Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines (CADAAD)

An important dimension incorporated in the socio-cognitive approach, developed by Teun van Dijk, is that of the human mind. For van Dijk, discourse and social structure are mediated by social cognition. Social cognition is defined as "the system of mental representations and processes of group members" (1995: 18). Social cognitions, then, are socially shared mental representations. In this sense, "although embodied in the minds of individuals, social cognitions are social because they are shared and presupposed by group members" (1993b: 257). Social cognitions are connected to what van Dijk (2002) terms 'social memory'. Social cognitions can be characterised more abstractly as 'ideas', 'belief systems' or 'ideologies'. The central claim of the socio-cognitive approach is that the relation between discourse and social structure necessitates that the microlevel (discourse) and macrolevel (social structure) is mediated by ideology, social cognition.