Transpersonal psychology and social cognition: Towards an integration

Social cognition and transpersonal psychology, often seen as distinct, can productively inform each other. Transpersonal psychology can benefit from social cognition research, while social cognition can incorporate insights from transpersonal psychology. The paper examines this interface across five social cognition topics: beliefs and attitudes, attribution theory, social representations theory, schema theory, and stereotyping. It also discusses potential applications of this integration.

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Abstract

Social cognilion and transpersonal psychology may seem sharply distinct approaches to psychology. This viewpoint is challenged in this paper, which makes the case for a fruitful rapport between these two perspectives. This is illustrated by looking at how transpersonal psychology may benefit from taking greater cogniza-nce of social cog nd ion research, and at how social cognition may be helped by incorporating important insights from transpersonal psychology. The merits of a transpersonal approach on five topics within social cognition are considered: beliefs and attitudes, attribution theory, social represent at io ns theory, schema theory and stereotyping. Some comments considering the a-pplicalions of an interface between social cognition and transpersonal psychology are also offered.