{"id":652,"date":"2020-05-02T16:37:37","date_gmt":"2020-05-02T16:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/adolescent\/?post_type=chapter&p=652"},"modified":"2021-07-10T20:11:02","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T20:11:02","slug":"cognitive-approach","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/adolescent\/chapter\/cognitive-approach\/","title":{"raw":"Cognitive Approach","rendered":"Cognitive Approach"},"content":{"raw":"Behaviorism\u2019s emphasis on objectivity and focus on external behavior had pulled psychologists\u2019 attention away from the mind for a prolonged time. The early work of the humanistic psychologists redirected attention to the individual human as a whole, and as a conscious and self-aware being. By the 1950s, new disciplinary perspectives in linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science were emerging, and these areas revived interest in the mind as a focus of scientific inquiry. This particular perspective has come to be known as the cognitive revolution (Miller, 2003). By 1967, Ulric Neisser published the first textbook entitled\u00a0Cognitive Psychology<\/em>, which served as a core text in cognitive psychology courses around the country (Thorne & Henley, 2005).\r\n\r\nAlthough no one person is entirely responsible for starting the cognitive revolution, Noam Chomsky was very influential in the early days of this movement. Chomsky (1928\u2013), an American linguist, was dissatisfied with the influence that behaviorism had had on psychology. He believed that psychology\u2019s focus on behavior was short-sighted and that the field had to re-incorporate mental functioning into its purview if it were to offer any meaningful contributions to understanding behavior (Miller, 2003).\r\n\r\nEuropean psychology had never really been as influenced by behaviorism as had American psychology, and thus, the cognitive revolution helped reestablish lines of communication between European psychologists and their American counterparts. Furthermore, psychologists began to cooperate with scientists in other fields, like anthropology, linguistics, computer science, and neuroscience, among others. This interdisciplinary approach often was referred to as the cognitive sciences, and the influence and prominence of this particular perspective resonates in modern-day psychology (Miller, 2003). Today,\u00a0the cognitive approach<\/strong>\u00a0is the area of psychology that focuses on studying cognitions, or thoughts, and their relationship to our experiences and our actions.\r\n\r\nCognitive psychologists have research interests that span a spectrum of topics, ranging from attention to problem-solving to language to memory. The approaches used in studying these topics are equally diverse. Given such diversity, cognitive psychology is not captured in one chapter of this text per se; rather, various concepts related to cognitive psychology will be covered in relevant portions of the chapters in this text on sensation and perception, thinking and intelligence, memory, lifespan development, social psychology, and therapy.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/assessments.lumenlearning.com\/assessments\/2674\r\n
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Piaget\u2019s Psychological Constructivism<\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\nJean\u00a0Piaget\u00a0(1896\u20131980) is another stage theorist who studied childhood development. Instead of approaching development from a psychoanalytical or psychosocial perspective,\u00a0Piaget\u00a0focused on children\u2019s cognitive growth. He believed that thinking is a central aspect of development and that children are naturally inquisitive. However, he said that children do not think and reason like adults (Piaget, 1930, 1932). His theory of cognitive development holds that our cognitive abilities develop through specific stages, which exemplifies the discontinuity approach to development. As we progress to a new stage, there is a distinct shift in how we think and reason.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nPiaget believed that we are continuously trying to maintain cognitive equilibrium or a balance or cohesiveness in what we see and what we know. Children have much more of a challenge in maintaining this balance because they are continually being confronted with new situations, new words, new objects, etc. When faced with something new, a child may either fit it into an existing framework (schema<\/strong>) and match it with something known (assimilation<\/strong>) such as calling all animals with four legs \u201cdoggies\u201d because he or she knows the word doggie, or expand the framework of knowledge to accommodate the new situation (accommodation<\/strong>) by learning a new word to more accurately name the animal. This is the underlying dynamic in our cognition. Even as adults, we continue to try and make sense of new situations by determining whether they fit into our old way of thinking or whether we need to modify our thoughts.\r\n\r\nAs we mature and develop our schemas, we move through four distinct stages of cognitive development. Piaget proposed that specific developmental tasks were to be mastered during each stage, and as children progressed, they became more cognitively sophisticated.<\/span>\r\n\r\nFigure 3.8.1.\u00a0<\/strong>Jean Piaget\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/assessments.lumenlearning.com\/assessments\/16524\r\n\r\nTable 3.8.1. <\/strong>Piaget\u2019s stages of cognitive development\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Age<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\r\nStage<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\r\nDescription of Cognitive Development<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\r\nMajor Developmental Tasks<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Infancy<\/span>(0-2 years)<\/span><\/td>\r\nSensorimotor<\/span><\/td>\r\nTake in sensory information and respond through motor activity. Motor responses begin as reflexes, become purposeful, and then become more sophisticated in response to sensory information.<\/span><\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • Master object permanence<\/span>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Learn to use symbols, images, and words to represent objects and thoughts<\/span>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Develop a sense of \u201cself\u201d separate from others<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Preschool<\/span>(2-7 years)<\/span><\/td>\r\nPre-Operational<\/span><\/td>\r\nDisplay of intelligent thought. Children attempt to understand and explain their world but will make many errors in their assessments.<\/span><\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • Correct errored thinking<\/span>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Overcome egocentric perspective<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Elementary School<\/span>(7-11 years)<\/span><\/td>\r\nConcrete Operational<\/span><\/td>\r\nChildren use operations (internal operations) to think logically and systematically. Operations allow the mental manipulation of information.<\/span><\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • Master conservation<\/span>\u00b7\u00a0 <\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Understand reversibility<\/span>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Spontaneously classify information\/objects<\/span>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Understand deception<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Adolescence (11+ years)<\/span><\/td>\r\nFormal Operational<\/span><\/td>\r\nTeens and adults develop systematic, logical algorithms for thinking through problems.<\/span><\/td>\r\n\r\n