How does the cognitive approach explain behaviour through mental processing, and how well does it stand up?
The cognitive approach: assumptions, application to the formation of relationships, the therapy of cognitive behaviour therapy, the classic study of Loftus and Palmer (1974), and evaluation.
A focused answer to WJEC A-Level Psychology Unit 1 on the cognitive approach: its assumptions, its application to the formation of relationships, cognitive behaviour therapy, the classic study of Loftus and Palmer (1974), and how to evaluate the approach.
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What this dot point is asking
For the cognitive approach you must state its assumptions, apply it to the formation of relationships, describe its therapy (cognitive behaviour therapy, CBT), describe the classic study of Loftus and Palmer (1974), and evaluate the approach. The key idea is that mental processes mediate behaviour and can be studied scientifically by inference.
Assumptions
The approach rests on these assumptions:
- Information processing (the computer analogy). The mind takes input from the senses, encodes, stores and retrieves it, and produces output (behaviour), much like a computer.
- Mental processes can be studied scientifically. Although they cannot be seen, processes such as memory and attention are inferred from controlled experiments measuring recall, errors and reaction times.
- Schemas guide behaviour. A schema is a mental framework built from experience that organises knowledge and shapes expectations. Schemas help us process information quickly but can also cause bias and distortion, such as misremembering events to fit expectations.
- Internal processes mediate behaviour. Unlike the behaviourists, the cognitive approach places thinking between stimulus and response, so the same situation produces different behaviour depending on how it is processed.
Application to the formation of relationships
The cognitive approach explains relationships through how we think about and perceive others. Schemas about partners, formed from culture, media and past experience, shape who we find attractive and what we expect. Attribution matters: we judge whether behaviour reflects personality (dispositional) or the situation, and positive attributions encourage attraction. The matching hypothesis is cognitive in spirit, since it involves perceiving and comparing qualities. So relationships form from how we perceive, interpret and reason about others, not simply from biology or reinforcement.
Therapy: cognitive behaviour therapy
The therapy is cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), which assumes faulty thinking causes disordered behaviour and emotion, so changing the thinking changes the behaviour. The therapist helps the client identify irrational or negative automatic thoughts (for example "everyone hates me"), challenge them against the evidence, and replace them with realistic alternatives, often with behavioural homework. Beck's cognitive therapy targets the negative triad in depression, and Ellis's REBT disputes irrational beliefs using the ABC model.
CBT is effective and relatively quick for depression and anxiety, a major real-world strength, but it depends on the client engaging actively and may overlook situational causes such as poverty.
Classic study: Loftus and Palmer (1974)
The study fits the approach because it shows memory being reconstructed rather than simply retrieved. Its weaknesses are low ecological validity (a film is not a real, emotional accident) and possible demand characteristics, so generalisation to real eyewitnesses is limited.
Evaluation
Examples in context
Example 1. A waiter schema. A "restaurant schema" tells you to expect a menu, a waiter and a bill, but can also make you misremember details to fit the script, showing how schemas aid and distort processing.
Example 2. Depression and the negative triad. A depressed person reads a neutral event ("a friend did not text back") as proof they are worthless and the future is hopeless; CBT challenges this thinking, tracing assumption to therapy.
Try this
Q1. What is a schema? [1 mark]
- Cue. A mental framework, built from experience, that organises knowledge and guides expectations.
Q2. Outline how CBT aims to treat a psychological disorder. [3 marks]
- Cue. Identify irrational or negative thoughts, challenge them against the evidence, and replace them with realistic thoughts, often with behavioural homework.
Q3. Explain one strength and one weakness of using Loftus and Palmer (1974) as evidence for the cognitive approach. [4 marks]
- Cue. Strength: controlled evidence that memory is reconstructed by leading questions. Weakness: low ecological validity, since watching a film differs from witnessing a real, emotional event.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
WJEC specimen8 marksDescribe the assumptions of the cognitive approach to psychology.Show worked answer →
WJEC rewards an organised description illustrated with examples.
State that the mind works like an information processor (the computer analogy): input from the senses is encoded, stored and retrieved, and internal mental processes such as perception, memory, attention and thinking can and should be studied scientifically.
Explain that behaviour is guided by schemas, mental frameworks built from experience that organise knowledge and guide expectations, but can also cause errors and bias.
Explain that because mental processes cannot be observed directly, they are studied by inference from behaviour, often using lab experiments and theoretical or computer models.
A strong answer uses the terms information processing, schema and inference and gives behavioural examples.
WJEC specimen12 marksEvaluate the cognitive approach to psychology.Show worked answer →
Develop balanced strengths and weaknesses and conclude.
Strengths: it is scientific, using controlled experiments and objective measures such as reaction times and recall accuracy, so it is replicable. It has wide real-world value, including CBT for depression and improvements to eyewitness testimony from Loftus and Palmer (1974). It studies mental processes the behaviourists ignored, giving a fuller account.
Weaknesses: it relies on inference about unobservable processes, so conclusions are indirect. The computer analogy is a machine reductionist oversimplification that ignores emotion and motivation. Many findings come from artificial lab tasks, lowering ecological validity.
Conclude that it is rigorous and useful but can be artificial and mechanistic. Markers reward developed points and a judgement.
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Sources & how we know this
- WJEC GCE Psychology specification (from 2015) — WJEC (2015)