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Cited by 61Child and Animal Learning DevelopmentAction Observation and SynchronizationMental Health and Psychiatry

Social cognition and psychopathology: a critical overview.

Open access
Gallagher, Shaun, Varga, Somogy·2015·World Psychiatry
DOI 10.1002/wps.20173PMC PMC4329883
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Abstract

The philosophical and interdisciplinary debate about the nature of social cognition, and the processes involved, has important implications for psychiatry. On one account, mindreading depends on making theoretical inferences about another person's mental states based on knowledge of folk psychology, the so-called "theory theory" (TT). On a different account, "simulation theory" (ST), mindreading depends on simulating the other's mental states within one's own mental or motor system. A third approach, "interaction theory" (IT), looks to embodied processes (involving movement, gesture, facial expression, vocal intonation, etc.) and the dynamics of intersubjective interactions (joint attention, joint action, and processes not confined to an individual system) in highly contextualized situations to explain social cognition, and disruptions of these processes in some psychopathological conditions. In this paper, we present a brief summary of these three theoretical frameworks (TT, ST, IT). We then focus on impaired social abilities in autism and schizophrenia from the perspective of the three approaches. We discuss the limitations of such approaches in the scientific studies of these and other pathologies, and we close with a short reflection on the future of the field. In this regard we argue that, to the extent that TT, ST and IT offer explanations that capture different (limited) aspects of social cognition, a pluralist approach might be best.

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  • The authors suggest the existence of a continuum on social cognition in which healthy meditators and individuals with psychopathology are likely to be positioned at opposite poles and healthy non-meditators in the middle section.

    “More specifically, based on these findings and related studies (Gallagher and Varga, 2015), we suggest the existence of a continuum on social cognition in which healthy meditators and individuals with psychopathology (i.e., schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder) are likely to be positioned at opposite poles and where healthy non-meditators are likely to be positioned in the middle section.”

    From Exploring the role of meditation and dispositional mindfulness on social cognition domains: A controlled study (2019) · cites this paper as Gallagher and Varga, 2015

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5 of the 151 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Gallagher S. The practice of mind: theory, simulation, or interac- tion? J Conscious Stud 2001;8:83-107.
  2. Varela F, Thompson E, Rosch E. The embodied mind. Cam- bridge: MIT Press, 1991.
  3. Baron-Cohen S. Is autism necessarily a disability? Dev Psycho- pathol 2000;12:489-500.
  4. Scott S. Metarepresentation in philosophy and psychology. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Sci- ence Society. Human Communication Research Centre, Univer- sity of Edinburgh, 2001:910-6.
  5. Apperly I. Mindreaders: the cognitive basis of ToM. Hove: Psy- chology Press, 2011.
  6. Hilton C, Zhang Y, White M et al. Motor impairment concor- dant and discordant for autism spectrum disorders. Autism 2012;16:430-41.
  7. Savarese RJ. Moving the field: the sensorimotor perspective on autism. Front Integr Neurosci 2013;7:6.
  8. Hardy-Bayl e MC. Organisation de l'action, ph enome `nes de con- science et repr esentation mentale de l'action chez des schizo- phre `nes. Actualit es Psychiatriques 1994;20:393-400.

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Authors
Gallagher, S., & Varga, S.
Affiliations
  • University of Hertfordshire (GB)
  • University of Memphis (US)
ORCID
Venue
World Psychiatry
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015-02
Volume
14
Issue
1
Pages
5-14
ISSN
1723-8617 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1002/wps.20173
PMC
PMC4329883
OpenAlex
W2026566597
Cited by
61
References
151
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3
FWCI
17.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
doi.wiley.com/10.1002/tdm_license_1.1 (tdm, 212 d)
Locations
  • World Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Online (University of Wollongong) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion)
  • University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (University of Hertfordshire) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
  • European Commission (264828, FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN)
  • FP7 People: Marie-Curie Actions (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN, 264828)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Mental Health and Psychiatry
Keywords
social cognition, theory of mind, theory theory, simulation theory, interaction theory, folk psychology, autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, psychopathology, embodied cognition, joint attention, joint action, intersubjectivity, pluralism

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