HDP42241

Social cognition sits at the interface between social psychology and cognitive psychology, with further contributions from personality psychology, cultural psychology, language, and neuroscience. Social cognition explores the ways that people make sense of their social worlds and themselves within those worlds. In this class, students are introduced to cognitive processes – such as perception, memory, attribution, and judgment – and how these relate to important sociological issues. For instance: How do social stereotypes, collective identities, and urban legends evolve and proliferate? What benefits and challenges to they produce? How do social phenomena – such as cancel culture, voting choices, and climate actions – depend on our beliefs, and what shapes those beliefs? Finally, students explore how principles from the field of social cognition can be applied to support personal, interpersonal, and societal wellbeing.SPECIAL NOTES: