Cognitive Approach in Psychology In psychology

What is an Approach or Perspective? Course handbook pg. 10 Throughout the course you will hear the word ‘perspective’ crop up a number of times, you may even be given a question on the core studies paper to answer based on the different perspectives in psychology. But what do we mean by ‘perspective’. A point of view A way of seeing the world Where theories (explanations) come from The point of view (perspective) of a psychologist will affect the type of research and results s/he obtains. The table on page 7 lists the five different perspectives studied at AS (these are not all of the perspectives of Psychology and we will dip into one or two more over the course of the year). Below is a bit more detail on each of the these perspectives.

Need to know approaches for AS Psychology Cognitive Psychology Developmental Psychology Physiological Psychology Social Psychology Psychology of Individual Differences PERSPECTIVES: Psychoanalytic perspective   Behaviourist perspective

Cognitive Psychology Assumptions Behaviour is explained in terms of how the mind works. The mind works like a computer – we input, store and then retrieve data. Types of cognitive processing that are studied include; perception, memory, language, rational thinking, intelligence etc.

Cognitive Psychology Cognitive psychologists focus on our mental processes or cognitions.  These mental processes that cognitive psychologists focus on include memory, perception, thinking and language. The main concern of cognitive psychology is how information received from our senses is processed by the brain and how this processing directs how we behave. Cognitive processes are examples of hypothetical constructs.  That is, we cannot directly see processes such as thinking but we can infer what a person is thinking based on how they act. Cognitive psychology has been influenced by developments in computer science and analogies are often made between how a computer works and how we process information. However we are much more sophisticated than computer systems and an important criticism directed at the cognitive approach is that it often ignores the way in which other factors, such as past experiences and culture influence how we process information.

Strengths Very useful Quite scientific so easier to show cause and effect

Weaknesses Doesn’t take account of emotional factors influencing our behaviour Research often lacks ecological validity

Key Studies Loftus and Palmer Baron-Cohen Savage-Rumbaugh

Loftus & Palmer Loftus and Palmer's (1974) study of eyewitness testimony demonstrates how the cognitive process of memory can be distorted by other information supplied after an event.  This highlights that memory is not merely a tape recording but is a dynamic process which can be influenced by many events such as leading questions.