...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...
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...born we are a “tabula rasa” a blank slate which means that he supports the idea that we are products of our environment and also supports behaviourism. Another debate is continuity v discontinuity, some individuals have created continuity theories and others have created discontinuity theories. Continuity theorists believe that the development of an individual is constantly continuous while discontinuous theorists believe that there are specific periods where individuals develop. For example Freud’s psychosexual stages are a discontinuous theory. There is also an issue of nomothetic vs idiographic; some theorists adopt a nomothetic approach while others adopt an idiographic approach. Individuals that adopt a nomothetic approach create theories based on what we share with others, and find general laws that can be applied to large groups of people, for example behaviourism is a nomothetic approach. On the other hand the idiographic approach goes into large detail for the individual to investigate why we are unique, for example Freud’s theory is an idiographic approach. There are six principle psychological perspectives which are applied to the understanding which includes; behaviourism, social learning, psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive and developmental. These perspectives can be used to explain the development of individuals. Cognitive development starts when developing from when we are born. It refers to how intelligence, conscious thought and problem solving develop from...
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...Cognitive Psychology emerged as a reaction to Behaviourism. Discuss Cognitive psychology is the school of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn. As part of the larger field of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy and linguistics. Whereas Behaviorism suggests that all behavior can be explained by environmental causes rather than by internal forces. Behaviorism is focused on observable behavior. Theories of learning including classical conditioning and operant conditioning were the focus of a great deal of research. Cognitive psychology began to emerge during the 1950s, partly as a response to behaviorism. According to Anderson (1996), cognitive psychology first emerged in the two decades between 1950 and 1970. The modern development of cognitive psychology was due to the WWII focus on research on human performance and attention, developments in computer science, especially those in artificial intelligence, and the renewal of interest in the field of linguistics. Critics of behaviorism noted that it failed to account for how internal processes impacted behavior. This period of time is sometimes referred to as the "cognitive revolution" as a wealth of research on topics such as information processing, language, memory and perception began to emerge. One of the most influential theories from this school of thought was the stages of cognitive development...
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...of Cognitive Psychology as a Discipline PSYCH560/Cognitive Psychology December 3rd 2011 Evolution of Cognitive Psychology as a Discipline Cognition Cognition is typically referred to as the procedure of obtaining, retaining, using and applying information or knowledge. It can sometimes be defined as the science of knowing. Cognition “refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used” (Neisser, 1967). When defined broadly, cognition includes the processing of emotions; however, if defined narrowly, it excludes emotion processing. Cognition includes all the mental processes. For example, attaining knowledge and understanding, thinking, remembering, assuming, perceiving, judging and even analytical problem-solving are all part of cognition. Given such a comprehensive definition, it is evident that cognition is concerned in everything a human being might probably do; every psychological experience is a cognitive experience. However, although cognitive psychology is related to all human activity rather than a few segments of it, the apprehension is that it is from a specific point of view yet other viewpoints are evenly justifiable and essential. The Interdisciplinary Perspective & Emergence of Cognitive Psychology As well as being part of psychology as a whole, cognitive psychology is also part of the more general interdisciplinary subject of cognitive science...
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...COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THREE COMMUNICATION FORMATS: ADVERTISING, INFOMERCIAL, AND DIRECT EXPERIENCE (2000). BY MANDEEP SINGH, SIVA K. BALASUBRAMANIAN & GOUTAM CHAKRABORTY Article review and analysis: 1 – Motivation, goals, contribution. 2- Context. 3 - Elaboration and illumination of theory and results. 4 - Critical review, limitations and further thought. Group: 3.08 Assignment Theoretical assignment Date: 5.11.2014 1 1. Motivation, goals, contribution The article aims at making a comparative analysis between three different communication formats used in advertising, and assess their relative effectiveness on a continuum. The three communication formats are direct experience (DE), television ads, and infomercials. The authors build on previous work to explain the similarities and differences of infomercials and ads / DE, and imply that it is interesting to examine the moderating / mediating effects each medium’s features has on consumer attitudes and intentions. (For example, length, persuasive intent, physical interaction, etc. – how does each effect consumer’s attitudes?). The reasoning behind the choice of these specific formats is that infomercials are a “natural” middle ground, as they combine both television advertisements and DE features (while, they assume beforehand, most likely closer to DE, which is also what they find in their experiments). The motivation for the study is twofold: novelty and useful practical implications. Novelty / research gap: Previous...
