Gordon Brett
Biographic Data
| ID | 249995 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gordon Brett |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gordon |
| FAMILY NAME | Brett |
| SIGNATURE | BRETT G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7710-3281 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 76 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Pragmatism, Dual‐Process Theory, and the Study of Reflective Cognition
This article advances dual‐process theory (DPT) by developing a pragmatist framework for the study of reflective cognition. Although dual‐process models were introduced to sociology via Bourdieusian practice theory, Bourdieusian DPT has proven inadequate for theorising reflective cognition and action, with sociologists looking to pragmatism as an alternative. To support these efforts, I provide a synthetic, elemental account of the pragmatist the…
Affordances, personal culture, and place-based variation in creativity
Does Anyone Use Sociology, Other Than Sociologists? The Interdisciplinary Relevance of ASA Journals, 2000–2023
Introduction to Special Issue
Social skills and audience agency in improvised social performance
Theory Figures and Causal Claims in Sociology
When sociologists examine the content of sociological knowledge, they typically engage in textual analysis. Conversely, this paper examines the relationship between theory figures and causal claims. Analyzing a random sample of articles from prominent sociology journals, we find several notable trends in how sociologists both describe and visualize causal relationships, as well as how these modes of representation interrelate. First, we find that…
Testing Models of Cognition and Action Using Response Conflict and Multinomial Processing Tree Models
Dual-process perspectives have made substantial contributions to our understanding of behavior, but fundamental questions about how and when deliberate and automatic cognition shape action continue to be debated. Among these are whether automatic or deliberate cognition is ultimately in control of behavior, how often each type of cognition controls behavior in practice, and how the answers to each of these questions depends on the individual in q…
The Diffusion of Culture and Cognition Within and Beyond Sociology, 1997–2021 1
In recent years, sociologists have lamented the fact that interdisciplinary exchange regarding Culture and Cognition has been largely asymmetrical. However, to date, no sociologist has empirically established the degree of interdisciplinary diffusion of Culture and Cognition scholarship. We add empirical detail to these discussions through a bibliographic analysis of 16 key Culture and Cognition articles, analyzing their citation patterns both wi…
The Sociocognitive Origins of Personal Mastery
This article examines the relationship between cognitive processing and mastery. While scholars have called for the integration of sociological and cognitive analyses of mastery, sociological research has focused almost exclusively on mapping its social correlates. As a result, sociologists have relied on untested and underspecified assumptions about cognition to explain the efficacy of mastery. Taking an interdisciplinary approach integrating re…
Dueling with Dual-Process Models
Sociologists increasingly draw on dual-process models of cognition to account for the ways context, cognition, and action interrelate. Drawing from 40 interviews with improvisers and observations from improvisational theater, I find that dual-process model scholarship is limited in three respects: It does not consider how cognition operates in situations where order and disruption are concurrent, it fails to realize there is interindividual varia…
Who Thinks How? Social Patterns in Reliance on Automatic and Deliberate Cognition
Sociologists increasingly use insights from dual-process models to explain how people think and act. These discussions generally emphasize the influence of cultural knowledge mobilized through automatic cognition, or else show how the use of automatic and deliberate processes vary according to the task at hand or the context. Drawing on insights from sociological theory and suggestive research from social and cognitive psychology, we argue that s…
Have Schemas Been Good To Think With
Schemas are one of the most popular explanatory concepts in cultural sociology and are increasingly used in sociology more broadly. In this article, we ask the question: have schemas been good to think with? We answer this question by analyzing the ontological, epistemic, and methodological bases of schemas, including the conceptualizations, claims, assumptions, and methods that underpin the use of schemas in sociological inquiry. We show that so…
The right tool for the job
The visualization of social theory is an important part of the development and communication of our theoretical ideas. While most theorists use figures of some kind, few if any have formal training, or guiding rules or principles for the representation of theory. This has often led to poor visualization efforts, and the visual culture of sociology continues to lag behind the natural sciences. The intent of this paper is to serve as a practical an…
Beyond Two Minds
Scholars in sociology and social psychology typically represent creativity as an imaginative and deliberate mental activity. Such a perspective has led to a view of creativity as disconnected from the body and the senses as well as from nonanalytic cognition. In this article, we demonstrate that creativity is more grounded in bodily and sensory experience and more reliant on a combination of cognitive processes than has been typically recognized.…
