Social Cognition, Schema and Stereotypes

Social Cognition, Schemas and Stereotypes

‘Social Cognition’ refers to all those psychological processes that deal with the gathering and processing of information related to social objects (particularly individuals, groups, people, relationships, social issues).

These include all the processes that help in understanding, explaining and interpreting social behaviour.

People as social objects may themselves change as the cognitive process takes place.

For instance,

Conclusions about a student drawn by his/her teacher may differ from the conclusions drawn by student’s mother.

The student may show a difference in her/his behaviour, depending on who is watching her/him — the teacher or the mother.

Social cognition is guided by mental units called schemas.

• Schema is defined as a mental structure that provides a framework, set of rules or guidelines for processing information about any object.
• They are the basic units stored in our memory, and function as shorthand ways of processing information, thus reducing the time and mental effort required in cognition.
• In the case of social cognition, the basic units are social schemas.
• Most of the schemas are in the form of categories or classes.

1. Schemas that function in the form of categories are called prototypes, which are the entire set of features or qualities that help us to define an object completely.

Example of prototype:

• In social cognition, category-based schemas that are related to groups of people are called stereotypes i.e. overgeneralised, are not directly verified, and do not allow for exceptions.
• Stereotypes provide fertile ground for the growth of prejudices and biases against specific groups. But prejudices can also develop without stereotypes.