Content: The sociocultural approach
Content: The cognitive approach
Content: The biological approach
Concepts=your toolbox for critical thinking
Psychology books, films and podcasts
<aside> 💡 Basic assumptions:
Human beings are information processers and mental frameworks guide behaviour
The mind can be studied scientifically
Cognition is affected by social and cultural factors
</aside>
📄The content: bio-psycho-social factors of behaviour
The foundation of modern psychology lies within 3 broader approaches in investigating human behaviour, these 3 approaches are biological psychology, cognitive psychology and sociocultural psychology. IB chooses to call these perspectives CONTENT. Each perspective has its own focus of investigation, its own prefered methods to study behaviour and it unique basic assumptions about human behaviour. If we want to understand why Messi or Neymar is such a good football player it will not be enough to attribute his success to genetics (biological appraoch), to his mindset or memory (cognitive approach) or his family, friends and wider society (sociocultural approach). We need all 3 perspectives to understand someone’s behaviour and all three perspectives influence each other, this is also important to remember. Your genes influence what environment you choose. Your social groups influence your interests and how you see the world. Each perspective contributes with its own knowledge of human behaviour but also with its own biases.
Cognitive Psychology
The cognitive approach investigates human thinking and decision making, memory and language, amongst other things. The cognitive approach stems from the cognitive psychological revolution in the 1930s where researchers protested against older approaches which did not study the mind as thinking cannot be observed.
Every psychological perspective has its basic assumptions, preferred methods, and its own explanations for human behavior. Cognitive psychologists mean that behaviour (cognition) can be studied using scientific methods such as experiments where hypotheses are tested (e.g. do mental models affect behaviour). Cognitive psychologists are interested in how our minds work, how we think and make decisions and why we remember and forget.
Cognitive biases
Conditioning (classical and operant)
Dual processing model (thinking fast and slow also called system 1 and 2)
Schema theory
Social learning theory
Cognitive psychology has many robust studies that have been replicated with the same or similar results which suggests some theories are reliable (e.g. schema theory). Internal validity can sometimes be an issue when studying cognition (thinking and memory) since we are investigating something vague and abstract which can be difficult to define and pinpoint. However, there is ample evidence to support many cognitive theories such as cognitive schema theory and system 1 and 2 (Kahneman).
What time did you leave school yesterday?
What was the name of your first pet?