Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the mind as an information processor. Cognitive psychologists try to build up cognitive models of the information processing that goes on inside people’s minds, including perception, attention, language, memory, thinking and consciousness. The cognitive perspective applies a nomothetic approach to discover human cognitive processes, but have also adopted idiographic techniques through using case studies (e.g. KF, HM). Cognitive psychology is also a reductionist approach. This means that all behaviour, no matter how complex can be reduced to simple cognitive processes, like memory or perception. The brain is an amazing thing. Like many amazing things, it is also quite complex. It can process information and data; store and recall information and data; and influence how we behave and feel. All of these tasks are often done simultaneously, or at least within milliseconds of each other. Cognitive psychology is meant to help us try to understand the human thought process and how we acquire, process, and store information. Professionals in this branch of psychology study a number of mental processes. A few of the most common – and important – mental processes that cognitive psychologists study include memory, perception, and learning. Memory is the ability to recall certain bits of information that were acquired in the past. Our memory helps us in learning, speaking, and interaction. Because of this, memory is also one of the most studied areas in cognitive psychology. Perception is another area of the human mind that cognitive psychologists study frequently. The term perception refers to the way that each of us see the world, and why we have these particular views. Cognitive psychologists that study perception often have a better understanding of predicting future behaviour in certain types of people. The term “cognitive psychology” was coined by Ulric Neisser, an American psychologist working at Cornell University. His book, Cognitive Psychology, was published in 1967, and it remains one of the most influential books in this particular area of psychology. The cognitive approach began to revolutionize psychology in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, to become the dominant approach (i.e. perspective) in psychology by the late 1970s. Interest in mental processes had been gradually restored through the work of Piaget and Tolman. In our time, the problem of children-orphans in Ukraine is really important. Traditional institutions where orphans and children deprived of parental care held, changes by progressive forms of maintenance to foster families and familytype orphanages. Orphans and children deprived of parental care need special care, as overwhelming majority of them have serious problems with mental, physical development and social adaptation. In addition, foster children have the right to maintain personal contact with parents and other relatives, if it is not contrary to their interests and not prohibited by the court. Such forms of communication are determined by the guardianship bodies with the consent of the adoptive parents and centers of social services for families, children and young people.
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Jul 18, 2024
Vita Dhameria + 3
Open Access