Psychology is one of the youngest sciences, which is not always given due attention. However, it is simply impossible not to notice its rapid development in recent years. But until now, scientists do not consider it a unified science, because at the moment it has many directions that put forward their own theories of organization and perception of mental reality by man. This prevents representatives of different directions from sharing knowledge and enriching each other.
Cognitive psychology (representatives of this trend are actively working on its development, developing a methodology) is the direction that interests the scientific world more than others. And this is not at all surprising, because it reveals a person as a being thinking and constantly analyzing his activities. This is the basis of all cognitive-behavioral psychology, which originated in the middle of the last century and is still in the stage of active development. From the article, readers will have the opportunity to get acquainted with this relatively new trend in science. And also learn about the main representatives of cognitive psychology, its positions and tasks.
General characteristics of the new direction
Cognitive psychology (representatives of this direction have done a lot to popularize it and formulate its main tasks) currently occupies a rather large section in psychology as in science. The name of this movement itself was formed from the Latin word for “knowledge”. Indeed, it is he who is most often referred to by representatives of cognitive psychology.
The conclusions that were made by this scientific trend, later became widely used in other disciplines. First of all, of course, psychological. They are regularly addressed by social psychology, educational psychology and psycholinguistics.
The main difference between this direction and others is the consideration of the human psyche as a certain set of schemes formed in the process of cognition of the world. Followers and representatives of cognitive psychology, unlike their predecessors, pay great attention to cognitive processes. After all, they provide the necessary experience and the opportunity to analyze the situation in order to make the right decision. In the future, the same algorithm of actions will be applied in such situations. However, under changing conditions, he will also change. That is, human behavior is determined not so much by the inclinations and influences of the external environment embedded in it, but by mental processes and abilities.
Cognitive psychology and its representatives (W. Nysser, for example) believe that all knowledge acquired by a person during his life is transformed into certain schemes. They are stored in specific memory cells and retrieved from there if necessary. We can say that all the activities of the individual take place precisely in this framework. But you can not assume that they are static. Cognitive activity occurs constantly, which means that new schemes regularly appear and old ones are updated. Representatives of cognitive psychology do not consider attention as something isolated. It is studied in the aggregate of all cognitive processes, such as thinking, memory, perception, and so on.
The history of the scientific direction
We can say that cognitive psychology owes its origin to American scientists. It was they who, in the forties of the last century, showed a serious interest in human consciousness.
Over time, this interest has generated a large number of research papers, experiments, and new terms. Gradually, the concept of cognition firmly enters into psychology. It begins to appear as determining not only human consciousness, but also practically all its actions. Of course, this was not yet cognitive psychology. Nisser laid the foundation for serious research in this direction, which later began to resonate with the work of other scientists. They also put in the first place a person’s knowledge of himself and the world around him, allowing him to create new behavioral patterns and acquire certain skills.
Interestingly, initially this direction was difficult to consider homogeneous. This trend has persisted until now, because cognitive psychology is not a single school. Rather, it can be described as a wide range of tasks, united by a common terminology and study methodology. With their help, certain phenomena of psychology are described and explained.
Cognitive Psychology: Key Representatives
Many consider this area of psychology to be unique, because it practically does not have a founder who inspired others. We can say that different scientists created at approximately the same time scientific works united by a single idea. In the future, they became the basis for a new direction.
Therefore, among the representatives of cognitivism, it is necessary to distinguish several names that have made a serious contribution to the development of this trend. For example, George Miller and Jerome Bruner organized a specialized research center fifty-seven years ago, which was engaged in the study of problems and the formulation of tasks in a new direction. These include memory, thinking, language and other cognitive processes.
Seven years after the start of research, W. Nysser published a book in which he spoke in detail about a new direction in psychology and gave its theoretical justification.
Simon made a great contribution in the middle of the last century to cognitive psychology. Its representatives, I want to note, often began to do their research quite by accident. Their cognitiveism led to an interest in certain aspects of human consciousness. This is exactly what happened with Herbert Simon. He worked on the theory of managerial decisions. He was very interested in decision-making processes and organizational behavior. Despite the fact that his scientific work was aimed at supporting the scientific theory of management, he is also very actively used by representatives of cognitive psychology.
Main ideas
In order to more accurately imagine what is in the sphere of interests of this trend in psychology, it is necessary to identify its main ideas:
- Cognitive processes. They traditionally include thinking, memory, speech, imagination and so on. In addition, cognitive psychology also considers the emotional sphere of personality development, because without it it is impossible to create behavioral patterns. Intelligence also takes part in this process, and cognitivism is very interested in the study of artificial intelligence.
- The study of cognitive processes from the point of view of a computing device. Psychologists draw a parallel between human cognitive processes and modern computers. The fact is that an electronic device collects, processes, analyzes and stores information in almost the same way as the psyche of people.
- The third idea is the theory of phased processing of information. Each person works with the obtained data in several stages, most of this process occurs unconsciously.
- Clarification of the capacity of the human psyche. Scientists believe that it has a certain limit. That's just what it depends on and how different it is in people, at the moment it is not clear. Therefore, psychologists are trying to find mechanisms that in the future will most effectively process and store incoming information.
