The cognitive completes a return to the material focused on by
introspectionists (e.g., Wundt, 1870's), that is, the actual content of
mind. The new cognitive psychology evolves most directly from
social learning theory and extensions of behavioral theory. It
also has clear links to humanistic psychology in its focus on the
"information stored about the self" and in suggesting considerable
capacity for change in personality and mental health by altering
thinking patterns.
The cognitive perspective, interestingly, has evolved hand in hand in
the development of computers over since the mid-1950's and according to
many in psychology has become the most significant paradigm in
psychology.
Essentially, the cognitive perspective of personality is the idea that people are who
they are because of the way they think, including how information is
attended to, perceived, analyzed, interpreted, encoded and retrieved.
People tend to have habitual thinking patterns which are characterized
as as personality. Your personality, then, would be your
characteristic cognitive patterns.The cognitive
perspective is that personality is a person's mental
organization. In order to cope with all the information
you receive from the world, including sensory information, you need to
cope with, integrate and organise all the information the world throws at you.
From this point of view, you are:
- What you THINK
- The way you PROCESS INFORMATION (including attending to,
perceiving, interpreting, encoding and retrieving of information);
- The way you SELF-REGULATE via cognitive monitoring and adjusting
thoughts and behaviors. We are HOMEOSTATIC psychobiological
creatures who try to self-regulate in order to progress towards GOALS.
The cognitive perspective is also often known as the
information-processing model, with the computer serving as a convenient
metaphor. Basically, the computer's program is equivalent to the
ways a human processes information. In cognitive psychology, these
"programs" include methods for attending, perceiving, representing,
encoding, retrieving, and decision-making and problem-solving.
A particular strength of cognitive theory is that it is readily
compatible with all the other perspectives, thus there are also many
hybrid cognitive theories, e.g., cognitive-behavioral theory, social
cognitive theory.
Further background to the cognitive perspective
The cognitive approach is the outgrowth of Rotter’s and Bandura’s
social-learning perspectives. Recall that Bandura’s approach has come to
be called social cognitive theory. Bandura’s beliefs about the
environment and expectations about the self are essentially cognitive
concepts.
Another important influence on the cognitive perspective is
the phenomenological approach, especially George Kelly’s ‘personal
constructs’ theory. Kelly
emphasised the way a person’s concepts for thinking about the world
shape his or her personality and behaviour (Kelly greatly
influenced Bandura).
The cognitive approach also draws on Freud’s notions
concerning levels of consciousness. The preconscious and the unconscious
are receiving increasing attention from many proponents of the cognitive
approach to personality.