ABSTRACT
Introduction It m ight have seemed obvious when Michael Chandler asked: “What makes social cognition social?” (in Shure 8c Selman, 1977). Isn’t an understanding of others’ thoughts, feelings, and motives, by definition, social? Not necessarily. The Conversation Hour discussion provided further insights: David Bearison noted that “unless we can show that how a child understands his social environment has something to do with how he behaves in a social situation . . . perhaps all we are studying is cognition about social events,” or, as Chandler added, “an understanding of people as objects, not as subjects with the same rules and developmental processes who are also organized and changing.”
