Cognitive vs Behavioural
Assignment 1
Critically evaluate some of the central themes within psychology
Behaviourism VS Cognitive
This assignment will critically analyse two of the core approaches in psychology- Behaviourism versus the Cognitive approach.
Behaviourists believe that all behaviours are gained through conditioning; conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. Behaviourists say our responses to environmental stimuli shape our behaviour. If the environment surrounding us is altered- our thoughts, behaviour and feelings are also altered.
Cognitive psychologists study the ways in which humans mentally process information. They study internal thought processes such as thinking, perception, language, memory and attention. The cognitive approach also looks at how we treat the information that we gain and what responses this leads us to have.
Behaviourists say we are a product of our environment. They believe that we are born a blank slate and we can be manipulated whereas Cognitive psychologists believe we were born with cognitive functions like memory or perception. Behaviourists believe we all learn in the same way, therefore it is acceptable to associate results from experiments that are carried out on animals; with humans. This could also be seen as a downfall for the behaviourist approach as they do not anticipate any difference between animals and humans behaviour. Cognitive psychologists believe if they want to know how people think then they need to gain knowledge on a person’s mind and mental processes. They focus more on internal factors unlike behaviourists who focus of external factors. They study internal processes such as thought processes, attention, memory, language and perception. Behaviourists only study behaviour that can be observed. It assumes that we learn by associating certain events with certain consequences, and people tend to behave in the ways which lead to good consequences. Classical and Operant conditioning are two important
Critically evaluate some of the central themes within psychology
Behaviourism VS Cognitive
This assignment will critically analyse two of the core approaches in psychology- Behaviourism versus the Cognitive approach.
Behaviourists believe that all behaviours are gained through conditioning; conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. Behaviourists say our responses to environmental stimuli shape our behaviour. If the environment surrounding us is altered- our thoughts, behaviour and feelings are also altered.
Cognitive psychologists study the ways in which humans mentally process information. They study internal thought processes such as thinking, perception, language, memory and attention. The cognitive approach also looks at how we treat the information that we gain and what responses this leads us to have.
Behaviourists say we are a product of our environment. They believe that we are born a blank slate and we can be manipulated whereas Cognitive psychologists believe we were born with cognitive functions like memory or perception. Behaviourists believe we all learn in the same way, therefore it is acceptable to associate results from experiments that are carried out on animals; with humans. This could also be seen as a downfall for the behaviourist approach as they do not anticipate any difference between animals and humans behaviour. Cognitive psychologists believe if they want to know how people think then they need to gain knowledge on a person’s mind and mental processes. They focus more on internal factors unlike behaviourists who focus of external factors. They study internal processes such as thought processes, attention, memory, language and perception. Behaviourists only study behaviour that can be observed. It assumes that we learn by associating certain events with certain consequences, and people tend to behave in the ways which lead to good consequences. Classical and Operant conditioning are two important