Social Cognition and Cognitive Development

Aim

After completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• apply established theories and empirical findings about human development in terms of social cognition
• account for cognitive processes involved in perceiving socially relevant stimuli during childhood and adulthood
• account for how humans perceive and understand themselves and the social world around them during childhood and adulthood
• account for how humans (children and adults) explain their own and others’ behaviour
• account for how social cognition and cognitive development relates to behaviour
• formulate scientific hypotheses and statistically process data to test theories in the field of social cognition and cognitive development

Content

The course aims to give the students an introduction to the field of social cognition and cognitive development with contributions from social psychology, and neuroscience. The course covers the following aspects:

• Social-cognitive development
• Cognitive develpment
• How humans perceive, understand, and think about themselves and the social world around them
• The relation between social-cognitive phenomena and the brain during childhood and adulthood
• The relation between social-cognitive phenomena and behavior during childhood and adulthood
• The relation between social-cognitive phenomena and individual differences
• The application of social cognition in the world of modern technology