Cognitive Psychology 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. 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: Perception The foremost human characteristic is the ability to comprehend or perceive. Perception is a vital feature since it is the process by which an individual interprets his immediate environment as well as situations, changes, and interactions within it. Aukrust (2011) states that perception involves the physical sense such as smell, sight, hearing, touch taste, and cognitive processes which are
Joseph’s unhappy childhood can be linked to his parent’s argument and he seems to have associated the darkness as a trigger for that events. Furthermore, splitting with his girlfriend may also have prompted him to feel lonely. This might have instilled fear on him, causing anxiety, panic attacks and depression. Biomedical, cognitive behavioural and psychodynamic approach can be used alongside, as treatment methods to help Joseph with his disorder.
The cognitive approach involves neuroscience, philosophy and psychology, being useful because instead of just measuring external behaviours (a method employed by behaviourists), it measures internal states like memory and mental processes, but it does this more accurately because of the scientific methods used, than something like psychoanalysis. The cognitive approach is more reliable than, for example, structuralism because it applies scientific research methods, making it more reliable. Other methods can be very subjective, and the methods of measuring them inaccurate. However, since the cognitive approach uses mainly
Cognitive psychology is the study of higher mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, and thinking. Attention is the state of focused awareness on a subset of the available perceptual information. Language is what people say, sign, and write, as well as the processes they go through to produce these messages. Memory is the mental capacity to encode, store, and retrieve information. Perception is the process that organize information in the sensory image and interpret it has been produced by properties of objects or events in the external, three-dimensional world. Problem solving is thinking that is directed toward solving specific problems and that moves from an initial state to a goal state by means
The cognitive perspective focuses on the how people mentally process and retrieve information. It looks at how we process information we receive and how the information leads to our information. The mind also reasons and solves problems is like a computer operating all the time. People are always learning new things, getting new information to memorize and always thinking making the mind work. When having a problem our mind is working finding out the solution. Mental processes should and can be investigated scientifically. They actively organize and manipulate information we receive. As well, includes the senses and the processing of what we sense on how it interacts with what we already know. Helping to make decisions by judging inside the
In psychology 101 our most recent exam was on developmental psychology and how our personalities were created. It was a scantron exam in our lecture hall. We were tested on our knowledge of the scientist that brought together that certain type of psychology branch and the history of how methods have improved throughout the years of research leading to today. I used the timer strategy for studying with my flashcards that I had made while looking over our PowerPoints that were given in class. Not only did this give me a nice break so I wouldn’t get too fried out, but also it helped me remain focused and helped me to soak up the information better than just keeping it in my short-term memory.
The Cognitive approach focuses on mental processes, it assumes that how we perceive ourselves and our environment affect our emotions, which in turn affects our behaviour. The approach suggests disordered thinking causes abnormal behaviour. Cognitive disorders are learned, therefore, they can be unlearned, which is similar to the behaviourist approach. If the behaviour is monitored and evaluated, it can be altered. Therefore the approach assumes cognitive change will lead to changes in behaviour. The cognitive approach has been influenced by the development with computer science. Researchers often make comparisons are between how a computer processes information and how the human brain processes information. Cognitive research tends to take
The cognitive perspective focuses on the way people perceive process and retrieve information. Cognitive psychologists are interested memory, problem solving and decision making ((burton 2012_1) p19). Unlike psychodynamics, cognitive perspectives emphasise present, conscious thinking and efficient decisions making in lieu of more innate or unconscious processes.
Cognitive theories in psychology describe the thought process of human behavior, with the belief that it is these such processes that affect the way that humans behave. In short, cognitive theory describes the basis of thought being an internal mental event that can cause external behavior to occur. There are many cognitive theories throughout the domains, however, the various theories within the decision making and attention domains are among the most influential.
Cognitive theory examines internal mental representations such as sensation, reasoning, thinking and memory. Cognition involves how children and adults go about representing, organizing, treating, and transforming information that in turn alters behaviour. Cognitive learning theorists say that the human capacity to use symbols affords us a powerful means for comprehending and dealing with our environment. Symbols allow us to represent events; analyze our conscious
Every single human being goes through periods of feeling anxious or overwhelmed. It’s a part of the natural human behavior. Some of us go through bouts of depression that makes it hard for us to even get out of bed. Sometimes we suffer from really serious anxiety around things like test taking, flying, lots of things. All of which are brutalizing our self-worth and affecting our daily performances in work and life. At this point, one would be ready for professional help and, lucky for us, we have a lot of options. Psychotherapy includes a therapist using a range of techniques to help a patient overwhelm troubles, gain insight, and achieve personal growth. There is a variety of techniques to that experts analyze and treat ailments of the mind. They each create their own experience for a person looking for help and in fact, some approaches are better suited for treating certain psychological conditions than others. Psychotherapy is commonly grouped into three major schools or orientations, which are humanistic, cognitive, and behavioral. I will also be discussing the areas of agreement and disagreement between these groups.
