Cognitive approach Flashcards
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A further strength of the cognitive explanation of human behaviour is that it has practical applications.
This is because the principles of the theory, that behaviour is caused by internal mental processes, has led to the treatment CBT.
This’is effective in treating disorders such as depression by helping the individual to dispute their irrational thoughts and negative schemas.
Therefore, the penitive explanation of human behaviour is an important part of applied psychology as it helps to treat people in the real world.
THINK FURTHER: This in turn means that these people will be able to function better in everyday life, and may mean that they are able to go to and be more productive in work, increasing wages and tax payments, therefore helping to improve the economy.
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The cognitive explanation is a form of soft determinism.
It sees human behaviour as being caused by internal factors (internal mental processes), however, would suggest that individuals have some choice over their behaviour (unlike the biological approach which would suggest we have no choice).
This could be beneficial as individuals may feel more in control and feel it is possible to alter these faulty thought processes, for example in those suffering with depression, making the cognitive explanation of human behaviour a more positive approach.
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As the cognitive approach uses controlled experiments to conduct the research, this could be an issue when studying internal mental processes such as memory as the research may lack ecological
validity and mundane realism as controlled settings and artificial tasks may not be representative of internal mental processes in the real world.
Meaning it is difficult to generalise the research findings beyond the setting of the study to how our internal mental processes operate in everyday life reducing the external validity.
This therefore weakens the support the research findings provide as a cognitive explanation of human behaviour.
