Interpersonal cognition is the set of mental processes by which people think about their interactions and relationships with others. Research in the area of interpersonal cognition aims to understand how people perceive the many layers of information present in social interactions and how they process this information and [Page 496]store it in memory. A major goal of this research is to understand how people's thoughts, feelings, and behavior in social interactions are influenced by expectations based on past interactions. In particular, researchers often consider the idea that how people think about themselves is influenced by the relationships that they have with others.

Interpersonal cognition research grew rapidly in the 1990s, as researchers expanded their view of social cognition beyond looking at social objects in ...