COGNITIVE THEORY INTRODUCTION The initial behavioural studies focused attention on human actions without much attention on the

internal thinking process. As complex behaviours was examined and could not be accounted for by strictly behavioural explanations, thought processes became new subjects for study. Cognitive theory, an outgrowth of different theoretic perspectives, including the behavioural and psychodynamic, attempted to link internal thought process with human behaviour. Cognitive theory is a learning theory of psychology that attempts to explain human behaviour by understanding the thought processes. MEANING OF COGNITION Cognitions are mental processes by which knowledge about oneself , others, and the environment is gained and interpreted. It includes thought processes such as perception, problem solving, and creativity. That is higher mental processes, including understanding, reasoning, knowledge, and intellectual capacity. CONCEPT OF COGNITION Cognition or cognitive processes can be natural and artificial, conscious and not conscious. The concept of cognition is closely related to such abstract concepts as mind, reasoning, perception, intelligence, learning, and many others that describe numerous capabilities of human mind and expected properties of artificial or synthetic intelligence. Cognition is an abstract property of advanced living organisms; therefore, it is studied as a direct property of a brain or of an abstract mind on sub symbolic and symbolic levels. In psychology and in artificial intelligence, it is used t o refer to the mental functions and mental processes with a particular focus toward the study of such mental processes as comprehension, inferencing , decision-making, planning and learning. Recently, advanced cognitive researchers have been especially focused on the capacities of abstraction, generalization, concretization/specialization and metareasoning which descriptions involve such concepts as beliefs, knowledge, desires, preferences and intentions of intelligent individuals/objects/agents/systems. The term "cognition" is also used in a wider sense to mean the act of knowing or knowledge, and may be interpreted in a social or cultural sense to describe the emergent development of knowledge and concepts within a group that culminate in both thought and action.

BANDURA S SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY Social cognitive theory is a subset of cognitive theory. Primarily focused on the ways in which we learn to model the behaviour of others, social cognitive theory can be seen in advertising campaigns and peer pressure situations. It is also useful in the treatment of psychological disorders including phobias. Social Cognitive Theory, used in psychology, education, and communication, posits that port ions of an individual's knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influences. It is a learning theory based on the ideas that people learn by watching what others do and that human thought processes are central to understanding personality. People learn by observing others, with the environment, behaviour, and cognition all as the chief factors in influencing development. These three factors are not static or independent; rather, they are all reciprocal. For example, each behavior witnessed can change a person's way of thinking (cognition). Similarly, the environment one is raised in may influence later behaviours, just as a father's mindset (also cognition) will determine the environment in which his children are raised. Social cognitive theory revolves around the process of knowledge acquisition or learning directly correlated to the observation of models. The models can be those of an interpersonal imitation or media sources. Effective modeling teaches general rules and strategies for dealing with different situations. Bandura s experiment To illustrate that people learn from watching others, Albert Bandura constructed an experiment entitled Bobo Doll Behavior: A Study of Aggression. In this experiment Bandura exposed a group of children to a video featuring violent and aggressive actions. After the video he then placed the children in a room with a Bobo doll to see how they behaved with it. Through this experiment, Bandura discovered that children who had watched the violent video subjected the dolls to more aggressive and violent behavio ur, while children not exposed to the video did not. This experiment displays the Social Cognitive Theory because it depicts how people re enact behaviours they see in the media. In this case, the children in this experiment re enacted the model of violence they directly learned from the video. According to him the steps in the modelling process are: 1. Attention. If you are going to learn anything, you have to be paying attention. Likewise, anything that puts a damper on attention is going to decrease learning, including observational learning. If, for example, you are sleepy, groggy, drugged, sick, nervous, or hyper, you will learn less well. Some of the things that influence attention involve characteristics of the model. If the model is colorful and dramatic, for example,

