Philosophy of Humanity

Philosophy of Psychology (Psychological Theory)

Cognitive Psychology

Another significant direction in psychological thought is cognitive psychology, encompassing several schools of thought that focus on the study of human cognitive abilities. This general term derives from the Latin cognitio (knowledge). Accordingly, cognitive psychology is understood as the branch of psychology that investigates cognitive processes in humans.

At the foundation of cognitive psychology is the Swiss psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget (1896-1980), the founder of the Geneva School of Genetic Psychology. Piaget explored the development and changes in human cognitive abilities and formulated explanations of this process that were unprecedented prior to his work. Before Piaget, cognitive abilities in adults were considered exemplary, while a child's cognitive activity was seen merely as a stage on the path to adulthood. In other words, children were believed to use the same mechanisms as adults, but while adults had fully mastered these mechanisms, children were still developing and mastering them. Piaget demonstrated that the cognitive capabilities of children and adults involve entirely different mechanisms. Children are not merely underdeveloped adults.

Piaget proved that human cognitive abilities are of three types, each characteristic of a specific age. From birth to about two or three years of age, children engage in autistic thinking, living exclusively in their own world. For children at this stage, there exists only themselves and what enters their field of perception. From the age of two or three to eleven or twelve, children are guided by egocentric thinking, in which a world outside themselves exists, but it revolves around them. The child perceives themselves as the center of the world. Gradually, the child socializes and acquires social behavior patterns and corresponding thinking mechanisms. As a result, after the age of twelve, the child begins to exhibit socialized thinking. Each of these stages of thinking forms its own ways of perceiving the world. The most vivid expression of thinking is language. While children at the autistic stage do not yet use language, those at the egocentric stage do. Piaget carefully analyzed children's language and concluded that they use a language suited to their mode of thinking, which differs from the forms of expression used by adults with socialized thinking.

Cognitive psychology is one of the key fields in psychological science, developed by numerous scholars:

• German-American psychologist Ulric Neisser (1928-2012) advanced the methodological tools of cognitive psychology. • Jerome Seymour Bruner (1915-2016), President of the American Psychological Association, sought to integrate cognitive psychology with pedagogy. • Another President of the American Psychological Association, George Armitage Miller (1920-2012), researched short-term memory and formulated the principle of 7±2, indicating that the human mind can simultaneously retain no more than seven items. To remember nine items, a person must group them into associative clusters. The human mind cannot retain more than nine items simultaneously. This discovery was significant for organizing education.

An offshoot of cognitive psychology is the theory of intelligence. Scholars in this field attempt to study human intelligence using empirical methods accepted in psychology. Despite the lack of a unified position among experts on whether intelligence can be regarded as a distinct research subject or as a complex of various abilities, the theory of intelligence has yielded interesting results:

• British psychologist Charles Edward Spearman (1863-1945) in 1904 published research results demonstrating the factor of general intelligence. Human intelligence is uniform across different tasks. Individuals who succeed in intellectual tasks of one type tend to perform similarly in other types. Conversely, those who fail in one area also tend to fail in similar areas. Spearman concluded that intelligence is a general human ability and functions uniformly across all applications. • American Lewis Leon Thurstone (1887-1955) continued Spearman's ideas about general intelligence but aimed to measure it. He was the first to show that mental processes and intellectual abilities can be measured on a specific scale, known as psychometrics. Thurstone developed scales for measuring intelligence and mental activity, proposing that intelligence consists of seven components: logical reasoning, language comprehension, numerical ability, sensory speed, free speech, spatial visualization, and associative memory. • In contrast to Spearman and Thurstone’s theory of general intelligence, American Howard Gardner (born 1943) proposed the theory of multiple intelligences. He asserts that there is no single intelligence, and thus it cannot be measured as a general property. Intelligence is a collection of diverse abilities. A person may excel in one area while lacking talents in another. Gardner identified eight independent aspects of intelligence: visual-spatial ability, linguistic ability, logical-mathematical ability, bodily-kinesthetic ability, musical ability, interpersonal understanding, intrapersonal awareness, and naturalistic ability. Gardner noted that if a general intelligence existed, every great mathematician would also be a great musician. In reality, those with a talent for mathematics or natural sciences may lack abilities in music or creative writing. Thus, talents, if measurable, should be assessed within each specific domain rather than as an overall attribute. • Robert Sternberg (born 1949) developed the triarchic theory of intelligence, proposing that intelligence consists of three components (archai): analytical intelligence, or the ability to solve problems; creative intelligence, or the ability to adapt to new situations; and practical intelligence, or the skill to adjust to circumstances.

In 1905, the French government enacted a law mandating compulsory education for children. Opponents of the law argued that children have varying learning abilities: some are capable of learning, while others are not, and thus it is wrong to force everyone to learn equally. The government acknowledged this criticism but did not repeal the law, instead commissioning psychologist Alfred Binet (1857-1911) to develop a methodology for assessing children's learning abilities to provide special assistance to those with poorer learning aptitudes. Binet conducted a series of experiments demonstrating that some children could perform age-appropriate intellectual tasks, others could handle tasks meant for older children, and some could not complete tasks intended for their age group. This led to the concept of intellectual age, which does not always correspond with chronological age. Methods for determining intellectual age and measuring intelligence developed by Binet were further refined by many scholars and are widely used today.

American scholars took an interest in Binet's work, and by 1916, Lewis Madison Terman (1877-1956), a professor at Stanford University, adapted Binet's tests to English and American contexts. This methodology, known as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, was named in honor of Binet and Stanford University, where Terman worked. The result derived from this scale is called the intelligence quotient (IQ), which continues to be used globally. Scholars have modified these tests to suit various purposes. For example, Robert Yerkes (1876-1956) adapted these tests to assess military aptitudes, enabling the U.S. Army to allocate tasks effectively during World War I, while David Wechsler (1896-1981) adapted them to evaluate children's intelligence and cognitive abilities.

An important advancement in studying human intelligence is neuro-linguistic programming. American linguist Richard Bandler (born 1950) and programmer John Thomas Grinder (born 1940) set out to explore how the most successful American psychotherapists work, the methods they use, and why these methods are so effective. In 1973, they presented their research findings. The researchers concluded that the success of psychotherapists studied is attributed to a specific mental programming of patients achieved through language. Bandler and Grinder demonstrated that successful psychotherapists use particular linguistic constructs that positively affect the human psyche. Regardless of the theoretical foundations on which a psychotherapist bases their practice, they can assist patients by influencing their psyche with specific linguistic structures. Thus, language can serve as a means of programming the psyche, leading to the alleviation of disruptions in its functioning. This programming is akin to computer programming. By initiating neuro-linguistic programming or psychological coding as a new field in psychology, Bandler and Grinder inspired numerous researchers to explore methods of mental programming, which have proven effective in treating alcoholism, smoking, phobias, psychosomatic disorders, memory impairments, and enhancing cognitive abilities, among other areas.