{"id":1081,"date":"2024-03-01T15:11:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T20:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=1081"},"modified":"2024-08-25T10:41:19","modified_gmt":"2024-08-25T14:41:19","slug":"7-introduction","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/chapter\/7-introduction\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction","rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"When you see the two terms \u201csocial\u201d and \u201ccognition\u201d together, you can probably figure out what the topic of this chapter means. Also, since this text is oriented around a sociocultural perspective, by this time, I am sure that you may have a hard time even thinking about cognition \u2014 or thinking \u2014 outside of a social context.\r\n\r\nSo that would be correct, but the term social cognition is actually a technical term meant to signify some pretty specific ideas in children\u2019s thinking. Instead of it being \u201cthinking in a social context,\u201d as we have been discussing all along, it is \u201cthe intersection between social understanding and thinking.\u201d\r\n\r\nIt will take more than a single phrase to explain it, though, and you will come to understand social cognition better as we go through some of the major categories of thinking it involves.\r\n\r\nAs an overview, social cognition encompasses:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mind: we all have one and can think<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perspective-taking: different people can have different thoughts<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">Metacognitive awareness: being aware of mental processes such as those in the chapters of this book (i.e. attention, memory, problem-solving, etc.)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nSocial cognition relates somewhat to Piaget\u2019s idea of egocentrism, which occurs in his sensorimotor stage. So, while we have not gone into detail about his stages, this idea of egocentrism is helpful here because, in some ways, it is the polar opposite of social cognition!\r\n\r\nWhen a young child is unable to see or imagine others\u2019 perspectives, that child is in the egocentric stage. This is not a value judgment \u2014 it does not mean the child is selfish or egotistical. Instead, it means that the child can only view the world from their own standpoint, simply because they have not yet even defined the parameters of their and others\u2019 thoughts and intentions. They act according to their own understanding, and that understanding does not extend to others in complex ways until later in childhood.\r\n\r\nWhen Piaget identified social cognition in his work, he talked about young children past the egocentric stage; typically, five-year-old\u00a0 children are thought to \u201chave developed social cognition.\u201d But we know from other scholarly work that much younger children exhibit different types of thinking about others\u2019 perspectives and using others as a means of development \u2014 even if they do not engage in a complex type of perspective-taking that many Western researchers have tested in laboratories.\r\n\r\nIn fact, social cognition begins when infants start to look to adults as a gauge of how to interpret the world. So, we begin our consideration of social cognition with the many ways in which thinking and understanding are related in specific ways to social understanding.\r\n\r\nIn this chapter, we will address social cognition in infancy and revisit some ideas about attention from Chapter 3. Then, we will look at other ways social cognition becomes more elaborate and internalized as children get older.\r\n\r\nAs we\u2019ve done in previous chapters, we will draw from cognitive development textbooks but also broaden our lens to think about social cognition beyond the laboratory and Western cultural experiences.\r\n\r\nBefore we consider what types of social cognition occur in infancy and childhood, let\u2019s take some time to reflect on our own professional experiences and observations (or personal experiences, if you are not in an education-related field).\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<h2 class=\"textbox__title\">Reflection Journal<\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\n<strong><a id=\"reflection7.1\"><\/a>Reflection 7.1:<\/strong> Imagine a day in the life of a child in an early learning environment: arriving, going about routines, listening to stories, singing, interacting with others, transitioning from one activity to the next, etc. What types of activities might be difficult for them to perform before they have developed social cognition?\r\n\r\nIn your 3-5 sentence response, consider the three things that social cognition encompasses (see bulleted list above) and focus especially on perspective-taking.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<p>When you see the two terms \u201csocial\u201d and \u201ccognition\u201d together, you can probably figure out what the topic of this chapter means. Also, since this text is oriented around a sociocultural perspective, by this time, I am sure that you may have a hard time even thinking about cognition \u2014 or thinking \u2014 outside of a social context.<\/p>\n<p>So that would be correct, but the term social cognition is actually a technical term meant to signify some pretty specific ideas in children\u2019s thinking. Instead of it being \u201cthinking in a social context,\u201d as we have been discussing all along, it is \u201cthe intersection between social understanding and thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It will take more than a single phrase to explain it, though, and you will come to understand social cognition better as we go through some of the major categories of thinking it involves.<\/p>\n<p>As an overview, social cognition encompasses:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mind: we all have one and can think<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perspective-taking: different people can have different thoughts<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">Metacognitive awareness: being aware of mental processes such as those in the chapters of this book (i.e. attention, memory, problem-solving, etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Social cognition relates somewhat to Piaget\u2019s idea of egocentrism, which occurs in his sensorimotor stage. So, while we have not gone into detail about his stages, this idea of egocentrism is helpful here because, in some ways, it is the polar opposite of social cognition!<\/p>\n<p>When a young child is unable to see or imagine others\u2019 perspectives, that child is in the egocentric stage. This is not a value judgment \u2014 it does not mean the child is selfish or egotistical. Instead, it means that the child can only view the world from their own standpoint, simply because they have not yet even defined the parameters of their and others\u2019 thoughts and intentions. They act according to their own understanding, and that understanding does not extend to others in complex ways until later in childhood.<\/p>\n<p>When Piaget identified social cognition in his work, he talked about young children past the egocentric stage; typically, five-year-old\u00a0 children are thought to \u201chave developed social cognition.\u201d But we know from other scholarly work that much younger children exhibit different types of thinking about others\u2019 perspectives and using others as a means of development \u2014 even if they do not engage in a complex type of perspective-taking that many Western researchers have tested in laboratories.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, social cognition begins when infants start to look to adults as a gauge of how to interpret the world. So, we begin our consideration of social cognition with the many ways in which thinking and understanding are related in specific ways to social understanding.<\/p>\n<p>In this chapter, we will address social cognition in infancy and revisit some ideas about attention from Chapter 3. Then, we will look at other ways social cognition becomes more elaborate and internalized as children get older.<\/p>\n<p>As we\u2019ve done in previous chapters, we will draw from cognitive development textbooks but also broaden our lens to think about social cognition beyond the laboratory and Western cultural experiences.<\/p>\n<p>Before we consider what types of social cognition occur in infancy and childhood, let\u2019s take some time to reflect on our own professional experiences and observations (or personal experiences, if you are not in an education-related field).<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<h2 class=\"textbox__title\">Reflection Journal<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p><strong><a id=\"reflection7.1\"><\/a>Reflection 7.1:<\/strong> Imagine a day in the life of a child in an early learning environment: arriving, going about routines, listening to stories, singing, interacting with others, transitioning from one activity to the next, etc. What types of activities might be difficult for them to perform before they have developed social cognition?<\/p>\n<p>In your 3-5 sentence response, consider the three things that social cognition encompasses (see bulleted list above) and focus especially on perspective-taking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-1081","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":813,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1243,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1081\/revisions\/1243"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/813"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1081\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/childthink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=1081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}