THEORY
Strengths - The Cognitive Approach:
- Cognitive Psychology made a substantial contribution to psychology and to our understanding of psychopathology and for treatment of psychological disorders. EG: Many modern types of therapy are based on the cognitive approach, such as CBT - used to treat anxiety and depression. In addition, understanding cognitive processes allows us to help people to improve their cognitive process such as memory and language. EG: Loftus and Palmer's study highlights the limitations of eye-witness testimonies due to inaccurate cognitions.
- The Cognitive Approach has become the dominant approach in psychology particularly since it become allied with neroscience. The cognitive approach nowadays is often called cognitive science and is able to provide a very sophisticated understanding of how the brain processes information.
- Cognitive Psychology uses a scientific approach through the use of laboratory experiments. EG: Loftus and Palmer were able to control the input (use of video, all participants were asked the same questions apart from changes in critical words) and managed to measure the output (estimates in speed) and draw inferences about the processing of information (distortion of memory) which occured inbetween.
- Standardised experiments such as the laboratory experiments used are easy to test for reliability.
Limitations - The Cognitive Approach:
- Many cognitive studies are carried out in laboratory experiments which means that they can lack ecological validity. When cognitive processes such as memory are studied in artificial situations it may be difficult to generalise the findings to everyday life.
- The validity of measuring cognitive processes can be questionable as we can only infer what a person is thinking and therefore the cognitive approach relies heavily on self-report measures and observation. Due to an inability to directly observe/measure a person's thought processes, the validity of self-report measures and observations is questioned which in turn questions the validity of measuring cognitive thought processes.
- The cognitive approach's reliance on the computer analogy leads to a restricted and mechanistic description experiences and behaviour. The cognitive approach often takes this narrow focus and ignores social and emotional factors which may impact on cognition.