Psychology Returns to its Roots: Renewed Interest in Cognition & Physiology

Cognition: refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge
1. Research on cognition grew in the 1950s and 60s
  1. John Piaget (1954) - focus on children's cognitive development; Noam Chomsky (1957) - psychological underpinnings of language
  2. Herbert Simon and colleagues (1958) - groundbreaking research on problem solving
cognitive theorists argue psychology must study internal mental events to fully understand behaviour
1. people's manipulations of mental images influence behaviour; focusing only on overt behaviour yields an incomplete picture on why they behave how they do
2. observers maintain the cognitive perspective has become the dominant perspective in contemporary psychology
1950s and 60s saw discoveries highlighting the interrelations between mind, body, and behaviour
1. James Olds (1956) demonstrated electrical stimulation of the brain could evoke emotional responses (pleasure, rage) in animals; Roger Sperry (1981) showed the right and left halves of the brain are specialized to handle different types of mental tasks
2. Donald Hebb (1949) - his ideas highlighted the importance of physiological and neuropsychological perspectives
  1. locus of behaviour should be sought in the brain
  2. suggested repeated stimulation leads to the development of cell assemblies; they resemble cognitive units that together or un unison with other cell assemblies facilitate behaviour
3. advocates of the biological perspectives of behaviour maintain much of human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of the bodily structures and biochemical processes that allow organisms to behave
interest in neuroscience approach to psych has increased
1. Neuroethics: concern for how info concerning our brain and its connection to behaviour is used; concern with ethics

Next up

Psychology Returns to its Roots: Renewed Interest in Cognition & Physiology

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by cortneyatkinson over 10 years ago