Social Cognition

Key Ideas

Knowledge and understanding should be relevant to the following key ideas:

· The relationship between social cognition and behaviour is bidirectional. In particular, attitudes influence behaviour, but behaviour also influences attitudes.

· Our perceptions of others and of ourselves are vulnerable to a number of biases.

SACE BOARD CURRICULUM OUTLINE

· The structure of attitudes and the functions they serve; the factors that influence attitude formation and attitude change (including source, message, and audience, and peripheral and central processing routes); the bidirectional relationship between attitudes and behaviour; the factors that influence impression formation; self-knowledge from social comparisons; impression management.

· Psychological principles concerning social cognition in everyday experiences and events

(e.g. meeting a new person, advertising) and in psychological interventions, including public safety campaigns that target attitude change.

· Application of these psychological principles to social issues (e.g. reducing prejudice, increasing the effectiveness of health promotion campaigns) and personal growth (e.g. more effective persuasive communication and impression management).

· Investigation designs and methods of assessing psychological responses used to study social cognition.

· Ethical issues associated with research and applications in the area of social cognition.

Links to Pages

Follow the links to PowerPoint Presentations, Video Clips and Curriculum Summaries developed to support the teaching of each of these topics.

Introduction to Social Cognition PowerPoint

Structure & Function of Attitudes

Bidirectional relationship

Attitude Formation and Attitude Change

Impression Formation, Impression Management & Social Comparisons

Ethical Issues and Investigation Designs