Cognitive Psychology: the Sociocultural and Individual Cognitive - Research Paper Example

Running head: An Evaluation of Behaviorism and Cognitive Psychology: Arguing in favor of Cognitive Psychology. Introduction As rightly stated by Atkins (1993), in the field of learning with interactive courseware, Cognitive Psychology and Behaviorism are the two dominant theoretical viewpoints in psychology. Cognitive Psychology  can be defined as a branch of psychology that seek to explain mental processes including the way in which individuals perceive, remember, learn, and think. This branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including philosophy, linguistics, and neuroscience. Cognitive psychology has its core focus on how individuals attain process and store information. The diversity in cognitive psychology is classified into a couple of trends namely: the sociocultural and individual cognitive. The sociocultural trends according to Duffy & Cunningham (1996), emphasizes the culturally and socially situated context of cognition. Individual cognitive trend on the other hand is derived from the theory of Piaget and emphasizes on the constructive activity of people as they attempt to derive sense of the world they live in. Conversely, behaviorism is branch of psychology based on theoretical foundation with a core focus on measurable, observable behaviors as the basic unit of analysis. The practice and study of behaviorism in psychology emphasizes controlling and predicting behavior making it relevant to organization studies. For decades, the behaviorist perspective dominated the field of psychology. However, in the late 1950s and the early 1960s the theory began to lose its credence. The behaviorism paradigm is of the perspective that knowledge or any other concepts such as perception, thought, memory, or even attention are not important while understanding behavior. The proponents of this theory therefore, focus only on behaviors that are observable other than mental activities that are unobservable. The theory does not therefore, engage in speculating about the nature of people’s thoughts but instead attempt to elucidate behaviors that are observable. Such behaviors may include connections of stimulus response. The premise of behaviorism is that behavior is a function of its environmental contingencies or consequences. Discussion Contrary to behaviorism, cognitive psychology attempt to understand thoughts and inner mental activities. Unlike the behaviorist, cognitive psychology focuses on understanding and explaining the complexity and multifaceted causes of human behavior. Cognitive psychology design theories and models related to memory and other cognitive activities in an effort to deepen the understanding of behavior; however, these processes are not observable per se. This theory rejects the use of introspection as is the case in behaviorism theory, and instead utilizes scientific methods as a valid means for investigation. This theory acknowledges the existence of internal state of the individual mental process for instance belief, desire, and motivation an aspect that sharply contrast with the behaviorist psychology (Glassman & Hadad, 2004). Under cognitive psychology, cognition as a term refers to a state of knowing. The theory therefore, seeks to understand the human activity that basically deals with knowledge. It is worth mentioning that the development of cognitive psychology was somewhat due to the lacunars that were left by the behaviorism psychology. The behaviorist theorist created these lacunars by insisting that stimuli and responses are within the scope of science. Certainly, this kind of thinking and approach on the mental state had been for long an obstacle for effective study of the process involved in the higher mental state. This process was therefore, sought for the first time by cognitive psychology theorist to disapprove the claims espoused by the behaviorists. As opposed to behaviorism, cognitive psychology seeks to define the human mind as a structural system that is capable of efficiently processing and storing the processed information. Proponents of this theory are of the view that the minds collects information that is later analyzed re synthesized, stored, and later utilized in various activities (Carlson & Buskist, 1997). The process of information processing does not however have to rely on introspection of conscious. There has been an indication by critics that the contrasting aspect in behaviorism and cognitive psychology is being somewhat empirical of the field as well as acceptance and acknowledgment of the existence of internal mental state. In behavioral psychology, much focus is directed on the external actions that can be observed and those that are not observable are ignored. According to behavioral psychologists, the internal aspects of the mind are a core part in this school of thought; such internal aspects may include faith, instincts, and beliefs. These aspects do not however hold any water under the cognitive psychology theory. Essentially, this may be so as behaviorism dwell much on describing that which is evidently observable in human behavior. The question that arises from this assumption of behaviorist is what actually transpires in the internal mental state of human mind. This theory fails to address aspects of language