Strength and Weakness of Cognitive Psychology
Content
Strength and Weakness of Cognitive Psychology
Strength
It mostly uses rigorous scientific methods
The approach has had many practical applications
This area has worked with other areas of psychology to produce the social learning theory, social
cognition and artificial intelligence
It looks at thought processes which were ignored by other psychologists, especially
behaviourists. Processes such as memory, attention and perception have been studied as they
have an effect on our behaviour. Considerable research by Loftus and Palmer (1974) has shown
that memories on eye witness testimony are unreliable
Its theories have been applied to cognitive therapies such as Rational Emotive Therapy. This
therapy has been successful in changing irrational thoughts into rational thoughts so that
behaviour improves. Ellis found that Rational Emotive Therapy is successful 90% of the time
Weakness
It is too simplistic
It ignores the complexity of the human functioning
It ignores biological influences of human functioning
It ignores emotions, conscious experience and free will
It is reductionist. An example of this is that it reduces human behaviour down to individual
processes such as memory and attention. This is a weakness because the human is a product of
all the processes working together and not just individual parts
It is too mechanical, it compares the human to computers in that they have similar processes.
This is a weakness as humans are more complex than computers, for example emotions can
affect a humans' output
Strength
It mostly uses rigorous scientific methods
The approach has had many practical applications
This area has worked with other areas of psychology to produce the social learning theory, social
cognition and artificial intelligence
It looks at thought processes which were ignored by other psychologists, especially
behaviourists. Processes such as memory, attention and perception have been studied as they
have an effect on our behaviour. Considerable research by Loftus and Palmer (1974) has shown
that memories on eye witness testimony are unreliable
Its theories have been applied to cognitive therapies such as Rational Emotive Therapy. This
therapy has been successful in changing irrational thoughts into rational thoughts so that
behaviour improves. Ellis found that Rational Emotive Therapy is successful 90% of the time
Weakness
It is too simplistic
It ignores the complexity of the human functioning
It ignores biological influences of human functioning
It ignores emotions, conscious experience and free will
It is reductionist. An example of this is that it reduces human behaviour down to individual
processes such as memory and attention. This is a weakness because the human is a product of
all the processes working together and not just individual parts
It is too mechanical, it compares the human to computers in that they have similar processes.
This is a weakness as humans are more complex than computers, for example emotions can
affect a humans' output
