A social cognition approach to health psychology: Philosophical and methodological issues

Abstract

Health psychologists working within a “social cognition” framework routinely regard verbal reports as indices of cognitive/mental representations and behavioural dispositions. Social cognition developed within social psychology but the philosophy of science, theoretical assumptions and methodological practices which constitute it are not universally accepted by social psychologists. This paper explores the implications of debates about the validity of a social cognitive perspective for research practice in health psychology. The realist foundations of social cognition are contrasted with the social constructionist perspective underpinning many discourse analysis studies. It is argued that a realist view of potentially accurate verbal reports and an individual cognitive focus are essential to health psychology research. However, it is emphasized that culture-bound self-presentational processes operating in data-collection contexts necessitate methodologies capable of monitoring and controlling the impact of those contexts on the content of collected verbal reports. Various methodological approaches are discussed and illustrative studies are used to demonstrate how cognitive categorizations of verbal reports can be used to predict health outcomes.

Key Words:

• Social cognition
• discourse
• health psychology theory
• methodology