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...THEORIES - COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORIES l CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 5 Learning Theories - Cognitive Learning Theories LE ARNI NG OUTCOMES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Explain what is cognitive revolution and the cognitive perspective on learning and how it differs from other theoretical perspective; Discuss the origins of the contemporary cognitive perspective including the Gestalt psychology and the role of perception; Describe the Information processing model to learning and distinguish the features of ‘Multistore model’; Explain what is schema theory; Link schema theory to cognitive structuralism and examine the role of insightful learning and meaningful learning; and Discuss application of cognitive theories in the classroom. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 104 CHAPTER 5 l LEARNING THEORIES - COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORIES INTRODUCTION Sometimes you wonder why the teacher use colourful chalk with some of the words written on the board. Sometimes the teacher write in capital letter with important words. These are useful as guides for the students to differentiate the important and unimportant facts. In other words, accurate perception is important in good learning. It is part of the Gestalt principles. Clearly, these principles are useful as guide for teachers as they organize their materials and learning activities. So in this chapter, we will discuss the origin and features of cognitive theory and relate them to cognitive constructivism...
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...In this essay I will analyse in reference to the case study, how psychological theory informs our understanding of mental health disorders. I have chosen the following two theories to analyse, Psychodynamic and Cognitive. I will also evaluate how certain therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Psychotherapy may help or change a depressed person’s behaviour. Depression is a potentially disabling illness that affects many, but is understood by few. Suffers often do not recognise the nature of this terrible illness until they are so devastated that they can no longer help themselves. (Ainsworth 2000). According to Houpt 2010, Jamie is clearly showing signs of depression. Jamie is exhausted and his schoolwork is falling behind. He has fallen asleep in class and states that he feels depressed and anxious. He also feels a great sense of loss and his eating behaviour has changed drastically. Houpt states that depression reduces, depresses and slows a person’s functional level. It slows mental and bodily activities. Therefore a slowed mind is unable to process and respond to all incoming data. Adolescent depression is a mental and emotional disorder affecting adolescents and teens. More commonly referred to as teenage depression, adolescent depression is not medically different from adult depression and can affect a teen’s personal, school, work, social and family life therefore leading to social isolation. Empfield and Bakalar, 2013). A psychodynamic...
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...first educators to encourage the education of women, (Pound, 2005). Theories serve as bridges between research and educational practices and as tools to organize and translate research findings into recommendations for educational practice. Behaviorism Behavioral theories stress the role of the environment-specifically , how stimuli are arranged and presented and how responses are reinforced .these theories assign less importance to learner differences than do cognitive theories .Within the overall theory of behaviourism are a number of sub-groups two of which are Connectivism and Conditioning . Edward Thorndike (1874 – 1949) was one of the main advocates of ‘Connectivism’. Through his research he came to the view that how humans and animals behave is all about stimulus and response.Thorndike believed that learning occurred through trial and error. This led him to the view that there are two laws that relate to learning. These are the laws of Exercise and Effect, (Schunk, 2004). Skinner termed his view of behaviourism ‘Operant Conditioning’. His view was that an animal or human being, operated upon through conditioning would also emit responses, (Tip Theories, 11.10.2007). As with Thorndike, he took the view that the stimuli could be negative, pain or criticism for example, or positive, as in praise or reward, (B.F. Skinner Foundation 2007). This is the basic difference between the view that...
