Conclusions
1. The Cognitive perspective helps to explain what is going on in the
‘black box’ of mind
2. There’s growing empirical evidence - via experimental cognitive psych
- very good at defining concepts clearly and testing them.
3. Promising therapeutic applications
4. Integrates well with other theories
5. Too mechanistic? Can it account for ‘higher’ human motivations? Free
will? Are computers and robots adequate models for human behaviour? The
human mind is unlike a computer in that people are aware and experience
emotions.
Summary
The human mind works like a computer
- it processes information.
Experience is our ‘information’.
We store and organise experiences
into patterns called ‘schemas’.
Schemas help us to interpret new
experiences with cognitive efficiency.
Self-schemas organise information about how we see ourselves.
Self-schemas say whether we’re optimistic or pessimistic, what we’re
motivated by, what our likes or dislikes are, etc.
Attributions are characteristic ways of explaining events.
Self-schemas, attributions and memory activations are cognitive
explanations for individual differences in personality.
Self-regulation assumes that behaviour is directed from within the
person
Self-regulation emphasises the importance of goals and the process of
feedback control