Level 3

General Cognitive Information

Cognition focus on how the brain functions which includes thought, perception, memory, beliefs, intelligence, mental processing, responses, etc. It’s unfortunate, that most people will encounter bad experiences, false information or cognitive dysfunction which causes a negative reaction that has a detrimental effect on their lives. In many cases, people learn to live with certain difficulties and cope with the corresponding disadvantages, but there are times when the difficulties cause the person to experience behaviours that are problematic. For example, depression, harmful beliefs, dementia, mental health, personality disorders, etc.

Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Psychology has taken the lead in developing interventions where one of the earliest uses of cognitive interventions was developed by Aaron T. Beck (1960’s) in the treatment of depression which is now recognised as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT). From this, other cognitive approaches have extended to address a broad range of psychological issues.

Cognitive Interventions
In generally, the purpose of all cognitive interventions endeavours to help people think differently by challenging impaired thinking and trying to address the past experiences and the world around them that caused the problem. Examples such as counselling, a myriad of therapies, problem solving, decision making, improving personal abilities, changing negative thinking patterns, altering responses to environmental triggers are just a few methods.