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 single science, because at the moment it has many directions that put forward their own theories of the organization and perception of mental reality by a person. This prevents representatives of different directions from sharing knowledge and enriching each other with it.
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 thinking being and constantly analyzing his activity. This is the basis of the entire 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 to know this relatively newcurrent in science. And also learn about the main representatives of cognitive psychology, its provisions and tasks.
General characteristics of the new direction
Cognitive psychology (representatives of this direction have done a lot to popularize it and set the main tasks) today occupies a rather large section in psychology as a science. The very name of this movement was formed from the Latin word for "knowledge". After all, 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 consulted 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 patterns formed in the process of knowing 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 similar situations. However, under changing conditions, it 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 thought processes and abilities.
Cognitivepsychology and its representatives (W. Neisser, for example) believe that all knowledge acquired by a person during his lifetime is transformed into certain schemes. They are stored in certain memory locations and retrieved from there if necessary. We can say that all the activity of the individual takes place precisely within these frameworks. But you can not assume that they are static. Cognitive activity occurs constantly, which means that new schemes appear regularly 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
It can be said 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 knowledge firmly enters psychology. It begins to act as a determinant not only of human consciousness, but also of almost all of its actions. Of course, it was not yet cognitive psychology. Neisser laid the foundation for serious research in this direction, which later began to overlap with the work of other scientists. They also prioritized a person's knowledge of himself and the world around him, allowing him to create new behavioral patterns and acquire certain skills.
It is interesting that initially this directionit was difficult to consider homogeneous. This trend has continued to this day, 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: main representatives
Many consider this branch of psychology to be unique, because it has practically no founder who inspired others. We can say that different scientists created scientific works at approximately the same time, united by a single idea. Later they became the basis for the new direction.
Therefore, among the representatives of cognitivism, several names should be singled out who have made a serious contribution to the development of this trend. For example, fifty-seven years ago, George Miller and Jerome Bruner organized a specialized research center that began to study problems and set new directions. These include memory, thinking, language and other cognitive processes.
Seven years after the start of research, W. Neisser published a book in which he spoke in detail about the new direction in psychology and gave its theoretical justification.
Simon also made a great contribution to cognitive psychology in the middle of the last century. Its representatives, I would like to note, often began to engage in their research quite by accident. They were led to cognitivism by their interest in certain aspects of human consciousness. This is exactly what happened to Herbert Simon. He worked on the creation of 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, it is also very actively used by representatives of cognitive psychology.
Key Ideas
To more accurately imagine what is within the scope of interests of this current in psychology, it is necessary to identify its main ideas:
- Cognitive processes. These 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.
- 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 human psyche.
- The third idea is the theory of staged information processing. Each person works with the received data in several stages, most of this process occurs unconsciously.
- Exploring 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 for people, at thismoment is not clear. Therefore, psychologists are trying to find mechanisms that will later allow the most efficient processing and storage of incoming information.
- The fifth idea is to encode all processed data. Cognitive psychology broadcasts the theory that any information receives a special code in the human psyche and is stored in a certain cell.
- One of the ideas of a new direction in psychology is the need to conduct research only with the help of chronometric means. In cognitivism, the time that a person spends looking for a solution to a given task is considered important.
The ideas listed above seem very simple only at first glance, but in reality they are the basis on which a complex chain of scientific research and research is built.
Cognitivism: positions
The main provisions of cognitive psychology are quite simple and understandable even to a person 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 inherent character traits, but on experience and knowledge acquired as a result of conscious activity.
The main provisions of cognitive psychology can be represented as the following list:
- study of the sensory process of knowing the world;
- study of the process of assigning certain qualities and characteristics to others by peopleindividuals;
- studying memory processes and creating a certain picture of the world;
- understanding the unconscious perception of events and so on.
We decided not to list all the provisions of this scientific trend, but only highlighted 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 cognitive psychology must first of all include a laboratory experiment. At the same time, a number of installations are distinguished, most often they consist of three components:
- all data is extracted from mental formations;
- behavior is the result of knowledge and experience;
- need to consider behavior as a whole and not break it down into its constituent elements.
Features of cognitive psychology
Interestingly, scientists have managed to isolate a special scheme that controls the behavior of the individual in certain situations. Cognitivists believe that impressions are primary in human cognition of the surrounding world. It is sensory perception that launches processes that further transform knowledge and impressions into a kind of chain. It regulates human behavior, including social behavior.
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. Soseeks to streamline the system and gain even more knowledge.
Cognitive dissonance definition
The individual's desire for inner harmony and the discomfort experienced at this moment in psychology is called "cognitive dissonance". Every person experiences it at different periods of life.
It arises as a result of contradictions between knowledge about the situation and reality, or knowledge and actions of the individual. At the same time, the cognitive picture of the world is disturbed, and the same discomfort arises that pushes 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 reference;
- contradiction of the situation with past experience;
- the occurrence of disturbances in the habitual pattern of cognitive behavior.
Any item on the list can seriously affect the behavior of a person who begins to actively look for ways out of an unpleasant state for him. At the same time, he considers several possible algorithms for solving the problem.
Out of cognitive dissonance
According to scientists, there are quite a few exit options. But most often a person chooses the following:
- changing the behavioral scheme to a new one;
- changing certain elements of the cognitive schema;
- expanding the schema and including itnew items.
Cognitive approach: a brief description
Cognitive scientists are very interested in conscious human behavior. It is this that becomes the main subject of scientific research. But this is done from a certain point of view, in order to reveal the main tasks set by psychology as best as possible.
The cognitive approach allows us to understand exactly how a person perceives, deciphers and encodes information extracted from the outside world. So with the help of this approach, the process of comparison and analysis of the obtained data is revealed. In the future, they help make decisions and create behavioral patterns.
Psychology of personality constructors
One cannot consider cognitivism without the theory of personality constructors. It is the basis for studying the behavior of people in different situations. To describe it briefly, we can say that people brought up 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 a person acts as a researcher who relies only on his knowledge, and this allows him to find the right solution. In addition, the individual can calculate subsequent events arising from the decision made. Thus, certain schemes are formed, called personality constructors. If they justify themselves, then infurther continue to be used in identical situations.
Albert Bandura's theory
Even before the emergence of cognitive psychology, the scientist Albert Bandura developed the theory that now forms the basis of the scientific direction. The theory is based on the fact that basic knowledge about the surrounding world 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 will later 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 model of behavior depending on a particular situation.
In this theory, knowledge and the ability to self-regulate are predominant in relation to intuition and instincts inherent in nature. All of the above is in perfect harmony with the main provisions of cognitivism. Therefore, Albert Bandura himself is often considered one of the founders of a new trend in psychology.
Cognitive psychology is a very interesting scientific trend that allows you to better understand a person and the motives that prompt him to act in accordance with certain rules.