This psychology class has further introduced me to two subfields of psychology that interest me. The first subfield is clinical psychology, which is “the study of individuals, by observation or experimentation, with the intention of promoting change” (American Psychological Association, 2015). They study different types of metal, emotional, and behavioral disorders from things as small and temporary such as school and work stress, to permanent issues like schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. This particular section interests me because I find it interesting to learn about chronic diseases. It intrigues me to learn how these diseases come about and what affects they have on an individuals’ brain. For example, post-traumatic stress disorder can completely change a person and their everyday life, almost controlling them. Another subfield of psychology that interests me is forensic psychology. These psychologists “conduct evaluations that inform and guide legal proceedings” (American Psychological Association, 2015). The cases they work on range from child abuse cases to the sanity of a defendant. Forensic psychologists “conduct research on the interface of law and psychology”, this being why it interests me since I am a criminal justice and psychology major (Myers & DeWall, 2014, p. C-3). The idea of being a part of legal issues such as being a part of the deliberation by the jury or taking place in the consultation is something I would enjoy doing. The reason I
Since the time of psychology’s origins in the 1500 's where Leonardo da Vinci 's stated that there might be a relationship between the human brain and a person 's psychological processes, psychology history and research has grown tremendously over centuries. Some of the most important events in psychology includes: William Wundt creating the first psychology lab in Germany to the American psychiatric Association (APA) publishing the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). These events and many more have advanced the field of psychology, yet I found two other events in psychology history that caught my attention the most: G. Stanley Hall who established the first psychology lab in the United States at John Hopkins University and B.F skinner developing a theory called operant condition on animals through reinforcement and punishment. Both events are important to the growth of psychology. in the development of the discipline of psychology.
I find it hard to choose one theoretical approach as I’ve learned to see the benefits of many. I’m drawn to an aspect that each approach tends to emphasize. Initially, I would say behavioral theory; because of its central focus on learned behavior. I believe we are defined by our actions, and most of our present behaviors or tendencies have been shaped by past experiences. This leads me to believe that are most memorable moments are those that shape us, and our most memorable moments are those packed with emotion. So, I cannot believe that solely are actions can change our behavior, our thoughts and feelings about the situation at hand take part in our actions as well. Our thinking can influence our feelings and thus change our behavior. Which is what cognitive theory focuses on. So I tend to value a more cognitive behavioral approach.
Humans have always been interested in understanding their own body, especially the brain itself. Some of the first people to explore psychology were Aristotle and Socrates, (even though some of the things they thought were wrong) of course at the time they did not know what exactly they were studying. https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/introduction-to-psychology-1/introduction-to-the-field-of-psychology-22/early-roots-of-psychology-110-12647/ Psychology has been around since the 1500s but modern psychology today was not formed until the mid-1800s https://nerdfighteria.info/video/219/vo4pMVb0R6M by William Wundt who opened the first laboratory for psychology, he is often called the “father of psychology.” http://www.simplypsychology.org/wundt.html Psychology with the Greeks were mostly studying mental illnesses and feelings of humans, though some of their studies may have been wrong, they are what sparked the start of it all. In the 1600s, one of the first notions of psychology was dualism by René Descartes. He thought that the mind was more spiritual and the body more physical, though he thought the two connected by the pineal gland or more known as the third eye. He thought that humans couldn’t understand the mind because it was on a different level than this world. This notion was what started disagreement and other thoughts, such as
This research article was taken from the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Journal. This specific issue had a total of ten articles, and while they are covering different topics and studies, some of them do focus on similar ideas. Psychology is all about the study of the mind, and how it has different parts intended for unique functions. It seems like a good portion of the articles for this specific journal deal with emotions and how the body interprets them. One article deals with the stress of different generations, while another deals with an individual’s willpower against sugar. There is an article about self-esteem and how that varies during a lifetime, as well as an article on cooperation. The article that will be specifically discussed in this research paper also has to deal with how the body interprets things when it comes to a stressful situation, such as a crime. It looks at how reliable eyewitness testimony is after traumatic events, specifically in regards to lineups.