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Cognitive Psychology: Emergence & Evolution

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Explain the evolution of cognitive psychology as a discipline.

Define cognition:
- Explain the interdisciplinary perspective as it relates to cognitive psychology.
- Describe the emergence of cognitive psychology as a discipline.
- Assess the effects of the decline of behaviorism on the discipline of cognitive psychology.

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Solution Summary

The solution is a comprehensive introduction into the development and evolution of the field of cognitive psychology, Key developments and theorists/innovators in the field are introduced including valuable ideas and citations from their work. The discussion is divided via the key themes - interdisciplinary perspective, behaviorism and the emergence of cognitive psychology. Resources are listed for further exploration of the topic.

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Introduction

Cognitive Psychology (CP) is one of the most dynamic fields into his discipline of psychology. What is it about? Why is it of great interest to practitioners and to researchers as well as to other disciplines? Why are studies and theories in this particular discipline of applicable and relevant in business studies? In organizational studies? In general counseling practices as well as specialized treatment of a host of disorders? How the discipline did first came about? These questions are the ones that have come to guide this short essay that provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the discipline. Naturally, because the topic and the history of the discipline is broad, information discussed here is limited to the most relevant. Touching the core ideas however mean an insight into the history and relevance of the discipline in current practice and the social sciences.

On Interdisciplinary Perspective

When we talk of interdisciplinary sciences, we are referring to the convergence and amalgamation and utilization of innovation, ideas, knowledge and discoveries coming from a host of disciplines into a research effort or scientific investigation. across the broad field of the sciences, one element unite researchers and thinkers - the scientific approach, which is a process of investigating, knowing and coming to learn of the world (by uncovering and finding an explanation for phenomenon). The scientific process allows for knowledge gained to be easily validated, to be subject to rigorous testing over and over again ensuring that the results are valid and reliable. This leads to the establishment of certain theories (the case in the social sciences) and 'scientific laws' (which is the case in the natural sciences) that explain the how's and why's of certain phenomenon experienced in reality (i.e. the establishment of positivist theory to study the social scientific subject matter, the establishment of Newton's law of gravity). But the fact that all scientific studies utilize the scientific approach means that there are similarities as well as applicabilities of discovered and emergent knowledge from related disciplines to other disciplines that can utilize certain theories and innovations to develop their studies and scientific investigations and approaches further. Consider for example the collaboration between chemists and archaeologists studying the chemical composition and implications of the presence of chemicals found in an ancient Roman jar from Pompeii - the specializations of these fields have come together to investigate a phenomenon making it an interdisciplinary undertaking.

So what then is the purpose of an interdisciplinary perspective? The word perspective here denotes 'viewing' - it prescribes the need to think about the world using multi-perspectives, not being confined to just one. No one singular discipline can explain the realities and phenomenon of the social world. Disciplines would always fall short if made to meet such task. Teachers have long recognized that learning about the world requires viewing it from a host of ...

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  • MPhil/PhD (IP), Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
  • BA, University of the Philippines
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