COGNITIVE THEORY

Presented by: Andrea Nadine D. Hipowit

Presented to: CRIM1(5:30-7:00)
 COGNITIVE THEORY

• One area of psychology that has received increasing recognition in recent years is
cognitive theory. According ton Siegel (2018), cognitive theory is the study of the
perception of reality an of the mental processes required to understand the world.
Psychologists with a cognitive perspective focus on mental processes on how people
perceive and mentally represent the world around them and solve problems.
 COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THEORY

• For example, one study suggests that someone's motivation to learn helps determine
how often their mind wanders during a lesson. Participants who felt more motivated
to learn experienced less mind wandering than those who said they were less motivated.
 SEQUENCE OF COGNITIVE THOUGHT
PROCESSES (SIEGEL 2019)

• 1) They encode information so that it can be interpreted;

• 2)They search for a proper response and decide on the most appropriate action; and

• 3) They act on their decisions.

 COGNITIVE THEORY
• Hence, Wundt, Tichener and James further emphasized crime-prone people may have
cognitive deficits and use information incorrectly when they make decisions. They view
crime as an appropriate means to satisfy their immediate personal needs, which take
precedence over more social needs such as obedience to the law. They are not deterred
by the threat of legal punishments because when they try to calculate the costs and
consequences of an action, when they are deciding whether to commit a crime, they
make mistakes because they are imperfect processors of information.
 “SHE WAS ASKING FOR IT”
(SIEGEL, 2019)
• 1) Law violators may be sensation seekers who are constantly looking for novel experiences
• 2) Others lack deliberation and rarely think through problems
• 3) Others maintain inappropriate attitudes and beliefs
• 4) They are thrill-seeking
• 5) Manipulative
• 6) Callous
• 7) Deceptive and hold rule-breaking attitude
• 8) Some may give up easily
• 9) Whereas others act without thinking when they get upset
 PERCEPTIONS OF PEOPLE WITH
INADEQUATE COGNITIVE PROCESSING:

• 1) They perceive the world as stacked against them.

• 2) They believe they have little control over the negative events in their life.

• 3) They find it difficult to understand or sympathize with other people’s feelings and
emotions, which lead them to blame their victims for their problems.
 COGNITIVE THEORY

• One reason for this faulty reasoning is that people may be relying on mental scripts
learned in childhood that tell them how to interpret events, what to expect, how they had
early, prolonged exposure to violence like child abuse, which increased their sensitivity
to maltreatment. Violence becomes a stable behavior because the scripts that emphasize
aggressive responses are repeatedly rehearsed as the child matures.
 COGNITIVE APPROACH

• People use information properly

• Those who are better conditioned to make reasoned judgments

• And who cam make quick and reasoned decision when facing emotion-laden events.
 SIEGEL (2018)

• The major premise of the cognitive theory is that individual reasoning processes influence
behavior. Reasoning is influenced by the way people perceive their environment.

• The strengths of the theory are that it show why criminal behavior patterns change over time
as people mature and develop their reasoning powers. It may explain the aging-out process.

• The research focuses of the theory are perception and recognition