Making the Virtual Rounds
In the “Health 2.0” era, digital media has altered how health care is conducted and how patients consume medical information. This article explores the reasons why health-care professionals create their own blogs and how they use blogging as a component of their work. We examine interviews with medical bloggers ( n = 83) featured on “Grand Rounds,” a weekly medical blog forum or “carnival,” to interpret the ways in which blogging is incorporated …
Reframing the 'Violence' of Mixed Martial Arts
Beyond Two Minds
Scholars in sociology and social psychology typically represent creativity as an imaginative and deliberate mental activity. Such a perspective has led to a view of creativity as disconnected from the body and the senses as well as from nonanalytic cognition. In this article, we demonstrate that creativity is more grounded in bodily and sensory experience and more reliant on a combination of cognitive processes than has been typically recognized.…
Dueling with Dual-Process Models
Sociologists increasingly draw on dual-process models of cognition to account for the ways context, cognition, and action interrelate. Drawing from 40 interviews with improvisers and observations from improvisational theater, I find that dual-process model scholarship is limited in three respects: It does not consider how cognition operates in situations where order and disruption are concurrent, it fails to realize there is interindividual varia…
Who Thinks How? Social Patterns in Reliance on Automatic and Deliberate Cognition
Sociologists increasingly use insights from dual-process models to explain how people think and act. These discussions generally emphasize the influence of cultural knowledge mobilized through automatic cognition, or else show how the use of automatic and deliberate processes vary according to the task at hand or the context. Drawing on insights from sociological theory and suggestive research from social and cognitive psychology, we argue that s…
Have Schemas Been Good To Think With
Schemas are one of the most popular explanatory concepts in cultural sociology and are increasingly used in sociology more broadly. In this article, we ask the question: have schemas been good to think with? We answer this question by analyzing the ontological, epistemic, and methodological bases of schemas, including the conceptualizations, claims, assumptions, and methods that underpin the use of schemas in sociological inquiry. We show that so…
The right tool for the job
The visualization of social theory is an important part of the development and communication of our theoretical ideas. While most theorists use figures of some kind, few if any have formal training, or guiding rules or principles for the representation of theory. This has often led to poor visualization efforts, and the visual culture of sociology continues to lag behind the natural sciences. The intent of this paper is to serve as a practical an…
Testing Models of Cognition and Action Using Response Conflict and Multinomial Processing Tree Models
Dual-process perspectives have made substantial contributions to our understanding of behavior, but fundamental questions about how and when deliberate and automatic cognition shape action continue to be debated. Among these are whether automatic or deliberate cognition is ultimately in control of behavior, how often each type of cognition controls behavior in practice, and how the answers to each of these questions depends on the individual in q…
Theory Figures and Causal Claims in Sociology
When sociologists examine the content of sociological knowledge, they typically engage in textual analysis. Conversely, this paper examines the relationship between theory figures and causal claims. Analyzing a random sample of articles from prominent sociology journals, we find several notable trends in how sociologists both describe and visualize causal relationships, as well as how these modes of representation interrelate. First, we find that…
The Sociocognitive Origins of Personal Mastery
This article examines the relationship between cognitive processing and mastery. While scholars have called for the integration of sociological and cognitive analyses of mastery, sociological research has focused almost exclusively on mapping its social correlates. As a result, sociologists have relied on untested and underspecified assumptions about cognition to explain the efficacy of mastery. Taking an interdisciplinary approach integrating re…
Reframing the 'Violence' of Mixed Martial Arts
The Diffusion of Culture and Cognition Within and Beyond Sociology, 1997–2021 1
In recent years, sociologists have lamented the fact that interdisciplinary exchange regarding Culture and Cognition has been largely asymmetrical. However, to date, no sociologist has empirically established the degree of interdisciplinary diffusion of Culture and Cognition scholarship. We add empirical detail to these discussions through a bibliographic analysis of 16 key Culture and Cognition articles, analyzing their citation patterns both wi…
Reframing the 'Violence' of Mixed Martial Arts
Making the Virtual Rounds
In the “Health 2.0” era, digital media has altered how health care is conducted and how patients consume medical information. This article explores the reasons why health-care professionals create their own blogs and how they use blogging as a component of their work. We examine interviews with medical bloggers ( n = 83) featured on “Grand Rounds,” a weekly medical blog forum or “carnival,” to interpret the ways in which blogging is incorporated …
