The Influence Of Cognitive Psychology

The brain has been studied for hundreds of years. Many great psychologist have questioned why we have thoughts and feelings and they all had different answers. Some thought you should only look at what can be directly observed about a person, some focused on their mental behavior, and some said that our culture shapes us to act a certain way. None of them are wrong about how we should look at the mind, we need to look at the mind in all these way to truly understand it. There are 6 main perspectives in psychology that help us understand the mind.

The biological perspective started with 17th Century philosopher Descartes’ idea that the spiritual mind and the physical body are separate. It searches for the cause of behavior in the function of

This perspective suggests that much of human behavior is mediated by thought processes like memory and attention, belief systems, attitudes and language. Belief systems, value systems, thought processes, reason and intelligence have a significant impact on why we do the things we do and act the way we act. The cognitive perspective suggests that much of human behavior is significantly influenced by cognitive processes and is thus amenable to our thoughtful control (1). Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then the way to do it is to figure out what processes are actually going on in their minds

This theory focuses on the role of unconscious influences on how we think and act. This approach looks at how the things that happen to us as kids help shape important determinants of adult psychology (2). This theory became very popular because of its explanatory power for human behavior, Freud 's therapeutic method, called psychoanalysis or Insight therapy, was developed to identify the underlying conflicts between intrapsychic structures and resolve them by bringing them to consciousness. Although Freud thought of himself as a scientist, and he was very thorough in recording his methods and outcomes, he did not practice scientific methods. Psychoanalytic theory was developed through case study analysis, a qualitative, not scientific, method (1). Freud believes that events in our childhood can have a significant impact on our behavior as adults. He also believed that people have little free will to make choices in life. Instead, our behavior is determined by the unconscious mind and childhood experiences