Cognitive Psychology And The Management And Treatment Of Mental Illness

In terms of human behaviour, psychology provides alternative perspectives, known as approaches, which give explanation to human behaviours. What makes each approach unique is that they all have their own focal points for how to explain behaviour. For example, the biological approach looks to the evolutionary processes and gene mutations/hormone levels, whilst the cognitive approach looks at how behaviour is influenced

Cognitive Psychology draws the comparison between the human mind and a computer, suggesting that we like the computer process the information we acquire from around us and then react accordingly. Hearnshaw, (1987), claims that Cognitive Psychology is both one of the oldest and also one of the newest parts of Psychology, cited in ?T. Malim?, (1994). Information is collected through our senses i.e. vision, touch, smell etc and then processed through our

Though we may not realize it nor want to acknowledge it, Cognitive Psychology is a part of every human 's daily life. Cognitive Psychology is the scientific study of the mind as an information processor. In a simpler definition, it is the study of how our minds interpret and process things that we either are informed of or something we take into thought. Cognitive Psychology is a part of our attention process, language use, our memory for both long and short term, perception, problem solving, creativity, and the way we think. Each of these different features are a part of how we perceive information, think, remember, and use the information we gather. Through this branch of psychology, researchers are able to observe the relationship

Biological psychology, of biopsychology, is the application of the principles of biology to the study of mental processes in terms of bodily mechanisms. The view that psychological processes have biological (or physiological) correlates, is the basic assumption of the whole field of biological psychology. Biological psychology is a hopeful domain, one that has much to offer in terms of improving the quality of life of the healthy as well as those suffering from disorders. It also contributed important therapeutic data on a variety of conditions, including: Parkinson 's Disease, Alzheimer 's Disease, Clinical depression, Schizophrenia and a lot others. Humans have very complex nervous system, they use neurons and neurotransmitters to make the highest active communication network throughout the body. “most of the body’s neurons are found in the central nervous system(CNS), which consists of the brain and spinal cord” (psychology 5th edition). “Neuroscience emphasizes that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion. (Van Horn, 2014; Zhao & others, 2014). Therefore, for biological psychologist all that is psychological is first physiological. All thoughts, feeling & behavior ultimately have a biological cause.” We are benefited from biological approach for diagnosing and treating human brains Ex. Schizophrenia. Scientists are also able to create medications for different types of illnesses. Besides having psychologists

Neuropsychology is another field in which both psychology and biology play a major role. Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain as it relates to specific psychological processes and behaviors. It is a clinical and experimental field of psychology that aims to study, assess, understand and treat behaviors directly related to brain functioning. Neuropsychology studies and applies research to the functions and the dysfunctions of the brain and how they affect the body as well as the personality. This has helped us to not only define mental disorders and cognitive impairments, but to develop different treatment

The biological perspective of psychology sees behaviour as a consequence of our biological structure, focusing on, for example, neurotransmitters, the brain and genetics. This perspective came about as an attempt to understand two issues: the influence of heredity on behaviour, and the relationship between mind and body (Glassman and Hadad, 2008). Biological psychologists analyse behaviour in terms of both underlying structure and function, and relationships between environment and organism. It was Charles Darwin (1859) who first demonstrated that genetics and evolution influence human behaviour, arguably kick-starting

The cognitive and biological perspective, studies how the brain influence people’s behavior. To differentiate the two, we must look at which function the brain is being studied. The biological perspective looks at physiological responses from a biological standpoint, factors such as genes and neurotransmitters. The cognitive perspective examines, how information is being

The biological perspective of psychology is focused on the biology of the human mind and its effects on the psyche of the individual. Also called biopsychology or physiological psychology, it takes the view that human behavior can be understood based on the natural driving forces found in the brain itself, as well as the nervous system, and is also influenced by the hormones produced by an individual’s endocrine system and the effects of the immune system, in combination with the genetics residing in the individual’s DNA and the resulting physical characteristics they cause to be expressed. Psychologists from the biological perspective also study how different stimuli on the endocrine or nervous system can cause changes in an individual’s behavior.

This essay will outline and compare both biological and behavioural perspectives on human behaviour. The history, major discoveries and theories will be discussed along with some of the most influential theorists in each of these two areas of psychology. This essay will also compare the two areas strengths and weaknesses in the field of psychology.

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 concept of personality is extensive and complex, but psychologists have tried to describe the nature of personality using different perspectives. Some of the perspectives are founded on empirical studies while others are based on clinical case studies or theories. Some common aspects of personality include psychodynamic, trait approach, cognitive, genetic, and learning approach. The cognitive approach emphasizes how our behavior is influenced by how we process, mentally represent, and store information. Psychologists who take the cognitive approach suggests that mental processes can help us understand several kinds of social and individual behaviors, from problem solving, to decision making, to intelligence and interpersonal attraction. According to Bernstein, (2011), a cognitive perspective on a person inherently describes meanings that are created by the individual, and these meanings are usually constructed out of cognitions on the environment. Personality psychologists taking a cognitive approach to a person, typically study the processes arising from behaviors and effects.

Evolutionary Psychology is the study of progression of thoughts and behaviors through time; centuries, ancestries, and natural science progression (or regression). Evolutionary psychology goes back to the ‘dawn of man’ where personality theory suggests there are environmental causes in its earliest research. Buss

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

Cognitive psychology began emerging in the 1950’s. As highlighted by Kraiger and Salas (1993), this was partially as a response to behaviorism. Critics noted that behaviorism failed to explain how some internal development processes impacted behavior. Cognitive psychology focuses on how individuals acquire process and in the long run store information. Currently, cognitive psychology concentrates on few key human characteristics which include:

“Cognitive psychology is a modern approach to the study of [processes by which people come to understand the world- such processes as memory, learning, comprehending language, problem solving, and creativity. Cognitive psychology has been influenced by developments in language, computer science, and of course, earlier work in philosophy and psychology” – Hayes (cited by Lundin)