An Approach to Life

… explain the behaviours depression and aggression? Please help!

Physiology = body
Cognitive = thoughts

therefore does your body cause depression, or does the mind cause it? (Mind vs Body)

If you look at the physical things, you’d look at the brain chemistry and neurotransmitters, mainly serotonin which is responsible for regulating mood. If you have too little i.e. because there are too little receptors in the brain, your mood will be lower, therefore you’re more likely to have depression.
Genes can also play a part in depression. You’re more likely to have it if your mother or father has it.

Cognitively, have you learned about the negative cognitive triad? Basically it’s just where a person will have persistant negative thoughts about their future, themselves, and the world around them.

There’s always the issue of cause and effect though. Are the low serotonin levels causing the depression or are they a result of depression, and if so, what is the real cause?! The same can be said about negative thoughts, do they cause it or are they a symptom? (It’s very hard to answer this question and psychologists are still working on it!)

I hope that helps a bit. Do you have a textbook or class notes that you can look at?

Im very stuck so wondering if anyone has any ideas

if you’re working with blocks to use of language, it could help to know how people think?

please really stuck. I have googled him and found alot organisation he is involve in but not about how his CBT contribution.

He developed "stress inoculation training" (a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy).

~Dr. B.~

Those are definitely options!

While it’s true that, after Donald Broadbent’s 1958 book "Perception and Communication", the information processing model of cognition has been the dominant paradigm, this is just one specific take on cognitive psychology.

More generally, it is concerned with:

"…all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations… Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of it, the concern is from a particular point of view. Other viewpoints are equally legitimate and necessary. Dynamic psychology, which begins with motives rather than with sensory input, is a case in point. Instead of asking how a man’s actions and experiences result from what he saw, remembered, or believed, the dynamic psychologist asks how they follow from the subject’s goals, needs, or instincts" (Neisser)

Solomon (1973) argued that emotions are, put simply, judgments. I get angry at john because I think he stole my car (therefore he did me wrong) but if I realise it was just a dream and John didn’t really steal my car than I am no longer angry because John did not do me wrong (put simply). Does this mean we can choose our emotions or is it a matter of having some sort of control of our emotions? What about the case of unconscious emotions?

I’m writing a philosophy essay and I’d like some sources that I can read up on on these issues or even just reasoned arguments for or against
Assuming we have free will and our past is part of who we are.
Happiness can be attributed to a judgement as long as it is an intense burst of feelings. So I could be happy that I got a good mark for my essay, but later realise that it was a 65% and not 95% and then no longer be happy. This is because my judgement has changed.

But what does not include judgements are moods. I could have been happy about the mark and then that caused me to be in a good mood. In this sense there are no judgements involved.

Although, I still find unconscious emotions the best refutation to Solomon’s theory, unless it can be explained some other way.

I think Solomon’s theory is bunk. I think many of our emotions are inherited and instinctive and are built in for survival, such as fear, anger etc. I believe that emotions can be somewhat controlled but not completely eliminated or substituted.

I am writting an essay on the Cognitive Behavior Therapy and need to prove why it would be a good approach to use on substance abusers. Can anyone suggest 3 reasons, theres not much good information on the net.

I can’t believe I’m doing this….

The Behavioral and Cognitive Views

" According to behaviorists, operant conditioning may play a key role in substance abuse. They argue that the temporary reduction of tension or raising of spirits produced by a drug has a rewarding effect, thus increasing the likelihood that the user will seek this reaction again. Similarly, the rewarding effects of a substance may eventually lead users to try higher dosages or more powerful methods of ingestion. Cognitive theorists further argue that such rewards eventually produce an expectancy that substances will be rewarding, and this expectation helps motivate individuals to increase drug use at times of tension.
In support of these views studies have found that individuals do in fact drink more alcohol or seek heroin when they feel tense."

Cognitive-behavioral therapies

" Two popular approaches combine cognitive and behavioral techniques to help people gain CONTROL over their substance-related behaviors. In one, BEHAVIORAL SELF-CONTROL TRAINING (BSCT), applied to alcoholism in particular, therapists first have clients keep track of their own drinking behavior. Writing down times, locations, emotions, bodily changes, and other circumstances of their drinking, they become more aware of the situations that place them at risk for excessive drinking. They are then taught coping strategies to use when such situations arise. They learn, for example, to set limits on their drinking…and to to practice relaxation techniques, assertiveness skills, and other coping behaviors in situations in which they would otherwise be drinking.
In a related cognitive approach, RELAPSE-PREVENTION TRAINING, heavy drinkers are assigned many of the same tasks as clients in BSCT. They are also taught to plan ahead of time how many drinks are appropriate, what to drink, and under what circumstances. The approach often lowers the frequency of intoxication…"

This is a pretty advanced question….. grad school level.

Cognitive psychology is the study of how we learn, and it is based on the Piaget model which postulated learning to be a result of developing internal constructions, based on one’s ability to understand increasingly more difficult abstractions. The process is called "assimilation", and it should not be confused with adaptation. It means constructing internal models of the outside world.
It has been a while since I was in grad school, so I had no idea what "theory based learning" actually is. From scanning some articles I found this excerpt:
"Kolb (1974) proposed that learning behaviour occurred as a continuous learning cycle (figure 1). It implicitly defines a behavioural schedule that is buried within the set of phases, and indicates a set of behavioural steps that a learner will pass through (e.g. read this, do that,…). The behavioural schedule defines how a learner tackles and deals with learning material. For traditional open and distance learning materials that operate as a schedule of programmed learning, a number of steps may be defined and the learner will make an ordered selection of them."
From this I must infer that it is a behaviorist approach to learning. I think both approaches may be valid and not necessarily mutually exclusive. I’m not particularly fond of behaviorist theory, but I know those approaches can be helpful, when dealing with autistic children, though they must be used in a gentle loving way.

Cognitive psychology addresses the reality that human psychology comes 100% from brain function. So you have to understand what’s going on in the brain to understand behavior, learning, emotion, memory, perception, problem solving, decision making, creativity, etc.

Example, when I feel anxious about public speaking, what’s going on in the brain is an established behavior pattern, which is enabled by neurons connecting into a neural pathway…a physical connection. See audience, imagine their critical thoughts, think about my imperfections, feel anxiety.

A cognitive psychologist would attempt to build a new neural pathway. See audience, imagine their approving thoughts, think about my strengths and my knowledge of the topic, feel good about my outline and preparation, feel relaxed and confident. If I think these things enough times in that situation, it will become my new behavior pattern. I’ll have grown a new neural pathway that works better than the old one.

The cognitive approach to psychology concerns thought processes, (ie what’s happening in the mind), while the behavioural approach focuses on what’s happening to the person’s behviour. This approach completely rejects the idea that process within the mind are occurring, as it is very difficult to scientifically prove this. Hence, behaviorists believe their approach to be more empirical, as behaviour is much more easily measured/scientifically sound than cognitive psych. For example, in order to measure fear, a cognitive approach would be to probe the individual’s mind (ask them how they feel, rate their perceptions, etc), while a behavioral approach would be to measure the individual’s heart rate and reaction time. I just noticed that you asked about learning..but it’s basically the same thing.