What Is the Cognitive Approach?
The cognitive approach is an area of psychology that focuses on mental processes, perception, and language as a way of explaining and understanding human behavior. It started to develop in the 1960s, and by the end of the 20th century, the cognitive approach had become the dominant school of thought in psychology. Psychotherapy based on the cognitive approach attempts to alter behavior by attempting to change the behavior’s underlying cognition, or thought processes. There are a few assumptions that are central to the cognitive approach. One is that human behavior can be understood by scientific processes. Unlike Freudian psychology, cognitive psychology developed through empirical testing. Another assumption is that human behavior is a series of responses to external stimuli mitigated by our thoughts, perceptions, moods, and desires.
