Social Change and Social Cognition

As Moskowitz notes, there exist “…general forces that shape social cognition, even though we remain naïve to their influence” (Moskowitz, 2005, p. 233). Social psychologists continue to study the social “forces” that influence how one thinks and in turn, how such thoughts impact behavior. This course has covered several areas of social cognition including the following:

• Presence of both conscious and unconscious processing
• Memory processes; conceptualization of the self
• Attempts to understand causality in the social world
• Accuracy of personal cognitive processing
• Attitude formation
• Stereotypes and prejudice behavior
• Impact of gender, culture, and emotion on cognitive processing
• Behavior change through social cognitive channels

In the essay, please follow the structure as below:

1. A brief explanation of two ways you might use social cognition to promote social change.
My goal of social change: Change the organisations’ behaviour of producing gender bias ads which stereotype women.

2. Then, explain how you might incorporate social cognition into your future practice or research.
My future research topic: How does gender bias ads influences consumers purchase intentions?

3. Finally, explain how you might use an element of social cognition in your daily interactions with others.

Be specific and use examples.