Cognitive Theory I will discuss the description of what Cognitive Theory is, who played a major role in Cognitive Theory, why I find it the most appealing, and why it is superior to others. I will also discuss what type of clients would benefit the most from this type of therapy and why. I will also discuss the limitations of this type of therapy, including patients that may not be helped by practitioners that offer this type of therapy. I will cover all the aspects of cognitive theory, up to but not limited to, the background, the history, types of therapy, people associated, why it is appealing to me, and patient benefits. Cognitive Theory may also be referred to as Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive neuroscience. Cognitive Psychology …show more content…
Cognitive Theory is superior because it is the study of the brain and the different functions it goes through every day to power your body and to make it function. The study of the brain is the most superior because your brain controls the rest of your body. So, to understand any of the other functions and reasoning for things in the rest of the body you must first understand why the brain does the things it does and why the brain works the way it does. The human brain is the main power house for every function in daily life. If one part of your brain does not work the way it is supposed to it may mess with the other mechanics of the human body. To better understand the body you have to better understand the brain. Like stated, the brain is the main power house for every function in life. Cognitive Theory includes numerous different types of studies including cognitive psychology, educational psychology, social psychology, personality psychology, abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, economics, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, the Theory of Cognitive Development, and the Two Factor Theory of Emotion. That is a wide range of all different types of social sciences. As you can see Cognitive Theory covers a lot of ground in the Social Science and psychology field. A small, yet vital part of cognitive theory is cognitive therapy. “Cognitive therapy is a type of psychotherapeutical treatment that attempts to change feeling and behaviors by changing the way a client thinks about or perceives significant life experiences ( Andrews,
The therapists help clients develop self-motivation and positive behaviors by embracing rational and logical thoughts. The client is expected to make a follow-up of the ideas and concepts provided by the therapists. Both clients and therapists should be in constant communication to encourage positive thinking and develop logical and rational ideas. Cognitive Behavior Cognitive behavioral therapy is an approach used by psychotherapists to deal with emotional and behavioral behaviors. One of the issues associated with this type of therapy is the approach can be used in the treatment of other diseases related to emotional and physical stress.
Historically, cognitive psychology was unified by an approach based on an resemblance between the mind and a computer, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). Cognitive neuroscientists argue convincingly that we need to study the brain while people engage in cognitive tasks. Clearly, the internal processes involved in human cognition occur in the brain, and several sophisticated ways of studying the brain in action, including various imaging techniques, now exist, (Sternberg and Wagner, 1999, page 34).Neuroscience studies how the activity of the brain is correlated with cognitive operations, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). On the other hand, cognitive neuropsychologists believe that we can draw general conclusions about the way in which the intact mind and brain work from mainly studying the behaviour of neurological patients rather than their physiology, (McCarthy and Warrington, 1990).
Several acheivements occurred in the development of cognitive psychology. The study of neuroscience brings us to what we know about cognition today. Cognitive psychology came from the criticisms and flaws of behaviorism. The focus of behaviorism is on observable behaviors, although cognitive psychology became a means to studying mental processes. Cognitive psychology can answer the questions behaviorism could not provide. Behavioral observations are key factors in cognitive psychology, and help with interpreting mental processes and behaviors. Through studying mental processes cognitive psychologists’ expanded psychology through and beyond observations. Behavioral observations helps researchers test cognitive theories. Behaviorists study observable behavior and cognitive psychologists study the mental processes. When studying these processes, researchers attempt to explain how unobservable processes interact with the observable behaviors and helping cognitive psychologists test their theories in
Smith, E. E. and Kosslyn, S. M. (2009). Cognitive psychology: Mind and brain. New Jersey: Pearson Education
Cognitive psychology is the study of the brains internal processes that guide behaviour; to study cognition, psychologists examine case studies of patients with damaged brains that can infer areas, and functions involved in particular processes. Patient studies have provided insights into the processes that take place within our minds, and have enabled psychologists to create models, which can be tested and fractionated. Cognitive neuropsychology has developed from cognitive psychology to become a discipline in its own right; it investigates the function and structures of the brain involved in cognitive processes and should not be confused with cognitive neuroscience, which is primarily concerned with neural structures and their functions.
Cognitive is defined as a mental process; it refers to everything going on in your mind including your thought processes and the way you are thinking and feeling. Behaviour refers to everything that you may do; this includes any action that you may present or act out, this can also be an indirect action that is caused by other underlying behaviours. Therapy is a systematic approach to try and resolve a problem, illness, actions, irregular thought patterns or anything that may be a disturbance that distracts you from your everyday functioning. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a dynamic mode of holistic intervention that seeks to change thought processes that are linked with emotions through a goal-orientated process (Freeman and Ronen, 2007). Individuals have a three-step thought process; inferences, evaluations and core beliefs. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy looks into the dysfunctional thinking a client may have, which influences their thoughts, mood and behaviour. This theory is kept very loose and non-structured; depending on the client different theories will have to be applied depending on their needs and emotions.
Whilst evaluating the cognitive approach to psychology there are many strengths such as that the cognitive approach takes an understanding of the influence from mental processes on one’s behaviour, focusing on an individual’s thinking patterns and their perception. This approach also relates to many known functions and operations that the human body performs such as memory and problem solving.
The Clinical Application of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is based on the concept that behavior change may be achieved through altering cognitive processes. The assumption underlying the cognitively based therapeutic techniques is that maladaptive cognitive processes lead to maladaptive behaviors and changing these processes can lead to behavior modification. According to Mahoney (1995), an individual's cognitions are viewed as covert behaviors, subject to the same laws of learning as overt behaviors. Since its inception, cognitive-behavior modification has attempted to integrate the clinical concerns of psychodynamic psychotherapists with the technology of behavior therapists (Mahoney, 1995).
According to numerous references in the field of Psychology, a cognitive psychologist is an individual that studies topics such as thinking, problem-solving, learning, attention, memory, forgetting, and language acquisition, among several others. Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes, and its core focus is on how people acquire, process, and store information. While great research has been done within the field of psychology, there are individuals such as B.F. Skinner who criticize its strides, purposes, and research methods.
In philosophy, the critical analysis on the relationship between the brain and mind is known the mind body problem. The following schools of thought have tried to solve the mind body problem. Dualism, this school of thought subscribes to the belief that the mind and brain exist independently of each other. Other dualists deny the fact that the mind is a part of the brain. This is because the mind and brain don’t share same
Hence, behavioral theory main focus is the behavior of the individual. The theory focuses on the positive and negative reinforcement. While, cognitive theory focuses more on the reasoning and consequences, while seeking to change the way one thinks about the actions. Behavioral theory seeks to change the way you act in the situation which will change the situation altogether. The consequences in cognitive therapy are reinforcements in behavioral theory. Meichenbaum (2000) found that cognitions can act as conditioners of behavior, which influences behavior change. Clients can be helped to restructure their cognitions, which can result in behavior
Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers
Edited by Raymond J. Corsini. Encyclopedia of Psychology, Second Edition, Volume 1. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
In the video Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy with John Krumboltz the theory is clearly and effectively demonstrated
Cognitive Psychology is focused on learning based on how people perceive, remember, think, speak and problem-solve. The cognitive perspective differs in...