The Cognitive Approach

The Cognitive Approach

1. Assumptions

   • Behaviour can be explained by mental processes
     • We are information processors
     • Cognitive processes help us understand the world
     • L -Learning A -Attention M -Memory P -Perception
     • Schemas
       • mental structure that represents something in the world.
   • Human mind is compared to a computer
     • We take in information, change/store it then recall when necessary
       • Input, process, output
     • Multistore model of memory
       • Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
       • Info enters through the senses, moves to the STM, then the LTM until it's needed for recall

2. Attribution Theory

   • Real World Applications
     • Storms and Nisbett (1970)
       • Given a pill that would either arouse or sedate. Those who expected arousal attributed it to the pill and went to sleep
   • We constantly attribute behaviour, as we always look for ways to explain people's behaviour
     • Internal/Dispositional
       • We explain behaviour in terms of the person
     • External/Situational
       • We explain behaviour through social norms or luck.
   • Heider (1944)
     • Silent film of triangles. Asked P's to describe what had happened, and think they were humans, and they attributed personality traits to inanimate objects
     • 1958 - decided that people are 'naive scientists' trying to understand people's behaviour
     • FAE
       • We are more likely to attribute internally
         • Not always the case, in COLLECTIVIST cultures, they attribute externally, in INDIVIDUALISTIC cultures (USA) they tend to attribute internally
       • Fundamental Attribution Error
       • Ross (1977) - quiz show. asked to attribute the contestants on ability. P's knew questions were made up but still rated contestants highly
   • Covariation Model
     • Kelley (1967)
       • Covary: things that tend to happen simulateneously
     • Consistency
       • Behaving in the same way all the time.
     • Distinctiveness
       • Behaving the same to unique stimuli
     • Consensus
       • Everyone reacts the same to stimuli
     • Internal (HLL)
     • External (HHH)
     • McArthur (1972)
       • 12 P's were asked to attribute sentences. They followed the model shown -->
         • However, people often behave irrationally and not mechanistically
   • Errors and biases
     • Actor/Observer bias
       • Nisbett et al (1973
         • Asked P's to say why they and a friend wanted to study a course. P's attributed externally, and attributed their friend internally
           • Shows that we attribute ourselves externally and others internally
     • Self-serving bias
       • Jones et al (1968)
         • P's had to teach two pupils, they attributed pupil improvement internally, but blamed their failure on the pupils (externally)
           • We take credit for successes but disassociate failure.

3. Strengths and Weaknesses

   • Weaknesses
     • Mechanist Approach
       • Portrays the mind as a machine
         • Ignores social and emotional factors
           • Reductionist as it simplifies our behaviour
             • Our behaviour is far more complexed than a computer as we can feel emotion etc
               • Irrational behaviour
     • Nature and Nurture
       • Although it explains behavior internally and externally, it still doesn't consider important elements of nature/nurture
         • The role of genes is ignored, yet research into intelligence usually looks into genes
           • Social and cultural factors are ignored.
             • Piaget didn't consider social and cultural factors in developmental psychology
   • Strengths
     • Mediational Processes
       • Looks at the 'black box' and focuses on important processes
         • Behaviourists do not look at this 'black box'
           • Cognitive psychologists explain mediational processes
             • For example, how memory and perception are important in understanding the world.
               • Helped explain practical elements, for example why we make shopping lists
     • Important Contributions
       • Influenced many areas of Psychology such as treating depression via CBT
         • Applied to Developmental Psychology
           • Piaget (1970) suggested children's thinking is not the same as adults.
             • Teachers now use concrete problems with children as they are unable to understand abstract problems
               • Social Psychology - much of it is cognitive as it looks at mental processes.
                 • Why we form stereotypes etc

4. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

   • Used for mental disorders but also smaller things like marriage counselling
     • Doesn't involve searching for deep meaning
       • Cognitive and Behaviourist approaches
     • Real world applications
       • Ryan Babel: was booed by fans, which knocked his confidence. Rafa told him they were doing it out of fear, and soon his confidence came back
   • The Cognitive Approach
     • Key influence is how people think of a situation
       • Attempts to change maladaptive thoughts
       • Beck (1976): "dysfunctional automatic thoughts"
         • Meichenbaum (1977): "counterproductive self-statements"
         • Replace negative thoughts with positive ones
           • Does consider the causes of behaviour; faulty thinking. However not focused on finding the cause
   • The Behaviourist Approach
     • Undesirable behaviours are learnt, so therapy reverses the learning process
       • Rewards desirable behaviours
         • Problem: do not consider causes of behaviours, only replace them.
           • Symptom substitution: undesirable behaviours could return
   • Beck's Cognitive Therapy (1967)
     • Believed depression was caused by a negative view of the world
       • Negative view of ourselves Negative view of the world Negative view of the future
         • Cognitive Triad
       • Pessimistic
     • Dysfunctional Thought Diary
       • As 'homework' P's are asked to record any events prior to unpleasant emotions
         • rate how much they believe these thoughts (0-100%)
       • Clients are asked to give a rational response for the event, and then whether they believe the rational response is true
         • Asked to rate beliefs in these automatic thoughts again
     • Therapy during therapy
       • Taught to challenge dysfunctional automatic thoughts by asking themselves questions to challenge it
         • Replaced with more constructive thoughts; new ways of behaving
       • Where's the evidence this happened? What's the worst than can happen if it's true?
   • Meichenbaum's SIT (1985)
     • Deals with stress
     • We cannot change the causes of stress, but we can change the way we think about the stressor
     • Negative thinking may lead to negative outcomes and vice versa
     • Meichenbaum believed that you could almost inject yourself with negative thoughts, and replace them with positive thoughts via 3 ways
       • Conceptualisation Phase
         • P's taught to think of threats as problems to be solved.
       • Skills Acquisition Phase
         • Positive thinking, relaxation, social skills.
           • These are cognitive as they encourage the client to think in a different way
       • Application Phase
         • Opportunities to apply their new skills in situations which become gradually more stressful
           • Techniques such as modelling are used
   • Research evidence for CBT
     • David and Avellino (2003)
       • reported CBT has highest success rate
     • Wampold et al (2002)
       • disagrees with David
     • Kuyken and Tsivrikos (2009)
       • 15% of variance may be attributable to therapist competence

5. Methodology

   • Lab Experiments
     • Weaknesses
       • Lacks ecological validity and mundane realism
         • Loftus and Palmer - didn't witness a real accident, how can we be sure it applies to everyday life
           • Foster et al - found that if P's believed they witnessed a real robbery, and were at a real trial, then they'd ID the perp.
             • P's are likely to act unnaturally as they do not want to ruin the study, or will try and guess the aims of the study
               • Demand Characteristics
               • Experimenter bias - could convey behaviour that influences P's
     • Strengths
       • Best way to study causal relationships as extraneous variables are controlled
         • Objective, standard procedures increases validity
           • Easy to analyse; quantitative data
     • Cognitive Psychologists believe that psychology is a pure science so should be measured objectively and scientifically
     • Cognitive psys believe they can make inferences about thought processes by observing behaviour in controlled conditions
       • Lab experiments, questionnaires
     • Loftus and Palmer, memory, leading questions
       • Weapon effect, understanding memory
         • We focus on more threatening things, such as a knife covered in blood, than a pen in grease
           • 49% pen 33% knife
   • Case Studies of Brain Damaged Indivudals
     • Weaknesses
       • Almost impossible to replicate
         • Lacks generalisability
           • Results can be subjective to bias as qualitative data is obtained
     • Strengths
       • A true insight into behaviour can be gained, as you spend a lot longer with the P
         • Qualitative data is obtained, so we can draw more conclusions about behaviour
     • In-depth investigations of a person, group or event
     • HM
       • Permanent memory loss as a result of brain damage
       • Could remember things before the operation, but not after
       • Supports the Multistore model of memory, that we process STM and LTM