CognitivePsychology
Cognitivepsychology is the study of mental functions, mental processes andways in which information is dealt with in the mind. Mental functionsinclude memory, thinking, attention, consciousness, perception,processing, problem solving, and language (Davies, 2015). Knowledgederived from cognitive psychology finds a lot of application in otherdisciplines such as personal psychology, social psychology, educationpsychology, economics and other areas. Consequently, the studyreviews the fact that brain could be comprehended as the compositecomputing system. The field offers both theoretical and practicalapproaches to understanding and acquiring knowledge, thoughts, sensesand experiences (Gillund, 2013). This study seeks to portray howcognitive psychology can be applied to personal and workplace issues,demonstrate how one knows when learning had occurred, describe a timewhen I was a successful learner as well as discussing some of thekeys that lead to my success.
Thereare many applications of cognitive psychology to both workplace andpersonal issues. These applications involve areas such as motivation,learning, emotions and behaviors. The workplace is the environment inwhich persons with diverse worldviews, communication styles andpersonalities interact. These variations usually contribute toworkplace issues such as interpersonal conflict, communicationproblems, performance issues, poor job fit, low motivation and jobsatisfaction (Gillund, 2013). The workplace issues usually result instress, reduced satisfaction, decreased performance and even jobloss. Thus, cognitive psychology can be used to improve learning goodcommunication and resolutions skills which later can help to resolveworkplace issues. It can also be used to motivate employees throughvocational counseling concerning job fit, satisfaction, andperformance. Conversely, most of the personal issues are contributedby behaviors and emotions of a particular individual. Cognitivepsychology can be used to help people on how to control theirnegative emotions as well as actions which help the individuals tointeract well with others (Davies, 2015). For instance, a parent canteach her child to behave well as early as possible, and that childmay not easily go contrary to those teaching. Rewarding andpunishments can help the children to shape their behaviors as well asemotions.
Learningis changing of one’s behavior as a result of direct or indirectexperience. Persons can learn through many ways such as operant andclassical conditioning as well as latent and insight learning. Onecan know when learning has happened to others through observingchanges in their particular behaviors (Gillund, 2013). For instance,one can tell that a child has learned if the child starts to avoidtouching a burning candle. Also, you can know that your drivingstudents have learned to drive if they drive carefully on the highwaywithout an instructor. In addition to knowing that learning hasoccurred to others, one can also know that learning has occurredwithin oneself if that person changes his or her behavior and has agood reason as to why the behavior has changed (Davies, 2015). Forexample, when one chooses to study and complete all the collegeassignments, one will know which part they understand most, whichthey did not understand well and therefore needs to be allocated moretime in order to comprehend. As a result, the person is most likelyto pass the class with outstanding grades. Alternatively, if theindividual fails to study all the course assignments one will knowthat he/she is not learning adequately and as result he/she mayobtain very low grades leading to failure of that course.
Allthrough my high school lifetime, I was ranked among the top threeperforming students from the first to the final year. Therefore, Ican simply consider myself as a successful learner at that particulartime. One month before joining the high school, I was lucky to visitmy uncle who is not only a relative but my great personal advisor anda friend. My uncle is a very determined high school teacher and bythe time I was joining the high school he had served for six years.Therefore, I got the opportunity to ask him how to balance the classwork and extra-curriculum activities to emerge as a successfullearner in both areas. He advised me on how to plan and allocate timeto my activities according to their importance and urgency. By doingthat, it would make me utilize my time properly and ensure that Ihave met the needs of each activity. So when I finally joined thehigh school, I knew what to do, and set targets to each subject, andstudied efficiently to meet them. Due to my uncle`s motivation, Istarted working from the word go. I was always ahead of theinstructor given the course outline. I could complete all theassignments on time, and when we sat for the first term exam, Inearly scored over ninety-five percent in all the subjects. It isalways said that obtaining a good grade is easy but maintaining thatclass is very hard. So I struggled to keep high grades throughcontinuous learning.
Therewere many keys toward my success but the most important ones includemotivation, perception, attention, memory, problem solving andlanguage (Gillund, 2013). First, I perceived learning as doable andeasy process when constantly done. Second, I paid attention to everydetail in all subject’s assignment and especially in each lesson, Iensured that I was physically and mentally present. Third, memory isvery crucial in any learning process because it is what proves thatyou have learned something. I noted that the more I reviewed my work,the more I enhanced my memory. Fourth, I developed my language oflearning each subject. For example, I could summarize a whole topicwith a few words made of first letters of each keyword which helpedme to revise my work very fast, but before summarizing, I had to readevery detail and understand it. Lastly, whenever I faced a problem inmy learning process, I utilized my problem-solving skill whichinvolves deciding to allocate more time to study the concept,consulting a teacher or group study members. Thus, those were some ofthe keys to my success.
Inconclusion, cognitive psychology can be applied to the workplace andpersonal issues in areas such as learning, motivation, behaviors andemotions. Learning is the adjustment of one’s behavior as result ofdirect or indirect experience. One can know that learning hasoccurred if there are some changes in a particular conduct. During myhigh school life, I emerged as a successful learner because I scoredvery high grades throughout. Some of the keys that led to my successincluded perception, attention, memory, problem-solving, motivation,and language.
References
Gillund,G. (2013). Applied cognitive psychology and cognitive psychologyapplied. PsycCRITIQUES, 35(2),doi: 10.1037/028269
Davies,G. (2015). Reviewers for applied cognitive psychology 2014. Applied, 29(2),320–321. doi:10.1002/acp.3113