we pay more attention. If the model is attractive, or prestigious, or appears to be particularly competent, you will pay more attention. And if the model seems more like yourself, you pay more attention. These kinds of variables directed Bandura towards an examination of television and its effects on kids. 2. Retention. Second, you must be able to retain -- remember -- what you have paid attention to. This is where imagery and language come in: we store what we have seen the model doing in the form of mental images or verbal descriptions. When so stored, you can later bring up the image or description, so that you can reproduce it with your own behavior. 3. Reproduction. At this point, you re just sitting there daydreaming. You have to translate the images or descriptions into actual behavior. So you have to have the ability to reproduce the behavior in the first place. I can watch Olympic ice skaters all day long, yet not be able to reproduce their jumps, b ecause I can t ice skate at all. On the other hand, if I could skate, my performance would in fact improve if I watch skaters who are better than I am. Another important point about reproduction is that our ability to imitate improves with practice at the behaviours involved. And our abilities improve even when we just imagine ourselves performing. Many athletes, for example, imagine their performance in their mind s eye prior to actually performing. 4. Motivation. And yet, with all this, you re still not going to do anything unless you are motivated to imitate, i.e. until you have some reason for doing it. Bandura mentions a number of motives: a. past reinforcement, ala traditional 3ehaviourist. b. Promised reinforcements (incentives) that we can imagine. c. Vicarious reinforcement seeing and recalling the model being reinforced. These are, traditionally, considered to be the things that cause learning. Bandura is saying that they don t so much cause learning as cause us to demonstrate what we have learned. That is, he sees them as motives. Of course, the negative motivations are there as well, giving you reasons not to imitate someone: d. past punishment. e. Promised punishment (threats). f. Vicarious punishment. Like most traditional 3ehaviourists, Bandura says that punishment in whatever form does not work as well as reinforcement and, in fact, has a tendency to backfire on us.

Modeling therapy The therapy Bandura is most famous for, however, is modeling therapy. The theory is that, if you can get someone with a psychological disorder to observe someone dealing with the same issues in a more productive fashion, the first person will learn by modeling the second. Bandura s original research on this involved herpephobics -- people with a neurotic fear of snakes. The client would be lead to a window looking in on a lab room. In that room is nothing but a chair, a table, a cage on the table with a locked latch, and a snake clearly visible in the cage. The client then watches another person, an actor, go through a slow and painful approach to the snake. He acts terrified at first, but shakes himself out of it, tells himself to relax and breathe normally and take one step at a time towards the snake. He may stop in the middle, retreat in panic, and start all over. Ultimately, he gets to the point where he opens the cage, removes the snake, sits down on the chair, and drapes it over his neck, all the while giving himself calming instructions. After the client has seen all this he is invited to try it himself. He knows that the other person is an actor, there is no deception involved here, only modelling. And yet, many clients, lifelong phobics, can go through the entire routine first time around, even after only one viewing of the actor. This is a powerful therapy. One drawback to the therapy is that it isn t easy to get the rooms, the snakes, the actors, etc., together. So Bandura and his students have tested versions of the therapy using recordings of actors and even just imagining the process under the therapist s direction. These methods work nearly as well. PIAGET S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence first developed by Jean Piaget. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory, but in fact, it deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to acquire it, construct it, and use it. Moreover, Piaget claims the idea that cognitive development is at the centre of human organism and language is contingent on cognitive development . According to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, intelligence is the basic mechanism of ensuring equilibrium in the relations between the person and the environment. This is achieved through the actions of the developing person on the world. Thus, the development of intelligence is a continuous process of assimilations and accommodations Piaget described four main periods in the development towards completely reversible equlibrated thought structures. For Piaget intelligence is not the

same at different ages. According to him the following are the stages of the cognitive development. Sensorimotor stage(0-2 years) In this stage, infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (such as seeing and hearing) with physical, motoric actions. Infants gain knowledge of the world from the physical actions they perform on it. An infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward the end of the stage. Piaget divided the sensorimotor stage into six substages Sub-Stage Age Description Coordination of sensation and action through reflexive behaviors. Three primary reflexes are described by Piaget: sucking of objects in the mouth, following moving or interesting objects with the eyes, and closing of the hand when an object makes contact with the palm (palmar grasp). Over the first six weeks of life, these reflexes begin to become voluntary actions; for example, the palmar reflex becomes intentional grasping. Coordination of sensation and habits (reflex) and primary circular reactions (reproduction of an event that initially occurred by chance). Main focus is still on the infant's body. As an example of this type of reaction, an infant might repeat the motion of passing their hand before their face. Development of habits. Infants become more objectoriented, moving beyond self-preoccupation; repeat actions that bring interesting or pleasurable results. This stage is associated primarily with the development of hand eye coordination. Three new abilities occur at this stage: intentional grasping for a desired object, secondary circular reactions, and differentiations between ends and means. At this stage, infants will intentionally grasp the air in the direction of a desired object, often to the amusement of friends and family. Secondary circular reactions, or the repetition of an action involving an external object begin; for example, moving a switch to turn on a light repeatedly. The differentiation between means and

1.Simple Reflexes

Birth6 weeks

2. First habits and primary circular reactions phase

6 weeks4 months

3 .Secondary circular reactions phase

4 8 months

ends also occurs. This is perhaps one of the most important stages of a child's growth as it signifies the dawn of logic. Coordination of vision and touch --hand-eye coordination.This stage is associated primarily with the development of logic and the coordination between means and ends. This is an extremely 8 12 months important stage of development, holding what Piaget calls the "first proper intelligence." Also, this stage marks the beginning of goal orientation, the deliberate planning of steps to meet an objective. Infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things they can make happen to objects; they experiment with new behavior. This 12 stage is associated primarily with the discovery of new 18 months means to meet goals. Piaget describes the child at this juncture as the "young scientist," conducting pseudoexperiments to discover new methods of meeting challenges.

