The Cognitive Approach

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Chapter 1 Introduction to the Science of Psychology
The Psychodynamic Approach
The psychodynamic approach to psychology offers a different slant on the role of
inherited characteristics in shaping behavior and mental processes. Rooted in Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, this approach assumes that our behavior and mental processes
reflect the constant, and mostly unconscious, psychodynamic conflicts that are said to
rage within each of us. According to Freud, these conflicts occur when the impulse to
instantly satisfy our instinctive needs—such as for food, sex, or aggression—are opposed
by our learned need to follow society’s rules about fairness and consideration for others.
So psychologists taking the psychodynamic approach might see aggression as a triumph
of raw impulses over self-control. At the same time, they consider anxiety, depression,
and other psychological disorders as the outward evidence of inner conflict.
Freud’s original theories are not as influential today as they once were (Mischel,
2004a), but in other chapters you will see that modern versions of the psychodynamic
approach still appear in various theories of personality, psychological disorders, and
psychotherapy.
The Behavioral Approach
The assumptions of the behavioral approach to psychology contrast sharply with
those of the biological, evolutionary, and psychodynamic approaches. For one thing,
the behavioral approach is rooted in the behaviorism of Watson and Skinner. As we
mentioned earlier, behaviorism focused entirely on observable behavior in humans
and animals and on how it is learned. Accordingly, psychologists who take a strict
behavioral approach concentrate only on observable behavior. They want to know how
life’s rewards, punishments, and other learning experiences act on the “raw materials”
provided by genes and evolution to shape behavior into what it is today. So whether
they are trying to understand a person’s aggressiveness, fear of spiders, parenting
methods, or tendency to abuse drugs, behaviorists look mainly at that person’s
learning history. And because they believe that behavior problems develop through
learning, behaviorists seek to eliminate those problems by helping people learn new
and more adaptive responses.
Recall, though, that behaviorism was criticized precisely because it ignored everything but observable behavior. That criticism has had an impact on the many behaviorists who now apply their learning-based approach in an effort to understand
thoughts, or cognitions, as well as observable behavior. Those who take this cognitivebehavioral, or social-cognitive, approach explore such topics as the ways in which
we learn our thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs and, in turn, how these learned cognitive
patterns affect observable behavior.
The Cognitive Approach
psychodynamic approach A view developed by Freud that emphasizes unconscious mental processes in
explaining human thought,
feelings, and behavior.
behavioral approach A view based on
the assumption that human behavior is
determined mainly by what a person
has learned in life, especially by rewards
and punishments.
cognitive approach A view that emphasizes research on how the brain
takes in information, creates perceptions, forms and retrieves memories,
processes information, and generates
integrated patterns of action.
The growth of the cognitive-behavioral perspective reflects the influence of a more generally cognitive view of psychology. This cognitive approach focuses on how our
behavior is affected by the ways in which we take in, mentally represent, process, and
store information. Consider how the cognitive approach might guide the analysis of an
incident of aggression: A person in line for movie tickets (1) perceived that someone
had cut into the line, (2) used information stored in memory to judge that this act was
inappropriate, (3) assumed that the act was due to the other person’s rudeness, (4) considered several possible responses and their likely consequences, (5) decided that
punching the other person was the best response, and then (6) executed that response.
Psychologists who take a cognitive approach suggest that mental processes like these—
some of which occur outside of awareness—can help us to understand many kinds of
individual and social behaviors, from decision making and problem solving to interpersonal attraction and intelligence. In the situation we just described, for example, the
person’s aggression would be seen as the result of poor problem solving, because there