Cognitive Psychology And Our Understanding Of Human Mind

“Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we need to know what makes people tick; then figure out which processes are going on in their minds. Psychologist theorized, from this study, that cognition is a mental act or process by which information exists, (McLeod, 2012)".

Cognitive psychology began around 19th century. Different approaches have been used to trace the roots of psychology. It is also known that cognitive psychology was out numbered by behaviorism but later revived, bringing into being cognitive revolution. The paper discusses cognitive revolution in the history of cognitive psychology as the most influential part in the practice of modern psychology.

Cognitive psychology embarked on a revolutionary journey since the era of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Dr. King, 2012). St. Aquinas was the pioneering mind behind the idea that behavior can be divided into two areas, cognitive and effect." Logging empirical research on a subject provides practitioners a comprehensive view of the subject matter" (Dr. King, 2012). In relation to cognitive psychology, one must first have a definition of cognition. The next line of thinking would be to have a working knowledge if interdisciplinary perspective as related to cognitive psychology and a description of the appearance of

The changes in how different psychological processes were identified and understood in the 1950s and 1960s is what many refer to as the “cognitive revolution.” The introduction of research in problems that have already been met - for instance, studying problems of memory and decision making - led to the new approach of theorizing. The cognitive revolution focused on just a couple of key concepts. One idea that stemmed during the cognitive revolution is that the science of psychology cannot direct study the mental world. Another idea that grew during the cognitive revolution was that in order to understand behavior, the science of psychology has to study the mental world (Cognition, pg. 8).

Cognitive psychology is a pure science based mainly on laboratory experiments and began to revolutionize psychology in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and became the dominant approach in psychology by the late 1970’s [ (McLeod, 2007) ] according to Saul McLeod. An example of the cognitive perspective would be when one learns to take blood pressure. First you must learn how to manipulate the blood pressure manometer, learn how to hear blood pressure sounds and understand the meaning of the sounds. As each time you practice these activity, you will gain more confidence and competence in performing the task. The strong point of this perspective is that it mostly uses rigorous scientific methods and the approach has had many practical applications. The weakness of this perspective is that it is to simplistic. It ignores the complexity of the human function, biological influences of the human function and it ignores the emotions, conscious experience and free will.

Psychology is the scientific “study of the mind” (Gross, 2015) and behavior, which includes the study of humans and animals. There are various approaches in modern psychology. A theoretical approach is a perspective (view) about human behavior, there may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions and principles. (McLeod, 2007). A theory is an attempt by theorists to try to explain behavior. Theories are not facts but can be verified by testing. Theories can then be evaluated which I aim to do through this essay, where I will briefly explain the theoretical approaches in psychology and aim to focus on an analysis for each perspective which consist of the psychodynamic, humanist, cognitive and behavioral approaches where I will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each approach separately.

Memory and learning are very similar but have their differences. In order to learn something, one must be able to memorize it and then can learn it. Cognitive psychology is the study of mental process such as learning, memory, and attention. Another key term of cognitive psychology is memory consolidation. Memory consolidation is taking information from short-term memory and transferring it into long-term memory. Without proper rehearsal, consolidating information would be nearly impossible.

Psychology is the study of human behavior. It is the scientific study of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. (Ciccarelli & White, 2015) There are seven perspectives that psychology is fit into known as The Theoretical Perspectives. These perspectives include the psychoanalytical approach, the behavioral approach, the humanistic approach, the cognitive approach, the sociocultural approach, the psychological or neuropsychological approach, and finally the evolutionary approach.(Ciccarelli & White, 2015) Our focus for this paper is going to be on three of these perspectives. The first one will be the sociocultural approach, the second will be the humanistic approach, and the last will be the behavioral approach.(Ciccarelli & White, 2015)

The social-cognitive perspective has a less self-positioned narrowness, because it envisions character as emerging through the actions of the person connecting with his or her social environment. The social cognitive perspective has its groundwork in the behavioral principle convention of classical conditioning and operant conditioning, but its adjoining organization is the other cognitively oriented direct principle of observational learning. The social cognitive perspective also examines how people analyze, remember, interpret, and use information about others and themselves, interactions, and

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.

The introspection and behaviorism movements in psychology both had certain flaws and limitations that did not allow them to examine underlying cognitive processes. However, their flaws in studying psychology were on opposite sides of the same coin. The reconciliation of these two flawed fields, along with some other methods, led to the “cognitive revolution” and the eventual emergence of cognitive psychology (Cognition, p. 13)

Cognitive psychology is the segment of psychology that explores internal mental processes such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language. Cognitive psychology also focuses on information processing and the method of how people store, manipulate and use information (Barsalou, 2005). With an emphasis on thought processes, cognitive psychology also explores and discusses thinking and knowledge acquisition as conceptual terms. Well known contributors to the fields, such as Jean Piaget, are especially concerned with the development of cognition and formed stage theories to explain

Smith (2001) defines psychology as the study of the mind. One major subset within the broad study of psychology is popularly known as cognitive psychology. According to Aukrust (2011), cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the study of mental processes which includes how people or individuals think, perceive, learn and remember. As a part of the larger cognitive science field, this psychology branch is by means related to other disciplines such as neuroscience, linguistics and philosophy. Processes included in cognition are judging, thinking, remembering, knowing and problem solving.

This definition of Hayes emphasizes the notion that cognitive psychology gives significance to the study of higher mental processes. According to Lichtenstein, among the appealing aspects of cognitive psychology is that it corresponds quite well to the common sense psychology of the layperson. If a student is

The psychodynamics of a human mind are designed by nature to adhere to a certain thought process that makes up one's mindset. The said mindset acts as a shell when it comes to creating perceptions. This mental shell is something that acts as a hindrance to adapt to any changes stimulated in the environment that contradicts with an individual's behavioural pattern.