FYI.

Call for Papers
Social Cognition Special Issue: Social Cognition and Health

Editors: Jennifer Howell, University of California, Merced & Kate Ratliff, University of Florida

Although people are living longer than ever before, markers of ill-health persist. Many factors that influence the persistence of illness are psychological: poor health decision-making and behavior (e.g., eating, exercise, treatment adherence), the physical embodiment of poor social interactions (e.g., stigma, social rejection), and potentially harmful cognitions (e.g., rumination, stress). Thus, health is a consequential domain in which to explore, extend, and generalize social cognitive psychological theory.

In this special issue of Social Cognition, we invite papers at the intersection of social cognition and physical health, broadly defined. We welcome submissions examining how social cognition influences physical health and health behavior (e.g., social schemas and patient-provider interaction, neurological processes and physical health), how health and health behavior influence social cognition (e.g., processing of social stimuli as the result of illness or illness cues), or other investigations at the intersection of the two areas.

Consistent with the journal’s editorial statement, we define social cognition as any investigation involving the cognitive processes in social psychology and behavior including: (1) the processes underlying the perception, judgment, and memory of social stimuli; (2) the effects of social and affective factors on the processing of information; and (3) the behavioral and interpersonal consequences of cognitive processes.

We define physical health broadly including as sickness, wellness, health prevention/promotion behaviors, illness cognitions/representations, physiological well-being, physiological responses, and healthcare. Investigations only focused on mental well-being (e.g., happiness, quality of life) are not the primary focus of this special issue; however, we welcome research that examines mental and physical health in tandem.

Researchers wondering whether their study fits the definition of social cognition or health are encouraged to contact the special issue editors. Further, authors are encouraged to outline how their paper fits into the categories of social cognition and health in their cover letter.

For this special issue, we invite submissions in one of two formats:
Articles (no specified length) and Reports (no longer than 4,000 words excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures) and should follow the journal’s guidelines https://www.guilford.com/periodicals/jncoinst.pdf.

The timeline of the issue is as follows:

July 1, 2018–Submissions due via https://socog.msubmit.net
July 31, 2018–Reviews due
August 15, 2018–Review decisions sent to authors
September 30, 2018–Revised manuscripts due
October 31, 2018–Final manuscripts due to journal
April 2019–Issue published

We are excited to see your work at the intersection of social cognition and health and hope that you will consider this special issue an outlet for your research at the intersection of these two important fields!

Please contact Jennifer Howell (howell@ucmerced.edu) and/or Kate Ratliff (ratliff@ufl.edu) with any questions.