Strengths

• Influential approach

  Accepted that thought processes are important
• Scientific - Use of experimental method provides researchers with a method for a collecting and evaluating evidence in order to reach accurate conclusions about how the mind works
• Wide ranging applications, that has made a difference in the real world - includes social psychology
• Employed highly controlled and rigorous methods of study
• Use of lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data
• Most dominant approach - applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts
• Less simplistic - preferred over the behaviourist approach
• Good descriptions of cognitive processes including schemas, cognitive bias and distortions
• A scientific approach with a testable hypotheses

  Theories can be falsified and adapted in response to new findings
• CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) - Number one psychological treatment used by the NHS - treats those with psychological disorders