cognitive theory

• what is the first assumption of the cognitive approach

  in order to understand behaviour, we must study the internal mental processes (memory, attention, perception and thinking) that control how we behave
• what does the cognitive approach argue

  in direct contrast to the behaviourst approach, the cognitive approach argues that mental processes should be studied such as studying thinking, perceptions and memory
• what are mental process

  they are private and cannot be observed, so cognitive psychologist study them indirectly by making inferences (assumptions) about what is going on inside people's heads on the basis of their behaviour
• what are schemas

  • the ideas of schemas is central to the cognitive approach
  • they are packages of information developed through experiences
• what is an example of schemas

  you have a schema for what a bird looks like
• how do schemas act

  they act as 'mental framework' for the interpretation of incoming infomation received by the cognitive system
• why do we need schemas

  we use schemas to process lots of infomation quickly and it prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimulus
• how are schemas used in babies

  babies are born with simple motor schemas from innate behaviour such as sucking, crying and grabbing
• how are schemas used as we get older

  as we get older our schemas become more sophisticated and detailed such as booking tickets
• what are schemas used for

  to help us process infomation quickly
• how do we develop schemas

  we develop schemas for how to process what we expect to see/her etc based on what we have seen/ heard before
• who conducted a study into schemas

  bugelski and alampay conducted the rat man study
• what was the method of the rat man study

  • 2 groups of participants were shown a series of pictures
  • either a number of faces or a number of animals
  • they were then shown the rat man
• what was the result of the rat man study

  • the participant who saw the pictures of faces described the pictures as a man
  • the participants who saw the pictures of animals, percived the pictured as a rat
• how does the influence of schemas account for the findings of the rat man study

  • participants who were shown faces had a scheme for faces and then had an explanation to see more faces so perceived the rat man as a face of a man
  • this is the same for animals
• what is an strength of the first cognitive assumption (phobias)

  it can be applied to everyday life because it can explain the development of phobias
• how does the cognitive approach explain phobias

  suggest that the conditions is caused by people having irrational faulty schemas in which they exaggerate the threat posed by the object or situation
• what kind of irrational thoughts might a person have if they have a phobia of clowns

  a person may associate clowns with killer clown and believe they eant to harm them, this is due to having an 'irrational fault schema' and they overexaggerate the threat
• what kind of behaviours associated with a phobia might these irrational faulty schema lead to

  • crying
  • screaming
  • avoid phobic stimulus
  • running
  • social withdraw
  • avoidance behaviour
  • panic
• how is the cognitive approach reductionist

  this theory is reductionist as it only considers your metal processes, reducing behaviour as phobia down to 1 single simple exploitation regarding faulty irrational schemas and irrational thoughts, comparison with SLT, which is not reductionist, it is an eclectic approach as combines both cognitive and behaviour approach ideas to explain behaviour
• which experiment is the cognitive approach supported by

  the cognitive explanation of phobias is supported by a lab experiment carried out by Tomarken
• what is the aim of Tormarken

  to investigate whether people with a snake phobia exaggerates the threat posed by snakes
• what was the method of tormarkens study

  • his study involves 2 groups of ps
  • a group who had a phobia of snakes and a control group
  • he showed then a number of slides
  • these included pictures of snakes and neutral objects such as trees
  • he asked then how many snakes, trees etc there were in each picture
• what is the result of tormarken

  he founf that the phobic participants overestimated the number of snakes compared to the control group
• what is the conclusion of tormarken experiment

  this suggests that ps with a phobia have irrational faulty schemas as they overestimate the number of snakes
• what is the second cognitive approach

  humans are infomation processers and can be compared to computers
• what is the 2nd cognitive assumption called

  the infomation processing approach
• what does the 2nd cognitive assumption use

  theoretical and computer models when describing and explaining mental processes like memory
• what does the infomation processing approach suggest

  human are very similar to computers as we both process information in a series of stages
• what are 4 examples of humans and computers being similar

  • retrieve information
  • both store information and have limited space (limited capacity)
  • both humans and computers process infomation in stages
  • both use input and output
• how are the brain and the mental process similar

  brain is the hardware (hard drive) and mental process (MAT) are software
• how are the input, process and output stages similar in computers and people

  input:

  human - feeling ill

  computer - typing on a laptop

  process:

  human -noticing you feel unwell

  computer - software code processing doc

  output:

  human - leaving

  computer - print
• what is a strength of the cognitive approach (memory)

  it has been used to explain how human memory work such as the MSM which simples memory to how a computer works
• what are 2 strengths of the cognitive approach

  • using this approach simplifies human memory to make it easier to understand and it has also been used to improve people's memories. the MSM for example has shown that when students are revising they need to keep rehearsing the information; this will then go into LTM and therefore leas to better recall in the exam
  • humans and computers are very similar in their processing of information and therefore we can compare humans to computers eg/ both have a limited capacity of memory, humans STM 7+/- items, mega-bytes for computers, both humans and computers process information in stages
• what is one weakness of the cognitive approach

  humanistic approach criticizes the cognitive approach computer analogy. to fully understand human memory we should focus on the experience of being human rather than seeing man as a machine, humanistic approach says there are big differences between humans and computers - people often forget things, computers don't. computers are not influences by motivation, emotions and feelings which may affect hum an memory
• what are 3 similarities between computers and humans

  • both processes information in stages
  • both stores and retrieve information
  • both have limited storage space
• what are 5 differences between computers and humans

  • computers don't eat, drink or sleep
  • computers don't communicate with others
  • humans cannot download memories from each other
  • humans are affected by emotions
  • computers don't forget
• what is a strength of the cognitive approach (explanatory power) (PEEL)

  P - the strength of the cognitive approach is that it can explain causes of behaviour

  E - the cognitive approach can approach can explain why phobias may be the result of irrational faulty schema

  E - for example, Tormarken conducted a lab experiment to investigate whether people with a snake phobia exaggerate the threat posed by snakes. he created 2 groups, one with a snake phobia and one without, he then asked them to count the number of snakes that appear, the group with a phobia counted more snakes then there was

  L - therefore this shows how the cognitive approach can be used to explain real life human behaviour
• what is a strength of the cognitive approach (PEEL) (treatments)

  P - a strength of the congitive apporach is that it has been applied to the treatments of phobias

  E - cognitive behavioural therapy is a cognitive treatment that wants to identify, challenge and change faulty irrational schemas and replace then with rational ones

  E - for examples someone with a phobia of spiders may think they are dangerous and that they will die if they get bitten - during CBT the patient and the therapist will work together to identify the irrational through, challenge it and change it, such as spiders are not dangerous and i will not die even if i am bitten by one

  L - this shows that the cognitive approach can be used to create treatments
• what is a limitation of the cognitive approach (PEEL) (debates)

  P - one limitation of the cognitive approach is that it sits on the reductionist side of the debate and ignores free will

  E - it reduces behaviour to 1 single, simple explanation, with is an irrational faulty schema which leads to faulty thinking process

  E - for example the cognitive approach explains phobias as a result of irrational faulty schemas about a stimulus, that leads to an extreme fear

  L - therefore the cognitive approach ignores any other explanation of behaviour such as biological influence such as genes