Cognitivism Essay, Research Paper

1. Cognitivism emphasizes mental processes

2. It looks at how we: direct our attention, perceive, think, remember, and solve problems.

3. The cognitive approach emphasizes the scientific aspect of psychology

4. Information processing looks at minds like computers.

5. Piaget stressed that children do not just passively receive information from their environment, they actively construct their own cognitive world.

6. Organization and adaption underline a child’s mental construction of the world.

7. Assimilation is the incorporation of new information into one’s existing knowledge.

8. Accommodation is an individual’s adjustment to new information.

9. Sensori — Motor Thought is the first Piagetian stage of development that lasts from birth – 2 years of age. In this stage the infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions.

10. Object Permanence is Piaget’s term for one of the infant’s most important accomplishments: understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched.

11. Operations are mental representations that are reversible.

12. Preoperational Thought is the term Piaget gave to the 2 to 7 year old child’s understanding of the world. Children at this stage of reasoning (can/cannot) understand such logical operations as the reversibility of mental representations.

13. Conservation is the belief in the permanence of certain attributes of objects or situations in spite of superficial changes.

14. The child’s thought in the preoperational stage (is/is not) egocentric.

15. Egocentrism is the (ability/inability) to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s perspective.

16. Concrete Operational Thought is the term Piaget gave to the 7 to 11 year old child’s understanding of the world. At this stage of thought children (can/cannot) use operations. Logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought as long as the principles are applied to concrete examples.

17. In this stage thought (is/is not) abstract.

18. Children (do/do not) have classification skills, which aid in dividing things into sets and subsets.

19. Piaget’s methods in classifying these stages were interviews and observations.

20. Piaget was come under criticism because of his stages. People feel that the stages (assume/do not assume) synchrony in development.

21. Neo-Piagetians are developmentalists who have (elaborated/condensed) on Piaget’s theory, they believe that children’s development (is more/is less) specific in many respects than he thought.

22. Formal Operational Thought is Piaget’s name for the fourth stage of cognitive development which appears between 11 and 15 years of age. This stage (is/is not) abstract, idealistic, and logical.

23. Hypothetical Deductive reasoning is Piaget’s name for adolescents’ ability to develop hypotheses, or best hunches, about ways to solve problems.

24. Adolescent egocentrism involves the belief that others are as preoccupied with the adolescent as she herself is, the belief that one is unique, and the belief that one (is/is not) indestructible.

25. Piaget believed that adults and adolescents think in (the same/different) ways.

26. Other developmental psychologists (believed/did not believe) the same as Piaget.

27. In order for a scheme to develop one must occur disequilibrium where a contradiction is experienced. assimilation also occurs where children begin to interpret new experiences. Accomidation is when a child modifies the existing scheme.

28. Children (are/are not) taught how to think. They construct their own world through their interaction with the environment.

29. Cognitive moral development’s first stage is the pre-moral period between the ages of pre school to 5 or so. Here there (is/is not) very little concern or awareness of socially defined rules.

30. Heteronomous Morality is from 5 1/2 to 10 years of age. Here there (is/is not) advanced or mature cognitive abilities. Language begins to develop and memory begins to increase. Authority figures (are/are not) considered sacred. Rules (are/are not) set in stone. Actions are perceived by intent not motives. There is a belief in eminent justice.

31. Autonomous Morality is from the ages of 10 1/2 and up. Here, children (recognize/do not recognize) that rules are arbitrary and there (are/are not) exceptions. There (is/is not) recognition of rules sometimes needing to be broken. They can look at actions and infer motives and intent. There is a more realistic view of justice.

32. Bandura says that learning is facilitated by awareness, which therefore demonstrates forethought.

33. The environment (is/is not) crucial, but so are the cognitive elements that allow for cognitive maps.

34. We (are/are not) robots.

35. Memory, Language and Thinking are components of cognition.

36. We (are/are not) rational creatures (with/without) free will.

37. A cognitive map is an internal representation of an explanation of a behavior.

38. Bandura says that there are four key processes to social learning that behaviorists fail to account for and three key concepts to social learning. Label either c (concept) or p (process):

P attention C modeling

C symbolic modeling P reinforcement

P motor-reproduction C model

P retention

39. There is constant interplay between the environment, behavior and cognitive factors.

40. Cognitive therapies stress that the individual’s beliefs are the main source of abnormal behavior. These therapies attempt to change the individual’s feelings and behaviors by changing beliefs. They adhere to a conversational format. These therapies are very effective in treating mood disorders.

41. Rational-Emotive therapy is based on Albert Ellis’ assertion that individuals become psychologically disordered because of their beliefs, especially those that are irrational and self-defeating. This is the A-B-C-D-E therapy. This therapy says that emotions go from an activating experience to a belief system. This leads to consequences. Then the therapist challenges the belief system in disputation. Then outcomes or effects are reached. In this therapy the problem that is stressed is the belief system.

42. In Beck’s Cognitive therapy there are four phases which Beck believes effectively treats depressed persons. Put them in order:

3 They learn how to substitute appropriate thoughts for inappropriate ones

4 They are given feed-back and motivating comments from the therapist to stimulate their use of these techniques.

1 The depressed clients are shown how to identify self-labels, that is, how they view themselves.

2 They are taught to notice when they are thinking distorted or irrational thoughts.

The National Mental Health (NMH) institute supports the belief that this therapy is an effective treatment of depression.

43. Piaget in 1954 did an experiment mostly on an observational level. He was trying to substantiate how we establish reality. There (is/is not) validity to his cognitive stages, according to him. This study validates that object permanence (is/is not) very important. This study (has/does not have) an impact on morality.

44. Bandura in the 80s and 90s looked into personality theories. He was criticized for his observational studies. He looked at past and present events to account for behaviors that people have engaged in. He focused on World War II and Hitler’s Germany. He said that Hitler made what his followers were doing useful behavior so they would join his army by telling them that they would otherwise die. Hitler’s Germany (substantiated/did not substantiate) the social learning theory.