Strengths of the cognitive approach:

• Mediational Processes : It does not ignore mediation of cognition in between stimulus and response – it tries to explain what is happening in the mind between stimulus and response.

• Important Contributions: The approach has numerous useful applications, including: advice about the validity of eyewitness testimony, Cognitive behaviour therapy, how the thinking of children develops (Piaget).

• It is a scientific approach using mostly experimental methods. This is an advantage because it can provide experimental data to test its theories.

Explaining Mediational Processes

• The approach focuses on Mediational Processes : the processes that happen “inside” the mind. This is a strength COMPARED TO BEHAVIOURISM because Behaviourists ignored what happens in the mind because it is not DIRECTLY MEASURABLE

• The cognitive approach tries to explain what is happening in the mind between stimulus and response.

• By doing this we understand more about how memory works.

• Eg The Tulving and Psotka(1971) Experiment

Tulving and Psotka(1971)

• See “The Value of Retrieval Cues” on p52

• Write a summary of the research

• What do the findings tell us about the mediational process of Memory?

Important Contributions

• Important Contributions: The approach has numerous useful applications, including: advice about the validity of eyewitness testimony, Rational Emotive therapy, how the thinking of children develops (Piaget).

• These are strengths because they provide useful explanations of behaviour and effective ways of dealing with individuals who have problems.

Scientific Approach

• It is a scientific approach using mostly experimental methods. This is a strength because it can provide experimental data to test its theories, experiments using standardised procedures can be replicated to check for reliability and validity.

• A good example is attribution theory – this is supported by experimental data.

Strengths of the cognitive approach:

In Pairs Write 50 words on why each bullet is a strength

• Mediational Processes

• Important Contributions

• Scientific approach

Weaknesses of the cognitive approach:

• Nature and Nurture: Despite taking both into account it fails to take into account some biological factors (nature) and cultural influences (nurture)

• Determinist Approach: It is deterministic saying we are determined by schemas, although we may have some choice in how to interpret information.

• Reductionist: It is reductionist- ignoring the huge complexity of human functioning compared to computer functioning.

• Mechanistic: Too cold and mechanistic assuming that all behaviour is the result of rational thought processing.

Nature v Nurture

• Despite taking both into account it fails to take into account some biological factors (nature) and cultural influences (nurture).

• This is a weakness because compared to the Biological Approach it ignores the influence of genes on behaviour eg Bouchard & McGue’s work on IQ.

Mechanistic

• Machine Reductionism: The approach reduces a human being with feelings and emotions to a “thinking machine”.

• This is a weakness because it ignores the role of social and emotional factors in our behaviour.

• For example Kelley’s Covariation model suggests that people follow certain rules in making attributions. Many of us are not even aware that we are using rules.

Determinist approach:

• It is deterministic saying our behaviour is determined by schemas.

• Schemas are the result of experience we can’t control (the environment we grow up in) and the social interactions we have as we get older.

• This process leads to CULTURAL STEREOTYPES that may determine the way we interpret situations.

• This is a weakness because it ignores the individual’s ability to ignore cultural stereotypes.

Weaknesses of the cognitive approach:

• In Pairs Write 50 words on why each bullet is a weakness

Nature and Nurture: Despite taking both into account it fails to take into account some biological factors (nature) and cultural influences (nurture)

• Determinist Approach: It is deterministic saying we are determined by schemas, although we may have some choice in how to interpret information.

• Mechanistic: Too cold and mechanistic assuming that all behaviour is the result of rational thought processing.