ERIC Number: ED222575
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1981
Pages: 50
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Social Cognition in the Classroom.
Weiner, Bernard; And Others
Social cognition is defined as a new field in psychology which emphasizes cognitive processes. It is concerned with how people interpret and construct their social environment. Selected aspects of this field are reviewed. These include perceptual salience, causal attributions, and indirect ability communications. Their pertinence to the educational process is examined. Mainstreaming gives rise to a set of often unnoticed consequences that are anticipated and partially explained by cognitive social psychologists. The perceived causes of achievement outcomes, the antecedents that influence causal judgments, and some of the consequences of attributional beliefs are examined. Teachers unintentionally use indirect communications which carry low ability messages to students. The following apparently positive actions could have negative consequences for self-esteem: praise for success at an easy task, excessive help especially when it is not sought, and expressions of pity for failure. Psychologists interested in self-perception believe that a specified praise/blame pattern, helping, and sympathy may lower self-perception of ability. Positive actions which may negatively influence self-perception of ability are frequently expressed toward the handicapped, ethnic minorities, and females. The report attempts to illustrate the connection between person perception and education. (DWH)
Publication Type: Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Spencer Foundation, Chicago, IL.; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn - Bad Godesberg (West Germany).; National Inst. of Mental Health (DHHS), Bethesda, MD.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A