Beyond Two Minds
Scholars in sociology and social psychology typically represent creativity as an imaginative and deliberate mental activity. Such a perspective has led to a view of creativity as disconnected from the body and the senses as well as from nonanalytic cognition. In this article, we demonstrate that creativity is more grounded in bodily and sensory experience and more reliant on a combination of cognitive processes than has been typically recognized.…
The right tool for the job
The visualization of social theory is an important part of the development and communication of our theoretical ideas. While most theorists use figures of some kind, few if any have formal training, or guiding rules or principles for the representation of theory. This has often led to poor visualization efforts, and the visual culture of sociology continues to lag behind the natural sciences. The intent of this paper is to serve as a practical an…
Who Thinks How? Social Patterns in Reliance on Automatic and Deliberate Cognition
Sociologists increasingly use insights from dual-process models to explain how people think and act. These discussions generally emphasize the influence of cultural knowledge mobilized through automatic cognition, or else show how the use of automatic and deliberate processes vary according to the task at hand or the context. Drawing on insights from sociological theory and suggestive research from social and cognitive psychology, we argue that s…
Have Schemas Been Good To Think With
Schemas are one of the most popular explanatory concepts in cultural sociology and are increasingly used in sociology more broadly. In this article, we ask the question: have schemas been good to think with? We answer this question by analyzing the ontological, epistemic, and methodological bases of schemas, including the conceptualizations, claims, assumptions, and methods that underpin the use of schemas in sociological inquiry. We show that so…
Dueling with Dual-Process Models
Sociologists increasingly draw on dual-process models of cognition to account for the ways context, cognition, and action interrelate. Drawing from 40 interviews with improvisers and observations from improvisational theater, I find that dual-process model scholarship is limited in three respects: It does not consider how cognition operates in situations where order and disruption are concurrent, it fails to realize there is interindividual varia…
Testing Models of Cognition and Action Using Response Conflict and Multinomial Processing Tree Models
Dual-process perspectives have made substantial contributions to our understanding of behavior, but fundamental questions about how and when deliberate and automatic cognition shape action continue to be debated. Among these are whether automatic or deliberate cognition is ultimately in control of behavior, how often each type of cognition controls behavior in practice, and how the answers to each of these questions depends on the individual in q…
The Diffusion of Culture and Cognition Within and Beyond Sociology, 1997–2021 1
In recent years, sociologists have lamented the fact that interdisciplinary exchange regarding Culture and Cognition has been largely asymmetrical. However, to date, no sociologist has empirically established the degree of interdisciplinary diffusion of Culture and Cognition scholarship. We add empirical detail to these discussions through a bibliographic analysis of 16 key Culture and Cognition articles, analyzing their citation patterns both wi…
The Sociocognitive Origins of Personal Mastery
This article examines the relationship between cognitive processing and mastery. While scholars have called for the integration of sociological and cognitive analyses of mastery, sociological research has focused almost exclusively on mapping its social correlates. As a result, sociologists have relied on untested and underspecified assumptions about cognition to explain the efficacy of mastery. Taking an interdisciplinary approach integrating re…
Theory Figures and Causal Claims in Sociology
When sociologists examine the content of sociological knowledge, they typically engage in textual analysis. Conversely, this paper examines the relationship between theory figures and causal claims. Analyzing a random sample of articles from prominent sociology journals, we find several notable trends in how sociologists both describe and visualize causal relationships, as well as how these modes of representation interrelate. First, we find that…
Does Anyone Use Sociology, Other Than Sociologists? The Interdisciplinary Relevance of ASA Journals, 2000–2023
Introduction to Special Issue
Social skills and audience agency in improvised social performance
Pragmatism, Dual‐Process Theory, and the Study of Reflective Cognition
This article advances dual‐process theory (DPT) by developing a pragmatist framework for the study of reflective cognition. Although dual‐process models were introduced to sociology via Bourdieusian practice theory, Bourdieusian DPT has proven inadequate for theorising reflective cognition and action, with sociologists looking to pragmatism as an alternative. To support these efforts, I provide a synthetic, elemental account of the pragmatist the…
Affordances, personal culture, and place-based variation in creativity
Psychology (11 works) · Social and Cultural Dynamics (10 works) · Cognition (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (5 works)