4 .Coordination of secondary circular reactions stages

5 Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity

Infants develop the ability to use primitive symbols and form enduring mental representations. This stage 6 Internalization of 18 is associated primarily with the beginnings of insight, Schemes 24 months or true creativity. This marks the passage into the preoperational stage. By the end of the sensorimotor period, objects are both separate from the self and permanent. Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Acquiring the sense of object permanence is one of the infant's most important accomplishments, according to Piaget. Preoperational stage(2 to 7 years) The preoperational stage is the second of four stages of cognitive development. By observing sequences of play, Piaget was able to demonstrate that towards the end of the second year, a qualitatively new kind of psychological functioning occurs. The hallmark of the preoperational stage is sparse and logically inadequate mental operations. During this stage, the child learns to use and to represent objects by images, words, and drawings. The child is able to form stable concepts as well as mental reasoning and magical beliefs. The child however is still not able to perform operations; tasks that the child can do mentally rather than physically. Thinking is still egocentric:

The child has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others. Two substages can be formed from preoperative thought. y The Symbolic Function Substage During 2-4 years old , kids cannot yet manipulate and transform information in logical ways,but they now can think in images and symbols. The child is able to formulate designs of objects that are not present. Other examples of mental abilities are language and pretend play. Although there is an advancement in progress, there are still limitations such as egocentrism and animism. Egocentrism occurs when a child is unable to distinguish between their own perspective and that of another person's. Children tend to pick their own view of what they see rather than the actual view shown to others. Animism is the belief that inanimate objects are capable of actions and have lifelike qualities.

The Intuitive Thought Substage Occurs between about the ages of 4 and 7. Children tend to become very curious and ask many questions; begin the use of primitive reasoning. There is an emergence in the interest of reasoning and wanting to know why things are the way they are. Piaget called it the intuitive substage because children realize they have a vast amount of knowledge but they are unaware of how they know it. Centration and conservation are both involved in preoperative thought. Centration is the act of focusing all attention on one characteristic compared to the others. Conservation is the awareness that altering a substance's appearance does not change its basic properties. Children at this stage are unaware of conservation. In Piaget's most famous task, a child is presented with two identical beakers containing the same amount of liquid. The child usually notes that the beakers have the same amount of liquid. When one of the beakers is poured into a taller and thinner container, children wh o are typically younger than 7 or 8 years old say that the two beakers now contain a different amount of liquid. The child simply focuses on the height and width of the container compared to the general concept. Piaget believes that if a child fails the conservation-of-liquid task, it is a sign that they are at the preoperational stage of cognitive development

Concrete operational stage(7 to 11 years) The concrete operational stage is the third of four stages of cognitive development in Piaget's theory. This stage, which follows the preoperational stage, occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 years and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Important processes during this stage are:

Seriation the ability to sort objects in an order according to size, shape, or any other characteristic. Transitivity- The ability to recognize logical relationships among elements in a serial order, and perform 'transitive inferences' (for example, If A is taller than B, and B is taller than C, then A must be taller than C). Classification the ability to name and identify sets of objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic, including the idea that one set of objects can include another. Decentering where the child takes into account multiple aspects of a problem to solve it. For example, the child will no longer perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to contain less than a normally-wide, taller cup. Reversibility the child understands that numbers or objects can be changed, then returned to their original state. For this reason, a child will be able to rapidly determine that if 4+4 equals t, t 4 will equal 4, the original quantity. Elimination of Egocentrism the ability to view things from another's perspective (even if they think incorrectly). For instance, show a child a comic in which Jane puts a doll under a box, leaves the room, and then Melissa moves the doll to a drawer, and Jane comes back. A child in the concrete operations stage will say that Jane will still think it's under the box even though the child knows it is in the drawer . Children in this stage can, however, only solve problems that apply to actual (concrete) objects or events, and not abstract concepts or hypothetical tasks. Formal operational stage (11 years to adulthood) The formal operational period is the final period of cognitive development in Piaget's theory. This stage, which follows the concrete operational stage, commences at around 11 years of age (puberty) and continues into adulthood. In this stage, individuals move beyond concrete experiences and begin to think abstractly, reason logically and draw conclusions from the information available, as well as apply all these processes to hypothetical situations. The abstract quality of the adolescent's thought at the formal operational level is evident in the adolescent's verbal problem solving ability. The logical quality of the adolescent's thought is when children are more likely to so lve problems in a trial-and-error fashion. Adolescents begin to think more as a scientist thinks, devising plans to solve problems and systematically testing solutions. They use hypothetical-deductive reasoning, which means that they develop hypotheses or best guesses, and systematically deduce, or conclude, which is the best path to follow in solving the problem. During this stage the young person begins to entertain possibilities for the future and is fascinated with what they can be. Adolescents are changing cognitively also by the way that they think about social matters. Adolescent egocentrism

