An ideal text for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses, this accessible yet authoritative volume examines how people come to know themselves and understand the behavior of others. Core social-psychological questions are addressed as students gain an understanding of the mental processes involved in perceiving, attending to, remembering, thinking about, and responding to the people in our social world. Particular attention is given to how we know what we know: the often hidden ways in which our perceptions are shaped by contextual factors and personal and cultural biases. While the text's coverage is sophisticated and comprehensive, synthesizing decades of research in this dynamic field, every chapter brings theories and findings down to earth with lively, easy-to-grasp examples.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: What Does It Mean to Know Something?
1. Naive Realism: The Construction of Reality in the Pursuit of Social Knowledge
2. Automaticity and Control
3. Categories and Category Structure: Person Memory Informs Impression Formation Processes
4. On Schemas and Cognitive Misers: Mental Representation as the Building Blocks of Impressions
5. Dual-Process Models
6. Attribution
7. Correspondence Bias and Spontaneous Trait Inference
8. Shortcoming and Biases in Person Perception
9. On Perceptual Readiness: Chronic Sources of Judgmental Influence
10. Temporary Accessibility/Priming Effects: Assimilation and Contrast in Impression Formation
11. Stereotypes and Expectancies
12. Control of Stereotypes and Expectancies
13. From the Intra- to the Interpersonal: Bridging the Gap from Cognition to Behavior
About the Author :
Gordon B. Moskowitz, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lehigh University. He has served as Director of Lehigh’s Cognitive Science Program and Chair of the Department of Psychology. He served two terms on the executive committee of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, has hosted the Society's conference twice, and annually co-organizes the preeminent social cognition conference, the Person Memory Interest Group. He has held editorial positions for Social and Personality Psychology Compass, as well as for the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and sits on the editorial board for Motivation Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Dr. Moskowitz conducts research at the intersection of motivation, implicit bias, and social cognition. His work spans the topics of proactive control, impression formation, stereotyping, minority influence, bias reduction interventions, perspective taking, egalitarianism, self-regulation, impression updating, ambivalence, and backlash. His research program more recently has examined bias in the practice of medicine and the reduction of disparities in health and health care.
Review :
Gordon Moskowitz is one of the leaders of the next generation of social cognition researchers, a highly respected researcher with an eye always on the direction and future of the field. In this valuable book, Moskowitz not only brings the reader up to speed on the brief but intensely productive history of social cognition, he also integrates the important subareas of the field into a compelling and pleasing whole.--John A. Bargh, PhD, Department of Psychology, Yale University
Turn randomly to a page in Moskowitz's Social Cognition and you'll be impressed by the clear writing, the carefully selected mix of classic and cutting-edge studies, and the charmingly eclectic range of illuminating examples and illustrations. Read longer and your appreciation will grow, for this book provides a smart, integrative, and intellectually satisfying exploration of processes of the social mind. What a rare find: a book that will appeal as much to undergraduate and graduate students as it will to the professors who assign it to them!--Steven Neuberg, PhD, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University
This book is a scholarly tour de force. Finally, we have a book that collects all the diverse research on social cognition and person perception in one place. Utterly comprehensive, the book covers fundamental issues in social cognition, with a particular emphasis on self-, other-, and group-perception, integrating all into a common framework. This book should become the bible of social cognition and person perception research. It is broad and deep, and could be used successfully in classes ranging from large undergraduate lecture courses to small graduate seminars.--Jeffrey Sherman, PhD, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
This book is a scholarly tour de force. Finally, we have a book that collects all the diverse research on social cognition and person perception in one place. Utterly comprehensive, the book covers fundamental issues in social cognition, with a particular emphasis on self-, other-, and group-perception, integrating all into a common framework. This book should become the bible of social cognition and person perception research. It is broad and deep, and could be used successfully in classes ranging from large undergraduate lecture courses to small graduate seminars.
-
