ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter is intended as a navigational aid to those interested in exploring the contemporary social cognition literature, and it attempts to plot certain currents and directional trends operating within this research area. While a fuller agenda would have included a more systematic m apping and cataloging of recent studies, reviews of this sort have recently become something of a glut upon the academic marketplace (Chandler, 1977; Chandler 8c Boyes, 1982; Hill 8c Palmquist, 1978; Shantz, 1975), and in this bearish atmosphere there seems little margin in issuing still another such stock report. Instead, what will hopefully prove to be more helpful to persons unfamiliar with this territory is to attempt to locate certain pressure patterns or gathering fronts within this shifting research atmosphere, and to chart areas of apparent turbulence which may signal something about the way the wind is blowing.