governs the way that adolescents think about social matters and is the heightened selfconsciousness in them. Adolescent egocentrism can be dissected into two types of social thinking, imaginary audience that involves attention getting behavior, and personal fable which involves an adolescent's sense of personal uniqueness and invincibility. AARON BECK S THEORY American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck of the University of Pennsylvania devoted his career to understanding the relationship between cognition and mental health. For Beck cognitions are verbal or pictorial events in the stream of consciousness. He realised the importance of cognitions when treating people with depression, finding that the depression improved when patients began viewing themselves and situations in a positive light. He believed that people with depression had faulty information processing system that led to biased cognitions. These faulty beliefs cause error in judgement that become habitual error in thinking. These individuals incorrectly interpret life situations, judge themselves too harshly and jump into inaccurate negative conclusions. A person may truely believe that he or she has no friends and therefore no one cares. On examination the evidence for this belief is based on the fact that there has been no contact with anyone because of moving from one city to another. Thus a distorted belief is the basis of cognition. Beck and his colleagues developed cognitive therapy a successful approach to the treatment of depression. Beck also asserts that there are three main dysfunctional belief themes (or "schemas") that dominate depressed people's thinking: 1) I am defective or inadequate, 2) All of my experiences result in defeats or failures, and 3) The future is hopeless. Together, these three themes are described as the Negative Cognitive Triad. When these beliefs are present in someone's cognition, depression is very likely to occur (if it has not already occurred). Particular failures of information processing are very characteristic of the depressed mind. For example, depressed people will tend to demonstrate selective attention to information, which matches their negative expectations, and selective inattention to information that contradicts those expectations. They tend to magnify the importance and meaning placed on negative events, and minimize the importance and meaning of positive events. All of these maneuvers, which happen quite unconsciously, function to help maintain a depressed person's core negative schemas in the face of contradictory evidence, and allow them to remain feeling hopeless about the future even when the evidence suggests that things will get better.

COGNITIVE THERAPY Cognitive therapy rests upon the assumption that problematic behaviours result from the core schemas (beliefs) that developed in response to prior life experiences. Therapy participants are taught that these core schemas are not necessarily "The Truth" but merely reflect beliefs that were developed over time; typically through childhood experiences and parental influence. The goal of treatment is to identify, challenge, and replace these automatic thoughts and dysfunctional thinking patterns; and ultimately, to change the core schema that is at the root of dysfunctional thoughts. These automatic, dysfunctional thinking patterns are often called cognitive distortions and can result in anxious feelings. Our cognitive appraisals are strongly influenced by our core beliefs. For instance, suppose Jamal grew up in an environment where his parents did not adequately protect him. He may develop a core belief, "The world is an unsafe place." Such a belief will likely cause Jamal to over-estimate the threat of a particular situation. In addition, if Jamal's parents angrily and impatiently corrected his mistakes, Jamal might develop another core schema, "I am inadequate and incompetent." This core belief might lead Jamal to under-estimate his ability to cope with challenging situations. Indeed, the overestimation of threat, and under-estimation of coping resources are commonly associated with anxiety disorders. Cognitive therapy would assist such a person to more accurately appraise their symptoms and to improve their coping skills, in order to reduce the escalation of anxious symptoms. There are numerous specific techniques to challenge dysfunctional thinking patterns, but the first step is to assist the therapy participant identify their internal mental dialogue which will reveal these dysfunctional patterns. This is accomplished by asking therapy participants to record their internal dialog on homework sheets. Many people are unaware that their mind is constantly evaluating and judging their surrounding environment, and themselves. Next, the therapist guides the participant to challenge their dysfunctional thoughts by questioning their validity, and to form statements that are more accurate. When these dysfunctional thoughts occur again, the therapy participant consciously replaces the dysfunctional thought with a more accurate statement or belief. For example, Jamal might learn to replace the belief, "I am a failure" with the thought, "I may have failed in the past, but when I try my best, I often succeed." Cognitive therapy research has demonstrated that when these dysfunctional thoughts are corrected, people feel better and their behaviour improves as well. Cognitive therapy has wide ranging applications, and many people are able to benefit from this approach in less than 10 sessions. Cognitive therapy is an evidenced-based treatment, meaning there are numerous studies to support its effectiveness. Studies have even demonstrated that cognitive therapy can be as effective as anti-depressant medications for treating depression. In fact, cognitive therapy significantly reduces

