Cognitive approach

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  • Cognitive Approach
    • Assumptions
      • looks at internal mental processes to understand behaviour
      • processes are private and can't be observed so are studied by making inferences
    • Schemas
      • cognitive frameworks that help organise and interpret information in the brain
      • become more detailed and sophisticated as we get older
      • allow us to take shortcuts when interpreting huge amounts of information
      • can contribute to stereotypes
    • Computer models
      • human mind is like a computer
      • compares how we take information store or change it (process) and then recall it when necessary (output)
    • Theoretical models
      • simplified picture representations of cognitive processes
      • e.g. multi store model
      • emergence of cognitive neuroscience
    • Evaluation
      • can explain real world behaviour
        • applied in many areas of psychology
        • helped psychology better understand how we form impressions and the errors/biases that influence the causes of their behaviour
        • used to explain how dysfunctional behaviour can be traced to faulty thinking processes
        • led to the successful treatment of depression and OCD using CBT
      • methodological weakness
        • studies us tasks with little in common with natural everyday experiences
        • artificial test materials are relatively meaningless in everyday life
        • e.g. memory tests
        • don't try to understand the way in which memory is used in everyday life
        • unable to generalise findings to real life situations
      • methodological strength
        • lab experiments produce reliable, objective data
        • based on more than common sense and introspection
          • can give a misleading picture of mental processes which aren't consciously accessible
      • reductionist
        • ignores influence of human emotion and motivation
        • affects our ability to process information e.g. anxiety /memory

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