Social Cognition 2.0: Toward Mechanistic Theorizing
Social cognition emerged in the 1970s and 80s as an attempt to answer social-psychological questions by adopting experimental techniques and theoretical concepts from cognitive psychology. Recently, cognitive psychologists began to build complementary bridges between cognitive and social psychology...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02643/full |
| _version_ | 1818034045590700032 |
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| author | Diana Kim Diana Kim Bernhard Hommel Bernhard Hommel |
| author_facet | Diana Kim Diana Kim Bernhard Hommel Bernhard Hommel |
| author_sort | Diana Kim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Social cognition emerged in the 1970s and 80s as an attempt to answer social-psychological questions by adopting experimental techniques and theoretical concepts from cognitive psychology. Recently, cognitive psychologists began to build complementary bridges between cognitive and social psychology by showing increasing interest in the cognitive implications of social situations. Here, we take a closer look at the remaining obstacles to join cognitive and social perspectives on human behavior. Using conformity as an example, we attempt to demonstrate that the social-cognition approach has been successful in adopting cognitive concepts and experimental methods, but is still lagging behind with respect to (1) mechanistic theorizing, as it often engages in merely describing phenomena in terms of reasons rather than explaining it in terms of causes and (2) reflecting the sociohistorical context of the phenomenon under investigation. As we try to show, developing mechanistic theories for social phenomena, including the effects of individual differences and their sociohistorical dependencies, is not only possible but necessary to eliminate the boundaries between cognitive and social accounts of human behavior. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T06:32:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8c57645936294f9bbd8c661e8c82243f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T06:32:55Z |
| publishDate | 2019-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-8c57645936294f9bbd8c661e8c82243f2022-12-22T01:59:00ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782019-11-011010.3389/fpsyg.2019.02643493329Social Cognition 2.0: Toward Mechanistic TheorizingDiana Kim0Diana Kim1Bernhard Hommel2Bernhard Hommel3Institute for Psychological Research, Leiden University, Leiden, NetherlandsLeiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, NetherlandsInstitute for Psychological Research, Leiden University, Leiden, NetherlandsLeiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, NetherlandsSocial cognition emerged in the 1970s and 80s as an attempt to answer social-psychological questions by adopting experimental techniques and theoretical concepts from cognitive psychology. Recently, cognitive psychologists began to build complementary bridges between cognitive and social psychology by showing increasing interest in the cognitive implications of social situations. Here, we take a closer look at the remaining obstacles to join cognitive and social perspectives on human behavior. Using conformity as an example, we attempt to demonstrate that the social-cognition approach has been successful in adopting cognitive concepts and experimental methods, but is still lagging behind with respect to (1) mechanistic theorizing, as it often engages in merely describing phenomena in terms of reasons rather than explaining it in terms of causes and (2) reflecting the sociohistorical context of the phenomenon under investigation. As we try to show, developing mechanistic theories for social phenomena, including the effects of individual differences and their sociohistorical dependencies, is not only possible but necessary to eliminate the boundaries between cognitive and social accounts of human behavior.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02643/fullconformitytheory of event codingadaptive behaviorsocial cognitionmechanistic theorizing |
| spellingShingle | Diana Kim Diana Kim Bernhard Hommel Bernhard Hommel Social Cognition 2.0: Toward Mechanistic Theorizing Frontiers in Psychology conformity theory of event coding adaptive behavior social cognition mechanistic theorizing |
| title | Social Cognition 2.0: Toward Mechanistic Theorizing |
| title_full | Social Cognition 2.0: Toward Mechanistic Theorizing |
| title_fullStr | Social Cognition 2.0: Toward Mechanistic Theorizing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social Cognition 2.0: Toward Mechanistic Theorizing |
| title_short | Social Cognition 2.0: Toward Mechanistic Theorizing |
| title_sort | social cognition 2 0 toward mechanistic theorizing |
| topic | conformity theory of event coding adaptive behavior social cognition mechanistic theorizing |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02643/full |
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