Has Social Psychology Always Been Cognitive? What is "Cognitive" Anyhow?

Abstract

Contrary to the claim that social psychology has always been cognitive, important early researchers actually had an associationistic perspective. Today's cognitivism is more similar to contemporary associationism than is often supposed because it no longer maintains the necessity of an active mental transformation of sensory input and recognizes automatic, passive processing. However, many social cognitivists still prefer analyses assuming mental activity, and the authors note how this preference influences current social psychological research. Social psychology can benefit from the recognition of the commonalities between social cognition and the theoretical perspective held ty earlier investigators.