Behavioral psychology vs cognitive psychology

Behavioral psychology vs cognitive psychology. Behavioural psychology perspective posits that human behaviour can be explained in terms of external stimuli, responses, learned histories and reinforcement which means that all human behaviour could, therefore, be understood in terms of cause and effect (Eloff & Ebersohn 2004). In this regard, muscle movement can be categorized as action in response to external factors. The proponents of this theory were particularly interested in developing laws of behaviour like the laws of natural science which were based on: establishing connections between stimuli and certain kinds of behaviour responses, finding the mechanisms for reinforcing certain kinds of connections by rewarding patterns of action in various ways and the assumption that behaviour and not “cognition” is significant, because it is measurable, observed, and can be controlled experimentally. On the other hand, cognitive psychology is a perspective that argues that what we learn are mental structures. Thus, according to this view, problem-solving among other issues is caused by the integration of personal traits such as motivation, the learner’s ambitions, their cognitive strategies and the extent to which they implement them during the process of solving the problems (Vygotsky 1978). It follows from this argument that any individual person is aware of the reason why he is learning. In an organisation, it is generally agreed that every individual is there for a particular purpose since he would have personally applied for that particular job. Given that case, it can be noted that individuals in an organisation are motivated to pursue their career through learning which can be attributed to the fact that they are aware of their personal ambitions. It can as well be noted that learning is not solely a product of social development but a product of integrated personality traits which motivates the person to acquire more knowledge on any particular subject.