Focusing attention on a multiplicity of issues surrounding the study of behavior is timely and important. Some scholars believe that, across various sub-disciplines of the field, social psychology actually has contributed a great deal to our understanding of behavior and its antecedents. From this perspective, there is considerable utility in drawing together such work in one place. Other scholars suggest that, though there has been great progress elucidating the internal cognitive, affective and motivational underpinnings of behavior, much less research focuses on external behavior itself....

Social cognition, as a field, can be characterized as a distinct subarea of social psychology that examines all of the countless cognitive complexities, mental representations, and processes implicated in interaction, as well as an approach to studying interactions in the context of the groups, cultures, and societies to which they belong. Together these two facets of social cognition create one of the most influential and important social sciences to come along in some time.

Providing a comprehensive review of major topics in the field of social cognition, The Oxford Handbook of...