cognitive approach

• ASSUMPTION 1: INTERNAL MENTAL PROCESSES
• Humans are seen as information processers
• How information received from our senses is processed directs ho we behave
• Cognitive psychologists look at how various cognitive functions work together to help us make sense of the world.
• Some of the internal processes psychologists are interested in are:

  • Attention (We focus on information we are presented with)
  • Perception (We take in information through the senses)
  • Memory (We attempt to recall/store the information)
  • Language (We communicate the information to others)
  • Thinking (The ways in which we manipulate and make sense of information to make decisions)
• Investigating internal mental processes
• A problem with the cognitive approach is that thoughts can not directly be observed or measured.
• Modern psychologists use experiments to make inferences about internal processes
• Griffiths (1994)
• Aimed to investigate the internal mental thought processes of gamblers vs non-gamblers by getting them to ‘think aloud’ while playing on a fruit machine
• The study found that gamblers were more likely to irrational verbalisations e.g. ‘I lost because I wasn’t concentrating’ or ‘this machine likes me’
• ASSUMPTION 2: THE COMPUTER ANALOGY
• Cognitive psychologists suggest that mind works in a similar way to a computer
• It compares how we take information (input) store it or change it (process) and then recall it when necessary (output).
• The Multistore Memory Model (Atkinson and Shriffrin 1968)
• ASSUMPTION 3: SCHEMATA
• SCHEMATA are packets of information that he hold in relation to an object or event
• Help us to make sense of the world, providing short cuts to identifying things that we come across.
• Our schemata develop as we grow and have more experiences with our environment
• Schemata are not always correct
• Can be the basis for stereotypes, causing racism, sexism etc.
• Can cause us to misremember events that do not fit our schema
• Allport and Postman (1947).
• They investigated the effect of stereotypes on recall. They showed white participants a picture of a black person being held at knifepoint by a white man.
• Participants invariably remembered the open razor as being in the hand of the black man, whereas in fact it was held by the white man.
• relationships Internal Mental Processes
• Perception and memory are two of the main processes used when taking in and analysing information
• We may perceive someone’s looks or actions in a positive/negative way which may affect whether we choose to spend time with them or not
• Memory e.g. having a positive/negative memory of someone can also affect whether we choose to form a relationship with them or not, we may also be influenced by memories of past relationships
• relationships Schemas
• We may associate certain traits with people because of the way that they look
• ‘The Halo Effect’ is when we associate positive personality traits with people who are physically attractive
• Self-schemas can affect who we interact with e.g. interacting with people who we percieve to be a similar level of attractiveness to ourself (the matching hypothesis)
• CBT therapy
• The cognitive approach suggests that a possible cause of mental illness is maladaptive internal mental processes
• For example, people with depression may pay more attention to negative information in their environment
• Or have a tendency to perceive information in negative ways
• This may lead to symptoms such as low mood and social isolation
• LINK TO SCHEMATA

  Aaron Beck proposed that depressed people have developed negative schemas of three things – the self, the world around them and their
• This is referred to the Negative Cognitive Triad