What's Social about Social Cognition? : Research on Socially Shared Cognition in Small Groups

Cognition research has become a major area within psychology - particularly social psychology. However, social cognitive research tends to focus on the individual, neglecting the impact of social interaction on the individual′s cognitive processes, while group process research tends to neglect the cognitive processes of individual group members and their influence on the group.

This volume fills these gaps in the literature and brings the two research areas together: contributions from key scholars in both fields offer empirical research that moves beyond the traditional boundaries of social cognition and small group research.

Cognition research and theory has become a major focus of attention within academic psychology over the past 15 years. However, most social cognition research has tended to focus on the social thinker in isolation, neglecting the impact of social interactions on cognition. A cutting-edge collection from integral figures in social cognition and small group fields, What′s Social About Social Cognition? fills a lapse in the literature while exploring social phenomena within small groups. Significantly augmented from a special issue of Small Group Research, this volume answers the demand for a greater social emphasis in social cognition research by examining decision making, prejudices, motivations, emotions, and reciprocal influences between and among small group members. And while the entire book provides a springboard for research to come on the social processes and aspects of social cognition, a special concluding chapter looks to the future of this important new research focus. Presenting the latest empirical research at the interface between cognitive and social psychology, this volume will appeal to social and personality psychologists specializing in social cognition as well as group researchers in both applied and theoretical behavioral sciences. What′s Social About Social Cognition? will also prove an invaluable textbook for social psychology survey courses that focus on current theories, and for research methods courses in which social cognition models are presented.