Cognitive approach mind map

Cognitive approach mind map

1. Assumptions

   • Behaviour is shaped by internal processes of the mind
     • Schemas
       • Bartlett's 'war of the ghosts' study
         • Normalising and rationalising the story to fit existing schemas
           • canoe - boat hunting seals - fishing
       • Packets of information that help make sense of the world around us
   • The brain is like a computer
     • Input........processing........output
       • we take information from the environment and then process it to make sense of the world
         • Mental processes
           • attention, perception, memory, language and thinking
           • stroop test
             • INPUT
               • Colours and words
             • PROCESS
               • perception (of list), memory (what colours look like) and language
             • OUTPUT
               • Correct answer

2. Attribution Theory

   • The person; internal/dispositional attributes
     • Personality
       • Someone has a loud behaviour in terms of their extroverted personality
         • Observer bias - Fundamental attribution error (FAE)
           • Getting cut in traffic; you assume driver is an 'idiot' (dispositional attribute), instead could be rushing to hospital (situational attribute)
   • The situation; external/situational attributes
     • Social norms or luck
       • Someone is loud because the environment is noisy
         • Self-serving bias
           • Taking credit for our successes and disassociate ourselves from our failures
             • Protects our self-esteem and gives us a sense of control
               • E.g. exam results - good results because they revised hard, bad results because they had a bad teacher or a hard paper

3. Cognitive Behaviour therapy

   • aims to make abnormal behaviour normal by changing negative thinking into constructive, positive thinking
     • The glass is half full not half empty
     • 1. client explains what they are finding difficult, how they feel about themselves etc. The therapist must then challenge and negative and distorted thinking.
       • 2. The therapist challenges the clients negative self-schema
         • 3. The client is given homework to aid the process. Dysfunctional thought diary where unpleasant emotions are recorded and a rational response is written to challenge these
           • 4. Client is taught relaxation techniques to help in anxious periods.
     • 16-20 sessions are needed and most effective when used with anti-depressants
   • Highest success rate 90%+ (David and Avellino)

4. Strengths

   • Practical applications
     • 90%+ success rate for CBT by challenging negative schema
   • Nature/Nurture
     • Nature - processing, we are all born with the input, processing, output
     • Nurture - schema, everyones schemas are different depending on their experiences/knowledge

5. Weaknesses

   • Reductionist
     • Only concentrates on processing and ignores genes, environment, the unconscious mind and other factors
   • Deterministic
     • People have no free will as they have no control over processing

6. Methodology

   • Lab experiment
     • • Reliable
     • • Lacks external validity
     • Morris - schema score (IV) effects memory score (DV)
   • Case studies
     • • High external validity
     • • Ethical issues
     • Clive Wearing - viral encephalitis. confused, easily irritated. Only short term memory
     • HM - had epilepsy after accident and started to forget after receiving a brain operation

Images and files in the map