It is impossible to talk about psychology today as a single science. Each direction in it offers its own understanding of psychic reality, its functioning and approach to the analysis of certain aspects. Relatively young, but quite popular and progressive is cognitive psychology. We will briefly get acquainted with this scientific branch, its history, methods, main provisions and features in this article.
History
Cognitive psychology began with a meeting of young electronic engineers at the University of Massachusetts on November 11, 1956. Among them were today's famous psychologists Newell Allen, George Miller and Noam Chomsky. They first raised the question of the influence of subjective cognitive processes of a person on objective reality.
Important for the understanding and development of the discipline was the book “StudyingCognitive Development” by J. Bruner, published in 1966. It was created by 11 co-authors - specialists from the Harvard Research Center. However, the book of the same name by Ulrik Neisser, an American psychologist and teacher at Cornell University, is recognized as the main theoretical work of cognitive psychology.
Basics
The main provisions of cognitive psychology can briefly be called a protest against the views of behaviorism (the psychology of behavior, the beginning of the 20th century). The new discipline stated that human behavior is a derivative of the human thinking abilities. "Cognitive" means "knowledge", "knowledge". It is his processes (thinking, memory, imagination) that stand above external conditions. They form certain conceptual schemes, with the help of which a person acts.
The main task of cognitive psychology can be briefly formulated as understanding the process of deciphering the signals of the external world and interpreting them, comparisons. That is, a person is perceived as a kind of computer that reacts to light, sound, temperature and other stimuli, analyzes all this and creates action patterns to solve problems.
Features
Incompetent people often equate behaviorism and cognitive direction. However, as mentioned above, these are separate, independent disciplines. The first is focused only on the observation of human behavior and external factors (stimulus, manipulation) that shape it. Todaysome of its scientific provisions are recognized as erroneous. Cognitive psychology can be briefly and clearly defined as a science that studies the mental (internal) states of a person. What distinguishes it from psychoanalysis is the scientific methods (rather than subjective feelings) on which all research is based.
The range of topics covered by the cognitive direction is perception, language, memory, attention, intelligence and problem solving. Therefore, this discipline often overlaps with linguistics, behavioral neuroscience, artificial intelligence issues, etc.
Methods
The main method of cognitivists is the replacement of the personal construct. Its development belongs to the American scientist J. Kelly and dates back to 1955, when a new direction had not yet been formed. However, the author's work has largely become defining for cognitive psychology.
In brief, a personality construct is a comparative analysis of how different people perceive and interpret external information. It includes three stages. At the first stage, the patient is given certain tools (for example, a thought diary). They help to identify erroneous judgments and understand the causes of these distortions. Most often, they are states of affect. The second stage is called empirical. Here the patient, together with the psychotherapist, works out techniques for the correct correlation of the phenomena of objective reality. For this, the formulation of adequate arguments for and against, a system of advantages and disadvantages of models is used.behavior and experimentation. The final step is the patient's optimal awareness of his response. This is a pragmatic stage.
In short, Kelly's cognitive psychology (or personality theory) is a description of the very conceptual scheme that allows a person to comprehend reality and form certain behaviors. It was successfully picked up and developed by Albert Bandura. The scientist identified the principles of "learning by observation" in behavior modification. Today, the personality construct is actively used by specialists all over the world to study depressive states, phobias of patients and to identify/correct the causes of their low self-esteem. In general, the choice of cognitive method depends on the type of mental conduct disorder. These can be methods of decentration (with social phobia), emotion substitution, role reversal, or purposeful repetition.
Link to neuroscience
Neurobiology is the study of behavioral processes in a broader sense. Today, this science is developing in parallel and actively interacting with cognitive psychology. Briefly, it affects the mental level, and focuses more on the physiological processes in the human nervous system. Some scientists even predict that in the future the cognitive direction may be reduced to neuroscience. The obstacle to this will be only the theoretical differences of disciplines. Cognitive processes in psychology, in short, are more abstract and irrelevant to the views of neuroscientists.
Problems and discoveries
W. Neisser's work "Cognition and Reality", published in 1976, identified the main problems in the development of a new discipline. The scientist suggested that this science cannot solve everyday problems of people, relying only on laboratory methods of experiments. He also gave a positive assessment of the direct perception theory developed by James and Eleanor Gibson, which can be successfully used in cognitive psychology.
Cognitive processes were touched upon in their developments by the American neurophysiologist Karl Pribram. His scientific contribution is related to the study of the "languages of the brain" and the creation of a holographic model of mental functioning. In the course of the last work, an experiment was carried out - resection of the brain of animals. After extensive areas were removed, the memory and skills were preserved. This gave grounds to assert that the whole brain, and not its separate areas, is responsible for cognitive processes. The hologram itself worked on the basis of the interference of two electromagnetic waves. When separating any part of it, the picture was preserved in its entirety, although less clearly. The Pribram model has not yet been accepted by the scientific community, however, it is often discussed in transpersonal psychology.
What can help?
The practice of personality constructs helps psychotherapists treat mental disorders in patients, or smooth out their manifestation and reduce the risk of future relapses. In addition, the cognitive approachpsychology, briefly but precisely helps to increase the effect of drug therapy, correct erroneous constructs and eliminate psychosocial consequences.
