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Psychodynamic Vs. Biological Approach

Decent Essays

This essay will begin by discussing the main assumptions of the cognitive, psychodynamic and biological approach to psychology. It will look at a study that supports each approach. In addition it will look at how the studies have been influential in psychology today. Finally it will include some of the different branches of psychology and why these are relevant to different health professionals. Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology which focuses on the brain and how we think, Cognitive psychologists believe that our thought processes explain behaviour and make these assumptions by looking at our perception, language, attention and memory. (Jarvis,M,2005). One of the main assumptions is that cognitive psychologists often use a computer to explain how we think and behave. Based on this computer analogy, cognitive psychology is interested in the way the brain inputs, stores and outputs information and how behaviour can be influenced by the way we deal with information. (Sammons, A, n.d) However an important criticism directed at the cognitive approach is that it often ignores the way in which other factors such as biological and environmental explain how we process information. (cognitive psychology, n.d) Cognitive psychologists apply animal research to humans. For example, discovering whether chimpanzees can learn language helps psychologists develop theories about how humans learn language. Gardner and Gardner (1969) study of teaching ASL to a chimp supports this.

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