This book introduces social cognition from multidisciplinary perspectives, exploring in detail how individuals perceive, interpret, and respond to social stimuli throughout different stages of life.
Organised into five parts, each chapter provides a concise introduction to a specific topic within social cognition, followed by an in-depth exploration of prominent areas of research, the impact of technology, and potential future questions. The book covers core principles of social cognition alongside application in clinical interventions, with topics including how social cognition evolves throughout the lifespan, the impact of technology and social media on social cognition, and how conditions like autism, schizophrenia, and dementia affect social processing. It links social cognition with critical cognitive domains, including attention, memory, and decision-making, highlighting how these processes interact in shaping social behaviour. The book also combines cross-cultural research with relevant studies to show the differences and similarities in social cognition across geographical distances. Each part concludes with guided questions and answers for students to test their understanding knowledge and learning outcomes. By synthesizing current research and identifying future directions, this book offers valuable insights and potential solutions to the complex challenges in the field of social cognition.
Bringing together foundational concepts with advances in the field, the book is ideal reading for students of social psychology, cognitive psychology, social neuroscience and neuropsychology. It will also be of interest to students and researchers of clinical psychology, providing a foundation for future research in applied settings.