The Importance Of Cognitive Approach To Psychology

It was in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s that the cognitive approach in psychology began to revolutionise, by the 1970’s it had become the strongest theory used in psychology.

Cognitive psychologists study many aspects of the human mind, such as memory, thinking, problem solving, language, perception and attention (Hill, 2009).

Biological psychology emerged in the 19th century, at that point the knowledge of biochemistry, physiology, human anatomy and medicine was becoming greater, which therefore meant that experience and important understandings of human behaviour we’re gained (Hill, 2009).

There is only one approach in psychology that studies thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The biological approach believes that the way we are is due to our genetics and physiology.

Both have inputs and outputs, can store memory and both have a limit to how much information we can process at once. A person’s behaviour is determined by the information available to them and the way they have learned to process information (Sammons, 2009).

With the cognitive approach it is all about understanding the internal process of people’s minds. In general, cognitive psychologists study behaviour by using the laboratory experiment. Other methods used in the cognitive approach are introspection, memory psychology, observations and computer modelling. Introspection involves us examining our own inner thoughts and feelings. The cognitive approach is vastly applicable e.g. for use in therapy (McLeod, 2007).

The difference between the biological approach and the cognitive approach is that the biological approach looks at processes from a biological point of view such as behaviour genetics, while the cognitive approach studies how the brain and sense organs process information (UCS,