complexity, problem solving, and the aspect of memory. For this reasons and frailer to address certain critical aspects, this school of thought could not stand the test of time and thus the emergence of cognitive psychology. According to Ulrich Neisser (1967) one of the renown cognitive psychologist, cognitive psychology is study that describe all a mental process in which all steps are similar to the function of the computer such that the input of the mind is reordered, transform med, received, and then used. In the words of Medin & Ross (1997), cognitive psychologists unlike their behaviorist counterparts have borrowed a lot of concepts from computer scientists. These aspects, such as the language have allowed cognitive psychologist to formulate explicit theories. Cognitive psychology in its information processing paradigm view human minds in terms of a computer processing data. Critics of this theory however argue that there are peculiar differences between computer functions and human and that the human beings unlike computers get tired and have emotions. To this effect cognitive psychology has its base on computer technology making technological advancement a key boost to psychological theories and certainly a bridge between behaviorism and cognitive psychology. As aforementioned, behaviorism theory unlike cognitive psychology omit the psychology of the mental states that are Gestalts or unobservable and the subjectivity of introspection which are certainly part and parcel of behavior in human. Proponents of cognitive psychologist, on the other hand, assert that prior mental process and knowledge intervenes between a response and stimulus that operate to mitigate the predictability of a given response or human behavior in the event of a stimulus. Further, contrary to the assertions of behaviorist theorist, cognitive psychologists seek to study the semantic or meaning. According to generative learning model espoused by Wittrock (2004), one of the cognitive psychology theorist, individuals learn meaningful materials through the act of producing relationships among novel knowledge and information that is already existing in their long term memory. Behaviorists however, explain psychology as a natural science founded on two vital corollaries. One of the corollaries asserts psychology as a science must be well based empirically. The other corollary seeks to explain that psychology and science must be objective. In this regard, the theories developed by B.F. Skinner one of the renown behaviorist theorist is a perfect example of how behaviorism within the domain of psychology is perhaps the most objective. According to this theorist, behavior is greatly explained in of its aftermaths. This is a fact that contravenes the principles of cognitive psychology. In the explanation of behaviorists, behavior is consistent from one circumstance to another since the behavior is maintained by consequences that are similar in all those situations. The theory further claims that this behavior changes only in the instance where its consequences change. Consequently, behaviorist theorists confine their definition of personality as it is then limited to and dependent upon the behavior of that particular individual. In the terms of behaviorist therefore, a person is essentially what he does. Unlike cognitive psychology, most if not all behaviorist decline to clearly state specific motivations for a person’s behavior and instead attempt to unearth the external events perpetuates the behavior future likelihood that either alter or maintain it. Conclusion Cognitive psychology differ from behaviorism in the sense that the former claim that the hypothetical thoughts a person creates coupled with the inner thoughts in human minds, and the outcomes that follows, is a clear prove that this consequences as alleged by behaviorists are not simply a result of negative and positive reinforcement. This means that under cognitive psychology the existence of free will is acknowledged unlike the position of the behaviorist theorists (McLeod, 2007). The behaviorists on the other hand maintains their position of the non existence of free will despite the fact that the scenarios and inner thoughts are both products of reinforcement and past experience studied by theorist of behaviorism as part of behavior. Behaviorism asserts that individuals are born tabula rasa meaning they are born blank unlike the cognitive psychology that assumes that people are born with cognitive functions like memory, perception, or schemas. It is quite clear from the discussion that cognitive psychology involves all processes through which the sensory input is transformed, reordered, elaborated, stored, retrieved, and later used when need arises. Cognitive psychology is thus in my opinion more superior than behaviorism as it is concerned with all the aforementioned processes even in circumstances when they operate in the absence of stimulation as is the case in behaviorism. With such a sweeping definition of cognitive psychology, it is apparent that this theory is involved with almost everything an individual might possibly do. Thus most if not every psychological phenomenon falls squally under cognitive phenomenon. Psychoanalysis Main features of the approach Psychoanalysis approach to psychology was founded by Sigmund Freud. This approach claims that the