cognitive approach

• P: a strength of the cognitive approach is that it has applied in many other areas of psychology

  E: in social psychology, research in social cognition has helped psychologists better understand how we interpret the actions of others, and the cognitive approach to psychopathology has been used to explain how much of the dysfunctional behaviour shown by people can be traced back to faulty thinking processes

  L: these insights have led to the successful treatment, using cognitive based interventions, of people suffering from disorders such as depression and OCD
• limitation

  • relies on self report and inferences
  • cant directly observe or measure mental processes e.g memory
  • assumption based
• • Computer model is criticised for being overly simplistic. Human brain is more complex than any computer, and the human mind is capable of consciousness and emotions which can lead to irrational behaviours.
  • computers and humans share certain features, the nature of these features is very different
  • for example, human memory is flawed whereas computer memory can store and recall information with perfect accuracy