Social Cognition

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses social cognition, which is a branch of social psychology that examines how people process social information. It discusses the types of social cognition and how they can be applied. It then looks into transference and how transference can be used intentionally in psychotherapy to help the therapist understand and find a connection between the patient's past and how the patient reacts to the present.

From the Paper:

"Transference reactions are the result of unmet emotional needs, neglect, seductions and other abuses that transpired during childhood (Conner, 2001). In psychotherapy, a therapist may intentionally create or allow transference to form. This can help the therapist understand and find a connection between the patient's past and how the patient reacts to the present. When a transference pattern is understood by a patient, he can choose to respond in terms of what is actually happening instead of what happened in the past. If they fail to see the pattern, they may never stop their behavior."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Arosnon, Wilkert, Akert. (2005). Social Psychology, Fifth Edition. Pearson Education.
• Conner, Michael. (June, 2001). Transference: Are you a biological time machine? The Source.
• Westen, D., (1998). The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a psychodynamically. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 333-371.
• Wikipedia. (2006). Social Cognition. Retrieved from the Internet at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_cognition.

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