Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology, is a field of study pertaining to how people perceive, learn, remember and think; it is a scientific discipline that deals with an investigation of how the mind works, the various the processes involved , the social and cultural factors that influence these processes, and the various approaches used to study them (Sternberg, 2009). Cognitive psychology has evolved into a branch of psychology that explains how people first learns to speak, make decisions or choices, process what we observe around us how those observations and experiences become part of our memory, and use them to process new information.
I am a student of history and I firmly believe that a historical understanding will make us better scholars. The roots for the principles involved in what we call cognitive psychology today go back to many individuals, as far back as Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.) and Plato (428-348 B.C.E) who described mental functions as comprising of rational (calculative), spirited (courage and ego), and appetitive (desiring) and to Aristotle (484-322 B.C.E.) who explained the same as reasoning from one's own life and learning from experience (Adams, 2000). The later prominent individuals included Rene Descartes (1596-1650), John Locke (1632-1704), and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) who explained their own concepts of human mind and understanding. The configuration of elements of thinking was explained by structuralism. Wilhelm Wundt's (1832-1920) introspection at the elements of information available to the mind, William James' (1842- 1910) explanation of functional components of mind, and John Dewey's (1859-1952) pragmatic approach to thinking, among others contributed to metamorphosis of cognitive psychology into what it is today. Cognitive aspect of psychology was forced to go into hibernation during the glorious periods of behaviorism, when John Watson (1878-1958) and B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) ruled the day, and behaviorism was hailed as the only aspect that needed consideration for psychology to survive as a viable discipline. Further knowledge in psychology came through the recognition of Gestalt quality of the brain, it's a way of recognizing patterns from senses through various organs of perception and make sense out of them and develop a behavioral response (Murray, Kilgour & Wasylkiw, 2000). We learned from Kohler, one of the fathers of Gestalt psychology, that problem solving is an insightful behavior (Murray D.K. & Wasylkiw, L., 2000). Edward Tolman (1886-1959) made inroads into establishing the role of cognition when he brought to attention of scientific community to the fact that human behavior could be the result of planned execution of thoughtful minds. Psychology, thanks to Alfred Binet and others developed techniques to measure intelligence and make predictions of future resources of individuals as revealed through testing such cognitive functions as memory, attention, imagination, and comprehension (Goldman, 2004). The idea that human behavior and way of life resulted from the total experience of humans as explained by Gestalt psychologists Kohler (1927) and Wertheimer (1945) further lead towards the establishment of cognitive psychology as a necessary new outgrowth of psychology (Goldman, 2004).
While the historical developments lead to the understanding of role of mind in the perception, communication, decisions or choices, and experiences and memory, the recent developments of neuroscience "have reached the point that neuroscience can justifiably be considered the biomedical foundation for psychiatry" (Coyle, 1988 p.3 as cited in Brown, 2003). The recent developments incorporating imaging techniques such as functional MRI have helped us understand the association of various parts of brain with the human emotions and actions and to expand the horizons to the study of cognition.
The field of cognitive psychology can contribute to positive social change by application of scholarly knowledge to daily interaction with individuals in daily life. The idea of government investing in basic research and helping the university apply the newly acquired knowledge to make progressive social changes became accepted in United States after the report by Vannevar Bush to the President in 1945 (Science The Endless Frontier, 1945), Before that US government could not invest in basic research; only German Government could invest in basic research in Universities (Goldman, 2004). Currently universities have taken initiatives to apply scientific knowledge acquired through university education to effecting social change. To appreciate what it means to be scholar-practitioner we need to look at some facts which exemplifies the contribution of university learning and its effect on life change; the life expectancy in the United States in 1900 was 47 years and today it is in 70s (Goldman, 2004) which can be attributed to positive changes as contribution of transferring university knowledge into effective social change. The idea of transferring new information in new innovative techniques to create a social change has been very impressive as we can see the impact of social change created by internet applications. As a scholar-practitioner we will learn about how people from different cultures think about themselves or others in relation to cultural identity and multicultural approach to understand cognitive behavior and the psychological aspects of globalization including bicultural identities and Identity confusion and to think globally with regard to events, practices, styles and information of global nature (Arnett, 2002). For scholar-practitioners who wish to foster positive social change, cognitive psychology has important, real-world applications and I believe that our knowledge of "mind-body-connection" will be facilitated by the new tools in cognitive psychology. Psychologist as a scholar practitioner will continuously learn from experience, refine techniques and strive to improve lives of others.
Reference
Adams, J. (2000). The Great Minds of Western Intellectual Tradition. The Teaching Company: Chantilly, Virginia.,
Brown, T. (2003). Reductionism and the Development of Knowledge. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: London
Bush, V. (1945). Science the Endless Frontier: A Report to the President by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. United States Government Printing Office, Washington.
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm#ch1.1
Goldman, S.L. (2004). Science in the Twentieth Century: A social-intellectual survey. Chantilly, VA.
Murray D.K., Kilgour, A., & Wasylkiw, L., (2000). Conflicts and missed signals in psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and Gestalt psychology. American Psychologist, 55(4), 422-426
Rock, I., & Palmer, S. (1990). The Legacy of Gestalt Psychology. Scientific American, 263(6), 84.
Chronograph Watches Enhance Personality Spectacle Frames to Accentuate Your Personality Tarots: Valuable Tool for Raising Personality The Rising Sign And How It Affects Your Personality Discounted Perfumes Adds To Your Personality Men's Cufflinks - Improve Your Personality With Cufflinks Does the Macintosh Have a Split Personality? What Kind of Personality Do Guys Want in a Girl? Knowing This Will Get You Any Guy You Want Golf Psychology - Compare Your Score Inferiority Complex Psychology The Psychology Of Color: The Apollonian and Dionysian Struggle Within the Human Personality Part Four Geriatric Psychology : Psychological Functioning of the Elderly