit theory reduce feelings of responsibility for the
condition, but it will increase their likelihood of accepting the medical (drug) treatment of
ADHD and make them less inclined to consider their parenting style. Other people in the
child’s environment, e.g. teachers, may have implicit theories which emphasizes the
psychosocial explanations of the condition and hence will be more inclined to adopt a more
regimented, behavioural approach to treatment. Obviously this discrepancy in the approaches
to treatment is not ideal and could cause problems for the child. Similarly in a legal setting,
the implicit theories that an individual has about the causes of crime can influence judgments
about issues such as culpability, appropriate sentences etc. Consequently the study of
implicit theories not only provides us with a better understanding of the way in which people
see a problem or condition, but it also can provide information relevant to dealing with the
problem.
This attributional approach continues to be an important part of the research undertaken by
members. However, over the past two years, the focus of the research has been broadened
to include other aspects of social cognition, such as attention, memory and concept formation
in relation to social behaviour and situations. In this regard, two clearly identifiable themes
have emerged. These are the social cognition processes involved in forensic settings,
especially court room situations, and the social cognitive processes relating to the construct
of forgiveness.
Interested people should contact:
Associate Professor Graham Tyson