‘Top-down’ theories are also known as constructivist theories stressing that factors in constructing a sense of reality are received from the senses. Perception being an active process with which the individual’s past experiences, knowledge and expectations seek out sensory data to ‘complete the picture’.
Due to the plasticity of the schema it is very much influenced by cultural differences also. A study by Bartlett ‘The War of the Ghosts’ emphasizes these cultural differences along with the ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom up’ theory of schema. A native-American story was told to participants coming from a different cultural context. Bartlett studied what and how participants remembered. The results showed that there were characteristic changes in the reproduction of the original story. The story had become shorter, conventional and platitudinous. For westerners it was harder to recall the story due to it’s unfamiliar content so the story was adapted to fit their existing cultural schemas. The processing of information is greatly influenced by interpretation according to Bartlett. The brain tends to reconstruct past and make it fit into our schemata. The more perplexing or unfamiliar the new information attained the more likely it is that elements are forgotten or distorted in order for it to fit to the social and cultural context in which it is practiced.
Notion of schema has indicated clear strength in explanations for information processing. Showing its distinct correlation with memory. Since memory is a key aspect to the cognitive perspective it can be seen how it can be explained using the schema theory.
a) Explain one psychological or social question from the cognitive perspective
b) Compare the cognitive explanation of the question with the explanation offered by one other perspective you have studied for this paper.
a) One psychological question, which may be explained using the cognitive approach is aggression. The cognitive approach is concerned with how people acquire, store, transform, and use information. Cognitive psychologists rejected behaviorist assumption that mental events or states were unsuitable for scientific research. The main assumption of this perspective is that mental processes can be investigated scientifically. Other assumptions include: belief that cognitive processes actively organize and manipulate information received, that humans do not merely respond passively to the environment. This may be seen as soft determinism.
Cognitive approach sees aggression cannot be understood without considering mental processes. One important aspect affecting our behavior is our capability of learning from others. This is tied with social learning theory. Cognitive social learning theory offers an explanation for aggression this being imitation. Imitation is the learning of behavior through observation of behavior conducted by others. Thus aggression may be learned from observations of others. Best example of imitation was seen in Bandura’s study of children’s imitation. His aim was to see how infants imitated their
The second aspect likely to influence aggression is the notion that our ideas, thoughts and perceptions may directly influence our behavior, in a sense behavior is predetermined and is referred as soft determinism. Thus the schemata guiding the individual’s behavior affects the possibilities of aggressive behavior. The various schemas developed that influence our perception and behavior.
In this sense the approach is deterministic as based on the schemas of the mind, human behavior is predetermined. Thus with the assertion of the cognitive perspective humans do not have freewill as it comes to aggression.
In conclusion the cognitive perspective put forward the idea that aggression is learned. Aggression is seen as something under the influence of observations (imitation) and with the way we think (schemata). With the assumption that aggression is learned the cognitive approach sees aggression as something, which is uncertain and not inevitable. Thus this approach asserts that humans are nor good or evil inherently. Behavior depends completely on what we have learned.
b) Behaviorist and Cognitive approach seem to share several similarities when explaining aggression. As the cognitive approach the learning approach sees aggression as something that can be learnt from the environment. To a certain extent both approaches are deterministic and are thus tied when explaining aggression. Both perspectives see social behavior like aggression as something that has been learned.
Both approaches see the human mind as ‘tabula rasa’ or blank slate since the behavior depends on what has been learned.
According to the behavioristic approach when main assumptions of the approach are applied to aggression, instrumental aggression is introduced. According to the behaviorist aggression may be understood through instrumental aggression. Instrumental aggression is aggressive behavior that has been maintained due to received positive reinforcement.
Another contributor to aggressive behavior is frustration aggression hypothesis. Frustration aggression hypothesis is a theory developed by Dollard and Miller asserting that frustration is the sole reason for aggression. In this case frustration is defined as something, which is blocking a goal orientated response. This will then arouse a drive that motivates aggressive behavior. Frustration has a intuitive appeal. Thus limiting the notion of free will with this approach.
The cognitive perspective does not see the humans as passive responders to environmental stimuli.
