Abstract: The perspective of social cognition is a new trend in power studies in recent years.This paper first briefly summarizes the definitions of power，traditions and the current perspective of power studies.Then we elaborate the current results of power studies from the social cognition perspective.With detailed explanation about the impact of power on basic cognitive process，social cognition，morals and behaviors，we finally point out the characteristics of current social cognitive power studies and different models of interpretation on power effects and their theoretical basis.

Key words: power, the priming of power, the approach/inhibition theory of power, the situated focus theory, abstract cognition, basic cognition process