The first approach is the behaviorism which is the psychological approach that gives much emphasis on the objective and scientific methods of investigation. The behavioral approach is more concerned with stimulus-response behaviors which are observable. The prevailing claim of this approach is that behaviors are learned when human being or animals interact with the environment ( Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). The main assumption is that environmental factors are the major determinant of the behaviors. The approach thus excludes any factors such as the innate factor or the inheritance factors. The second is the cognitive approach which is the study of mind as the medium for the information processing. According to Sternberg & Sternberg (2016), “Cognitive psychologists try to build up cognitive models of the information processing that goes on inside people’s minds, including perception, attention, language, memory, thinking, and consciousness”. The major assumption in this approach is that thoughts or rather the mind has a major influence on the behavior. Thought as described by Csikszentmihalyi (2014), acts as a meditational process between the behavioral response and the stimulus.
The two approaches have some similarities and differences. The glaring difference is that the behaviorists have it that it is only the environmental factors which influence the behaviors. They disregard other factors such as the mind and inheritance. On the other hand, cognitive believe that thought plays a major role in determining what we think. However, the two approaches are similar in their method of investigation. They both preferred controlled, objective and scientific methods for investigating behavior ( Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). Also, both approaches utilize the results of their investigation as the inferences for making conclusions about both the mental process and the environmental factors. From their two perspectives, the cognitive approach borrowed from the behavior approach since it was meant to disapprove the behaviorist perspective.
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References
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Toward a psychology of optimal experience. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 209-226). Springer Netherlands.
Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2016). Cognitive psychology . Nelson Education.
