Cognitive Functionalism

Functionalism is one of the three systematic schools of thought alongside structuralism and behaviourism. Its main focus revolves around the functioning of the mind and its usage by organisms to help adapt to new environments. Functionalists study the collective mental processes & functions that lead to pragmatic consequences in the world (Baker et al, 2009).

This leads to the idea of functionalism, which we see is used to make sense of how our mental life can be explained as an entirely physical phenomenon. Under functionalism, the mental states we have are identical to functional states, which is what makes something a belief, desire, experience, etc. Unlike dualism, which explains that there is a difference in kind between the mind, which is immaterial, and the body, which is material, functionalism maintains that to talk about mental states is just to talk about ways that physical systems function. With this idea, functionalism is a form of

Functionalism is a theory about the character of mental states. According with functionalism, mental states are diagnosed with the aid of what they do instead of through what they're product of. This could be understood by considering artefacts like mousetraps and keys. Specially, the original motivation for functionalism comes from the useful evaluation of minds with computer systems. However that is only an analogy. The primary arguments for functionalism rely on showing that its miles advanced to its number one competitors: identification concept and behaviourism. Contrasted with behaviourism, functionalism retains the conventional idea that intellectual states are internal states of questioning creatures, contrasted with identity principle;

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) was created by Aaron Beck, a professor in psychiatry in the 1960’s (Beck, 2011). Initially, Beck sought out to prove the psychoanalytic idea that depression stemmed from anger towards oneself (Beck, 2011). However, during his research he found that misleading thoughts and beliefs were the reasoning behind depression. Beck theorized that one’s current feelings about something are derived from an initial encounter that gave meaning to that specific event. So, negative feelings about a particular occurrence can be a result of misinformation (Beck & Greenberg, 1984).

Functionalism takes an interesting turn from its counterparts of monism and dualism to ask, “are minds limited to brains?” (Friedenburg & Silverman, 2012: 35), and “is it more important to our understanding of reality what something does than what something is?” (Turner, Lecture_4ppx) To make sense of this question Friedenburg & Silverman discusses two ways of classification: Physical kinds - groupings based on physical or material makeup (Friedenburg & Silverman, 2012: 474) and functional kinds - groupings based on similar actions and tendencies (Friedenburg & Silverman, 2012: 467). Functionalism looks at the mind with functionality as paramount since the mental states can be performed in different ways in different entities, but produce the same result, or function (Friedenburg & Silverman, 2012: 35)

The Functionalist Perspective highlights that parts of society are organized to sustain its steadiness. Racist ideologist trusted they have a ethical validation for conserving a society that usually denies evident groups of their privileges and rights. Some of the Racist Beliefs release the dominant group of the accountability to problems encountered by subordinated groups comparable to education or any social difficulty that such groups may develop. There are numerous ways racism is dysfunctional to society, racial prejudice and discernment fail to use assets of other groups. It damages other groups since of poverty, which often outcomes in crime and delinquency. It demoralizes goodwill and diplomatic interactions among countries. As well as, underestimates pacific solutions in disagreements.

In my opinion both of the theories structuralism and functionalism involved the study of the human mind and how it works and they were both concerned with the mind at the conscious level. Personally, my feel of the two is that functionalism is more important than structuralism. I believe that functionalism is far better school than structuralism as it is more flexible and scientific in nature which I can relate myself with. I happen to think that functionalism is an object that is designed to determine solely by its function. These are a few of the similarities between structuralism and functionalism. Throughout this paper I will further explore some of the differences between these

Functionalism was developed as a combination of the Behaviorist theory and the Identity theory. Behaviorism believes being in a mental state is the same as a physical state, which is an observable behavioral characteristic. For instance, if one claims they are unhappy, their physical state could include a frowning face or improper posture. On the other hand, the Identity Theory

People can display themselves outwardly in a certain manner although on the inside be completely different. A person’s attitude and behavior can influence each other; a person’s surrounds will also have an impact on how the person is. An example of this can be seen in a person committing a crime such as shoplifting, the person knows this is illegal and not moral but in the right situation the person may forget his or her moral upbringing and commit the crime any way. Influences on the individual can be overpowering, causing the person to behave or act in an attitude different from the person’s normal action and behavior. People tend to suffer from

cognitive functional independence in stroke patients. Practitioners made treatment plans to check the patients’ response to treatment approach by adapting and grading the activities in order to verify their recovery process. The test result significantly correlate with ADL performance; it was predicted that the level of injury severity and injury location in stroke patients determine the cognition complication. The augment of the research shows the importance of visual perspective and spatial relations on ADL performance. Therefore, any obstacles to it impede ADL performance in the sense that stroke patients find it difficult to distinguish the relationship between an object and a person. For example, patients may not know if either leg is

“How will your family react, if they find out how you spend your nights here?” said Gil.

Biological and cognitive are the two models I have chosen to look into. Biological model looks at the actual biology behind a disorder and what in the body is causing it. This compares to the cognitive model, which looks distinctly at the mind and one’s thoughts that could cause the disorder. These two models really exhibit the mind vs. body conversation.

Functionalism is the belief that a mental state, such as pain, “is to have an internal state which does a certain job” (Ravenscroft, 2005, p. 50). For example, the pain that a human being feels and the pain that an octopus feels may have different physical processes within the brain, but the pain is still being felt; in other words, “to be in (or have) mental state M is to have an internal state which does the ‘M-job’ (Ravenscroft, 2005, p. 51). Any mental state M is defined in terms of inputs, outputs and internal connections, and for example, the pain role’s input may be stepping on a Lego piece, the output may be cursing and finally a possible internal connection, which is the causal link

There are several models of abnormality in use today (Comer, 2009) lists “The Biological Model…”, “The Psychodynamic Model…”, The Behavioral Model…”, The Cognitive Model…”, The Humanistic-Existential Model…”, The Sociocultural Model…” (p.33). The biggest contrasts would be the Biological model, and the other models. Comparing the biological model, and the cognitive model will highlight those differences.

Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes. The American Psychological Association defines cognitive psychology as "The study of higher mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, and thinking."[1] Much of the work derived from cognitive psychology has been integrated into various other modern disciplines of psychological study including social psychology, personality psychology, abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, and educational psychology.