cognitive approach
- Created by: Zstubbs98
- Created on: 15-05-17 14:12
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- Cognitive Approach
- Assumptions:
- behaviour can be explained through internal mental processes
- mind works in a way similar to a computer
- mediational processes
- scientific as it is based on mainly laboratory experiments
- Schemas
- it is a mental representation of objects based on experience. it organises information and acts as a guide.
- they save time because they help to organise new information and retrieve it
- information that does not fit a schema could be ignored or distorted.
- theoretical models
- descriptive versions of how some aspects of human behaviour work
- e.g. the working memory model
- computer models
- it is where the mind is compared to a computer suggesting there are similarities in the way information is processes
- cognitive neuroscience
- it is the scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes
- it uses scanning techniques
- in 1860 Paul Broca identified how damage to a specific area of the brain (frontal lobe) permanently impaired speech production.
- uses of PET scans and fMRI scans helps psychologists to understand how the brain supports different cognitive activities and emotions
- useful in establishing neurological basis of some mental disorders
- Evaluation
- scientific
- the use of scientific and experimental methods has provided researchers with objective evidence with how the mind works. improves reliability and validity.
- useful applications
- helped in areas of social psychology where research into social cognition has helped psychologists better understand how we form impressions of others as well as biases that influence our behaviour
- has helped explain the link between abnormal behaviour and faulty thinking. this has helped to treat individuals suffering from depression through the use of CBT.
- Machine Reductionist
- the approach uses computer models to explain human behaviour. this can be seen as reductionist as it is simplifying our behaviour to that of a computer. humans are much more complex and have other factors that influence our behaviours such a emotions.
- lacks external validity
- the tasks used in the experiments are artificial therefore they do not represent real life situations. this suggests that we cannot generalise the findings to real life as we don't know whether the outcome would be the same in a natural setting.
- scientific
- Assumptions:
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