unconscious mind plays an important role in influencing human behavior. Most of the psychoanalysis theories and observations are based on case study and clinical cases. In addition, psychoanalysis approach insists that the human mind is composed of three aspects which include the superego, the ego, and the id. According to the approach, the conscious mind of a human being includes everything that is within their awareness. Thus, conscious is the aspect of human mental processing that they talk and think about in a rational way Arguments for Under the psychological approach of psychology there are many theories especially those related to personality development that are still influential up to date, these theories include the Freud’s theory of psychosexual stage, and Erikson’s psychosocial stages theory. Even though a majority of the psychoanalysis theories do not depend on experimental research, the approach theories and methods have contributed a whole lot to experimental psychology. Further this approach of psychology opened up new perceptions about mental illness thus suggesting that sharing about individual problems and situations with a professional may go a long way in reliving the symptoms of psychological distress. Arguments against. TThe psychoanalysis approach overemphasizes the aspects of aggression, childhood experiences, sex and unconscious mind. MMost of the concepts espoused by the majority of the psychoanalytic proponents are essentially difficult to quantify or even measure. These concepts include ego, unconsciousness of the mind, and superego among others. MMost of the ideas developed under psychoanalysis approach are founded on clinical observations and case study rather than an empirical scientific research. This form of study makes it difficult to generalize especially in case of a large population. Behaviorism Main features of the approach Behaviorism on the other hand, is branch of psychology based on theoretical foundation with a core focus on measurable, observable behaviors as the basic unit of analysis. The practice and study of behaviorism in psychology emphasizes controlling and predicting behavior making it relevant to organization studies. The behaviorism paradigm is of the perspective that knowledge or any other concepts such as perception, though, memory, or even attention are not important while understanding behavior. The proponents of this theory therefore, focus only on behaviors that are observable other than mental activities that are unobservable. According to behavioral psychologists, the internal aspects of the mind are a core part in this school of thought such internal aspects may include faith, instincts, and beliefs. Arguments for Behaviorism approach focuses only on behaviors that are observable other than mental activities that are unobservable. It is therefore easy to use the approach in collecting quantifying data during research. This approach recognizes environmental and physical factors as vital in the determination of behavior. Therapeutic techniques that are effective such as discrete trial training, token economies, and behavioral intervention are based on behaviorism approach Arguments against. Behaviorism approach dwell much on describing that which is evidently observable in human behavior ignoring the unobservable ones, and the subjectivity of introspection which are certainly part and parcel of behavior in human. TThe approach asserts that individuals are born tabula rasa meaning they are born blank without functions like memory, perception, or schemas. TThis approach also fails to address aspects of language complexity, problem solving, and the aspect of memory. Cognitive psychology Main features of the approach CCognitive Psychology as a branch of psychology seek to explain mental processes including the way in which individuals perceive, remember, learn, and think. This branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including philosophy, linguistics, and neuroscience. Cognitive psychology has its core focus on how individuals attain process and store information. The diversity in cognitive psychology is classified into a couple of trends namely: the sociocultural and individual cognitive. The sociocultural trends according to Duffy & Cunningham, emphasizes the culturally and socially situated context of cognition (1996). Individual cognitive trend is derived from the theory of Piaget and emphasizes on the constructive activity of people as they attempt to make derive sense of the world they live in. Under this approach, behavior can therefore be largely explained in terms of the information processing approach that is how human mind operates. Arguments for Cognitive psychologies study the human mind as a structured system that handles information. A majority of cognitive theories propounds that all processes through which the sensory input is transformed, reordered, elaborated, stored, retrieved, and later used when need arises. In addition, cognitive psychology explains satisfactorily most if not every psychological phenomenon as the theory involves all the aforementioned processes even in circumstances when they operate in the absence of stimulation. Cognitive psychology is endowed with a variety of empirical studies to support its theories. This approach can also combine easily with other approaches to produce