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...The expression “I feel depressed” is used normally as a throwaway comment when we are feeling sad or miserable. Normally these feeling will pass us by, and we then continue with our everyday life without another thought. But what if these feeling didn’t disappear over time? What happens when these start to interfere with our everyday life? What if the enviorment around us is the major cause of depression? It’s not really hard to believe when you think about it as we are faced with mass unemployment, and a recession which can put heavy strain on even the most balanced of individuals and their interpersonal relationships around them. There are many interpersonal instances that can have the ability to lead to the onset of depression, such as the family environment, the socialization setting, and the discrimination against gender in certain cultures and instances. Depression has many brothers and sisters in the medical world, ranging from disorders such as Dysthymia, postnatal depression and in some extreme cases of depression such as Bio polar, and major depression (Unipolar). But no matter what the diagnosis is or how serious the depression is, depression is not trivial and is a real health condition contrary to what some people believe. It is not something that you can just snap out of and more importantly it is not a sign of weakness. For many people depression can affect them in different ways to other people with the same condition but normally the symptoms are similar...
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...sequence of qualitatively different stages. It views development as bi-directional. The Mechanistic (passive) view suggests development is a passive predictable response to stimuli. 2. Is development continuous or does it occur in stages? Continuity or Discontinuity. The organismic approach emphasizes qualitative changes (discontinuous), while the mechanistic approach emphasizes quantitative changes (continuous). What is a theory? Definitions: A theory is a systematic formulation of principles explaining behaviour. It is a coherent set of logically related concepts that seeks to organize, describe, explain and predict data (p.22). Five broad theoretical perspectives: (p. 24/25) 1. Psychoanalytic 2. Learning 3. Cognitive 4. Contextual 5. Evolutionary/Sociobiological 1. Psychoanalytic theory The psychoanalytic perspective views development as shaped by unconscious forces that motivate human behaviour. Freud’s psychosexual theory (p.23-25) Freud believed that people are born with biological drives that must be controlled to make it possible to live in society. He proposed three hypothetical parts of one’s personality – the id, the ego and the super ego. He proposed 5 maturationally based stages of psychosexual development. Oral (birth -18 months) Anal (18months – 3 years) Phallic (3 years – 6 years) Latency (6 years – puberty) Genital (puberty – adulthood)...
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...Unit 29: Assignment Explain the contribution of complementary psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours Case study -Addiction Ben is a 22 year old and works as a photographer. He drinks a lot and goes to parties every single weekend with his friends. Ben has also started using heroin and became addicted to it while trying it out because of his friends. He grew up with his mum and had tough childhood as his mum is a single mum and also was addicted to alcohol. He grew up being exposed to alcohol ever since he was a child and he thinks that drinking alcohol excessively is normal. However, Ben got to the point that he no longer can live without alcohol and heroin and it started to affect his job and his daily life. Case study - Depression Hannah is a 16 years old girl and she has just managed to finish her high school and is hoping to get into college. She has been experiencing symptoms of depression ever since the age of 13. It has affected her daily life and it had interfered with her studies as she found it hard to go to school and she isolated herself a lot. Hannah didn't like herself and she constantly worried about her future and the world. She had low self-esteem and felt that she was worthless all the time and that feeling did not go away for months. Her family didn't know that it was depression until she was properly diagnosed by a psychiatrist. She now takes medication and it helps a lot with her negative and suicidal thoughts...