- The fifth idea is to encode all processed data. Cognitive psychology translates the theory that any information receives a special code in the human psyche and is sent for storage to a specific cell.
- One of the ideas of a new direction in psychology is the need to conduct research only using chronometric means. In cognitivism, the time that a person spends searching for a solution to a particular problem is considered important.
At first glance, the ideas listed above seem very simple, in reality they are the basis on which a complex chain of scientific research and research is built.
Cognitivism: Provisions
The main provisions of cognitive psychology are quite simple and understandable even to a person who is far from science. It is noteworthy that the main goal of this direction is to find explanations of human behavior in terms of cognitive processes. Scientists do not focus on laid character traits, but on experience and knowledge acquired as a result of conscious activity.
The main provisions of cognitive psychology can be represented in the form of the following list:
- the study of the sensory process of cognition of the world;
- study of the process of appropriation by people of certain qualities and characteristics to other individuals;
- the study of the processes of memory and the creation of a certain picture of the world;
- understanding of unconscious perception of events and so on.
We decided not to list all the provisions of this scientific trend, but identified only the main ones. But even after studying them, it becomes clear that cognitivism studies the processes of cognition from different angles.
Methodology
Almost any study in the framework of cognitive psychology should primarily include a laboratory experiment. At the same time, a number of installations stand out, most often they consist of three components:
- all data is extracted from mental formations;
- behavior is the result of knowledge and experience;
- the need to consider behavior as something integral and not to divide it into its constituent elements.
Features of cognitive psychology
Interestingly, scientists were able to identify a special scheme that controls the behavior of the individual in certain situations. Cognitive scientists believe that the primary person in cognition of the world is impression. It is sensory perception that triggers processes that further transform knowledge and impressions into a certain chain. It regulates human behavior, including social.
Moreover, these processes are in constant motion. The fact is that a person strives for inner harmony. But in connection with the acquisition of new experience and knowledge, a person begins to experience a certain disharmony. Therefore, it seeks to streamline the system and gain even more knowledge.
Cognitive Dissonance: Definition
The individual’s desire for inner harmony and the discomfort experienced at that moment in psychology are called “cognitive dissonance”. Every person experiences it at different periods of life.
It arises as a result of contradictions between the knowledge of the situation and reality, or the knowledge and actions of the individual. In this case, the cognitive picture of the world is violated, and the same discomfort arises, pushing a person to a series of actions in order to re-enter a state of harmony with himself.
Causes of Dissonance
As you already understood, it is impossible to avoid this state. In addition, there are a lot of reasons for its appearance:
- logical inconsistency;
- inconsistencies in behavior with samples taken as a standard;
- contradiction of the situation with past experience;
- the occurrence of violations in the usual pattern of cognitive behavior.
Any item on the list can seriously affect the behavior of a person who begins to actively search for ways out of an unpleasant state. At the same time, he considers several possible algorithms for solving the problem.
The way out of cognitive dissonance
According to scientists, there are a lot of exit options. But most often a person chooses the following:
- changing a behavioral pattern to a new one;
- change of certain elements of the cognitive scheme;
- expansion of the scheme and the inclusion of new elements in it.
Cognitive Approach: Brief Description
Cognitive scientists are very interested in conscious human behavior. That it becomes the main subject of research in the scientific field. But this is done from a certain point of view in order to best reveal the main tasks posed by psychology.
The cognitive approach allows us to understand exactly how a person perceives, decrypts, and encodes information extracted from the surrounding world. So with the help of this approach, the process of comparing and analyzing the data obtained is revealed. In the future, they help make decisions and create behavioral patterns.
Psychology of personality constructors
Cognitivism cannot be considered without the theory of personality constructors. It is basic in studying the behavior of people in different situations. If you describe it briefly, we can say that people educated and living in different conditions cannot perceive and evaluate reality in the same way. Therefore, when they get into equal conditions, they often perceive the situation in completely different ways and make different decisions.
This proves that the personality acts as a researcher who relies only on his knowledge, and this allows her to find the right solution. In addition, the individual can calculate subsequent events arising from the decision. Thus, certain patterns are formed, called personality constructors. If they justify themselves, then they continue to be used in identical situations.
Theory of Albert Bandura
Even before the advent of cognitive psychology, scientist Albert Bandura developed a theory that now forms the basis of a scientific direction. The theory is based on the fact that basic knowledge about the world around us arises in the process of observation.
Bandura argued in his writings that, first of all, the social environment gives the individual an incentive for growth. Knowledge is drawn from it and the first chains are built, which in the future will act as a regulator of behavior.
At the same time, thanks to observations, a person can predict how his actions will affect other people. This allows you to regulate yourself and change the behavior model depending on a particular situation.
In this theory, knowledge and the ability to self-regulation are prevailing in relation to intuition and instincts laid by nature. All of the above resonates in the best way with the basic principles of cognitivism. Therefore, Albert Bandur himself is often ranked among the founders of a new direction in psychology.
Cognitive psychology is a very interesting scientific trend that allows you to better understand a person and the motives that motivate him to act in accordance with certain rules.