relapse rates when added to medication treatment. Cognitive therapy for anxiety disorders is similarly effective, although medication can be a valuable and necessary adjunct to treatment. Cognitive therapy, however, requires a significant investment of time and effort by the client between sessions. Clients who are unable or unwilling to meet the demands of this investment are unlikely to reap the full benefit of cognitive therapy. VYGOTSKY S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Vygotsky's basic idea is that human behavior is too complex to isolate, dissect and study in a vacuum. It must instead be studied in the social and historical context in which it occurs. Vygotsky emphasizes the importance of culture and social context in learning. His theory is composed of three central concepts: internalization, semiotic mediation, and the zone of proximal development Internalization : Vygotsky points out that individuals are guided by their own mental processes as they participate in social activities. However, these processes are influenced by social experiences. Mental functions first begin on a social plane and then move to an inner plane. He calls this process internalization. Internalization involves transforming social phenomena into psychological phenomena or making meaning through both external and internal interactions. Semiotic mediation: Human beings share lower biological forms of mental behavior, such as elementary perception, memory, and attention with animals. The higher forms of human mental functions like logical memory, selective attention, decision -making and comprehension of language are products of mediated activity of culture, language, and social context. They give humans control over their mental behavior, as well as the power to regulate and change natural forms of behavior and cognition. Through the mediating actions of these tools, natural forms of behavior are transformed into higher, cultural forms, unique to humans. This process is called semiotic mediation. According to him human mental functions were social in origins and there are two levels of mental functions: y Lower mental functions: lower mental functions are genetically inherited, by structure they are unmediated, by functioning they are involuntary, and with regard to their relation to other mental functions they are isolated individual mental units. For eg., perception, memory, and attention Higher mental functions: a higher mental function is socially acquired, mediated by social meanings, voluntarily controlled and exists as a link in a broad system of functions rather than as an individual unit. For eg., logical memory, selective attention, decision-making and comprehension of language

The development of human mental functions is viewed by Vygotsky as their transition from their original lower mental functions form into higher mental functions form . Vygotsky believes that lower mental behaviors are gradually transformed into higher ones through social interaction. Zone of proximal development (ZPD): Vygotsky proposes that each child has an actual developmental level and a potential developmental level. The actual developmental level refers to all the functions and activities a child can perform on his/ her own without help from somebody else such as, a teacher, an adult or even a peer. The potential developmental level refers to all functions and activities a child can perform only with guidance and assistance of someone else. The difference between these two levels is the zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development is that area where children can achieve a goal with the support and guidance of a more knowledgeable other. Vygotsky emphasizes the significance of social and cultural context in the process of making meaning or learning with focus on guidance and assistance from more knowledgeable others. In addition, he addresses the importance of tools such as language and culture for cognitive development. CONCLUSION Cognitive theory is a learning theory of psychology that attempts to explain human behavior by understanding the thought processes. The assumption is that humans are logical beings that make the choices that make the most sense to them. Information processing is a commonly used description of the mental process, comparing the human mind to a computer. Pure cognitive theory largely rejects behaviourism on the basis that behaviourism reduces complex human behaviour to simple cause and effect. However, the trend in past decades has been towards merging the two into a comprehensive cognitive-behavioural theory. This allows therapists to use techniques from both schools of thought to help clients achieve their goals.

BIBLIOGRAPHY o Shives L B, basic Concepts Of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing,7 th edition: Philadelphia,2008. o Townsend M C, Essentials Of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Philadelphia, 1999. o Vyas J N, Ahuja N; Textbook of Postgraduate Psychiatry; 2 nd edition: Newdelhi,2003. o Fortinash K M, Worret P A H,; Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, 3 rd edition: Missouri, 2004. o Basavanthappa B T, Textbook of Psychiatric Nursing, 1 st edition: Newdelhi,2007. o Boyd M. Psychiatric Nursing, 4 th Edition: Philadelphia, 2008. o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_mediation

COGNITIVE THEORY

SUBMITTED TO Mr. D.S.V. Swamy Lecturer NUINS

SUBMITTED BY Ms. Riya Joy 1st Yr. MSc. Nursing NUINS

SUBMITTED ON 17/01/2011