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...Pursuit of Happiness Happiness can be defined by everyone differently. Everyone I know says they are on a path seeking happiness but they can never truly define it, or their path toward it. So how do they know they are happy? Is it just a mind set? Being happy cannot be measured with wealth or possession of objects. A new mansion, expensive clothing, or a new car does not equate to happy feelings. Sure, I should think someone with these items would be happy, but it is never guaranteed. Having material possessions is just a mental distraction of the mind avoiding pain. Attaining perfect happiness would be achieved if only I could avoid all pain. Pain is what counter acts happiness, yet without pain we could never feel a sense of happiness. To me, being happy is attaining goals and always striving to go further. It gives me a sense of purpose. A sense of sanctification, which in a way equates to happiness. An example of me attaining happiness would be going to college and getting a job after graduating. Having a goal and a plan and knowing I could be something bigger makes me happy enough to move on. Yet, there is no such thing as “perfect happiness”. I say that because one can ever be perfectly happy with what they have done and what they want to do. There is always bumps in my life that make unhappy again. So I believe being happy is simply just a state of mind that it always changing. It's a never ending cycle in the pursuit of...
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...It is easy to say something is hard to do if you never tried doing it. This saying hits home for me because there was a time I thought I could not play sports or thought that it would be a struggle because I had asthma. After beating myself up over not having the courage to try, my friends encouraged me to try out for basketball. When starting out it was a little hard to run and bounce the ball at the same time, it took even more energy and effort to shoot the ball. This did not help in keeping my spirit high. I felt defeated and stopped trying. While feeling bad about not being good right away I remembered what my mom told me “Everything does not come easy, you have to work for it”. This made me feel better and I practiced every day after school until I learned how to play the game. Now basketball is my favourite sport, if I had not tried it wouldn’t have been possible for me to brag about my accomplishments today. If you do not try to do something, you will never know if you are good at it. Confidence is the key when it comes to trying something new. Don’t be a failure by thinking you cannot do something or not even try. When making a mistake, try harder the next time and it will eventually become easy. You will be very happy and pleases with yourself when you try to do something and succeed. When attempting to do something put in the effort so you can be the best at it. I have learned that not trying is worst than trying and failing. I have so much...
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...For all things listed as a study make sure you know the IV, DV, results and any theory that might be associated. Verbal Knowledge Lecture 16/ chapter 9/ Meyer What is a concept, categorization, and why do we categorize? What is the definitional approach? The prototype approach? The exemplar Approach? What do we wactually use? Rosch’s study of family resemblance. What is the typicality effect? Rosch’s study of it with priming colors. What are the types of categories according to Rosch? What is the evidence that Basic level categories are special? How can experience change this? What is the hierarchical model of Collins and Quillian? What are the flaws? What is spreading activation? What is Collins and Loftus’ Semantic model? What are the flaws? What is the connectionist approach? How does it simulate actual learning? How are categories represented in the brain? Freedman’s cat-dog study. Lexical Decisions: Meyer: Know the hypothesis in addition to the usual. Understand how the word types can be broken into different IVs. Mental Imagery Lecture 17/ chapter 10/ Shepard and Meltzer What is mental Imagery? Visual Imagery Study of paired associate learning (dog flower) Paivio’s study of nouns that can evoke an image What are the spatial and propositional representation of visual imagery? Kossyln’s studies (2) of visual imagery, know the criticism that lead to the second study (the island study). What is mental scanning? ...
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...Outline and evaluate the working memory model In the working memory model, there are four main components; The central executive is the most important component as it is involved in problem solving and decision making. It controls attention and plays a vast part in planning and processing information from subsidiary systems and LTM. It is flexible and can process information. It has a limited capacity and can only contain a limited amount of information at one time, Secondly the phonological loop stores a limited amount of speech-based sounds for quick periods. It contains two components. The phonological store (inner ear) allows acoustically coded items to be stored for a brief timing. The articulatory control process (inner voice) allows subvocal repetition of the items stored in the phonological store. Repetition can be prevented by a technique known as ‘articulatory suppression’. The visuo-spatial scratch pad (inner eye) stores visual and spatial information. It is responsible for setting up and manipulating mental images. It has a limited capacity but the limits of the system are independent. The episodic buffer interrogates and manipulates material in the working memory. It has a limited capacity, depending a lot on executive processing. It is capable of binding together information from different sources into chunks/episodes. It interrogates material from LTM to meet the requirements of working memory. The working memory model has many advantages which are that it...
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