meaningful outcomes for instance behaviorism + cognitive= social learning Arguments against. Cognitive psychology in its information processing paradigm view human minds in terms of a computer processing data. Critics of this theory argue that there are peculiar differences between computer functions and human and that the human beings unlike computers get tired and they have emotions. Cognitive approach refuses to recognize environmental and physical factors which are also vital in the determination of behavior. Humanistic psychology Main features of the approach The approach began as a reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis which were dominant approaches during the 1950s. According to the theorists of this approach, behaviorism sought to explain the processes of conditioning that drives behavior while psychoanalysis focused too much on the study of the unconscious motivations which direct behavior. The proponents of humanist approach felt the aforementioned approaches were too pessimistic, as the either concentrated on emotions or failed to consider the role of free will. Humanistic psychology is an approach that focuses on individual potential and emphasizes the importance of self actualization and growth. The core tenant of this approach is that individuals are innately good and that diversion from this natural tendency is the cause of social and mental problems. Arguments for The approach emphasizes on the role of the individual by giving them more credit in determining and controlling their mental health state. The approach also takes into consideration the influence of the environment; rather than concentrating on the human desires and internal thoughts. This approach acknowledges and credits the influence of environment to human experience. Arguments against. TThis approach is often viewed as too subjective. This is because the importance of an individual experience becomes an obstacle to objectively measure and study humanistic phenomenon. For example it is difficult to tell whether a person is self actualized. TThe approach also uses observations which are unverifiable. This may be explained in the sense that there are no known means of quantifying or even measuring these observable qualities. Biological psychology Main features of the approach Under biological approach, biopsychologists’ claims that experiences and behavior are caused by activity in the body nervous system. Psychologists from the biological approach also agree that since the development of human brain is partly determined by the genes, then, a person inheritance of such behavior might be influenced by the genetic factors. The approach further claims that psychological and behavioral characteristics may posse evolutionary explanation because the genes that people inherit are the product of evolution. This approach further explains behavior by relating it to the functioning of the nervous system and the brain. Biopsychologists claim that chemical processes in the brain might play a vital role in influencing behavior. In contrast to other areas of psychology, biopsychology seeks to understand the biology of how behavior occurs. Arguments for TThe biological approach on psychology has its strength of being studied using strict scientific methodology. These methods give its theories a high degree of validity, scientific credibility, and reliability enhanced by the approach focus on objectively observable phenomena instead of the subjective experiences. TThe biological approach has provided a convincing explanation for various psychological disorders such as schizophrenia, drug therapy, and depression. This has assisted many individuals to develop and maintain a normal life that they would not have been able to lead previously. Arguments against. Whilst most people regard the biological approach use of scientific methodology as its strong point it has been argued that the strict use of such a study by biopsychologist neglect the human experiences which is an important aspect of being a person. The approach also tends to put more emphasis on biological and genetic influences on human behavior, thus, excluding the cultural and social influences which are certainly valid influences of behavior. Further, the biological approach uses animal models as a fountain of evaluating behavior in human beings. This basis of their study may not produce effective results as nervous systems of animals reflect their unique evolutionary history and niche References Atkins, M. (1993). Theories of learning and multimedia applications: An overview. Research Papers in Education, 8(2), 251-271 Carlson, N., & Buskist, W. (1997). Psychology: The science of behavior (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Glassman, W., & Hadad, M. (2004). Approaches to Psychology. NY: Open Unıversıty Press.  McLeod, S. A. (2007). Simply Psychology; Cognitive Approach in Psychology. Retrieved 20 December 2011, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive.html Medin, D., & Ross, B. (1997). Cognitive psychology (4th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace. Neisser, U. (1967). Cognitive Psychology. London: Meredith Publishing Company. Wittrock, E. (2004). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review 189-208. Retrieved on 20th December 2011 from: http:/psycclassics.york.ca/author.htm  Read More