International Journal of School and Cognitive Psychology
Open Access

Social Cognitive Skills on Stress and Depressive Symptoms

Zsofia Liu^{* *}Correspondence: Zsofia Liu, Department of Psychology, University of Exeter, Devon, Ukraine, Email:

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About the Study

Humans have evolved to a particularly complex level of behavioral and cultural complexity to the critical role that social cognitive abilities play in daily living. But numerous non-human creatures also exhibit sophisticated social world comprehension. We will examine how cultural learning abilities emerge across taxa, building on theories of human social development while comparing and contrasting humans with other species. Before anything else, we'll discuss the research on social learning, including enhancement, emulation, and imitation. The literature on the social transmission of skills and knowledge between generations will next be critically reviewed before we explore current studies on the evolution of teaching. To better understand the function of cultural learning in social cognitive development, we might adopt a comparative view to discover the distinctive features of social transmission in humans and the social skills that are instead shared with other species.

The development and maintenance of depressive disorders are significantly influenced by stressful experiences. Greater efforts have been made to understand how different forms of stresses affect cognitive functioning because cognitive dysfunction is frequently linked to depressive disease. This knowledge may be useful in finding new therapeutic targets. It should come as no surprise that the majority of studies that have examined how stressors affect cognitive flexibility and control have done so using neuropsychological or behavioral measures. These researches have shed light on the neurobiological systems that mediate the effects of stressors on basic cognitive functions. Such models, however, might provide only a partial perspective of how cognitive flexibility and control might be demonstrated in stressful situations, and how declines in these capacities are represented in behavioral disorders. By way of illustration, the utility of a certain behavioral test, such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST), may offer a measure of flexibility that is restricted to particular cognitive domains or circumstances.

The goal of the current study was to investigate possible expressions of cognitive flexibility and control under stressful conditions that cannot be easily measured by behavioral tests. Determining how individual variations in these talents can work as resiliency or risk factors for depressive illness was also intriguing. The Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire (CCFQ), a quick self-report tool, was created as a result. The CCFQ gauges a person's perceived capacity to exercise control over their thoughts and actions in a stressful environment. It was modelled after traditional behavioral measures of cognitive control and cognitive flexibility. The CCFQ's factor structure and relationship to other self-report measures that explicitly or indirectly evaluate processes related to cognitive control or flexibility were discussed, along with the CCFQ's creation and psychometric characteristics. The idea that higher levels of cognitive flexibility and control (as determined by the CCFQ) would be linked to more positive assessments of stressors and successful coping, which in turn would be indicative of lower levels of depressive symptoms.

Conclusion

Our capacity to decipher social signs in our interactions with others is referred to as social cognitive ability. We have demonstrated that the social brain develops constantly throughout childhood and adolescence using the examples of fundamental social cognitive abilities (facial processing) and advanced social cognitive abilities. Even though such a long growth path may seem risky, it may actually be a developmental benefit that enables the person to adapt quickly to shifting social environment demands and expectations. Future research is now required to comprehend how we may take advantage of these extended periods of cognitive and brain plasticity for focused translational strategies that will assist improve and modify social cognitive functioning during a crucial developmental stage.