Contemporary Approaches to Psychology: A Comparison of Behavioural, Cognitive, and Sociocultural Approaches

This article compares and contrasts the three contemporary approaches to psychology: behavioural, cognitive, and sociocultural. It discusses their differences in terms of their focus on observable behaviour, internal mental processes, and social and cultural context. The article concludes with an analysis of which approach is most effective in explaining human behaviour and mental processes.

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Contemporary approaches to psychology
In chapter 1, there was the description of 7 contemporary approaches to psychology out of which
3 approaches are discussed. These three approaches that are selected include behavioural
approach, Cognitive approach, and sociocultural approach. These approaches are selected
because they explain more about the behaviour and mental processes. The comparison of the 3
selected theories of psychology is discussed below; -
Behavioural psychology is considered as the scientific approach that limits the study that is
related to the psychology of measurable or observable behaviour. This approach of psychology
mainly focuses on the observable behavior of an individual (Wells, 2014). On the other hand,
Cognitive Psychology is a subfield of psychology that mainly focuses on the internal mental
process of an individual person. This approach plays a vital role in understanding the way how
the people perceive events and experiences of life, memory process, think, speak and how they
contribute in resolving the problems faced by them (Neenan, 2018). Comparing the above
approach from the social-cultural approach, this psychology approach helps in identifying the
perspective that social and cultural context that influences the psychology. The major focus of
this approach is to understand the behaviour of humans.
This has been found that all of the above approaches are mainly talks about the behaviour or
mental processes more or less because of the differences in the approaches. Cognitive
psychology agrees to take the use of the scientific model in their study which is different from
the behavioural and social-cultural approach. On the other hand, the behavioural approach and
social-cultural approach accept the use of the personal introspection like one of the reliable
method of investigation in therapy, though this method is not used in the Cognitive psychology

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(Daniels, 2016). In addition, the approach of cognitive psychology is different because this
approach majorly acknowledges the existence of the internal mental states which include the
motivation to human.
The major difference lies between the cognitive psychology and social-cultural psychology.
Considering the study that has been conducted it is found that cognitive psychology is considered
to be a long-term process and unlike the social Psychology that generally includes more of the
shorter information process. Cognitive psychology provides the support to explore the logical
and practical methods to encourage the better memory retention and the procession of
information in accurate manners (Neisser, 2014). This will make the reactions of expounding
more positive, unlike the social psychology where the study is majorly conducted on how the
inputs affect a reaction. The above description reflects the major differences between the 3
contemporary approaches to psychology.
Considering the analysis and differences between the approaches to psychology, I believe that
the most Cognitive approach makes the more sense in explaining a mental process. This
approach majorly focuses on the mental process rather than the behavior. Though, directly or
indirectly the use of approach reflects the behaviour of a person. The reason due to which I found
the approach as most appealing is because this approach talks about the real-life experience of
the individual with the mental strength and power that they make use of in their life. This
approach shows how the individual person makes use of mental strength for solving their
problems and this is the way behaviour of the person can be judged.
According to me, the approach of behavioural psychology is the second appropriate approach of
psychology for the explaining the behaviour and mental process together. This approach focuses

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more on the behaviour of an individual with the help of the observation towards the person
(Brennan & Houde, 2017). Though, the observation needs the use of the mind process to some
extent but then to the approach is less preferable than the cognitive. This is also a fact that the
approach includes various types due to which it is considered the most complex approach in
explaining the terms of behaviour and mental process.
Talking about the social-cultural approach to psychology it is found that the approach mainly
focuses on the social and culture relation with the behaviour. It doesn’t include the major
element of the mental process. Along with this-this approach reflects the collective perspective
or psychology of the person. This makes the difficulty level high for the person who makes use
of this approach for explaining or understanding the behaviour and mental process.

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References
Brennan, J. F., & Houde, K. A. (2017) History and systems of psychology. United Kingdom, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Daniels, H. (2016) Vygotsky and pedagogy. New York, NY: Routledge.
Neenan, M. (2018) Cognitive Behavioural Coaching: Distinctive Features. New York, NY:
Routledge.
Neisser, U. (2014) Cognitive psychology: Classic edition. United Kingdom, UK: Psychology
Press.
Wells, V. K. (2014) The influence of behavioural psychology on consumer psychology and
marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 30(11-12), 1119-1158.
http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94148/1/2014%20JMM%20Final%20Author%20PDF.pdf