ABSTRACT
The cognitive processes through which social actors perceive others, comprehend the task, and select their goals are among the most important psychological steps they take to enter into complex social activity. Because of the great range of information that any situation provides and the great variability of individual behavior found in most situations, it is possible that personality variables moderate many of the cognitive processes that are essential for all forms of social action. In the previous chapter, we discussed some of the mechanisms that help determine the content of our social cognitions. In this chapter, we review a number of different types of cognitive activity through which these cognitions are generated.
