Cognitive psychology

In the essay “Buddhism Meets Western Science”, Gay Watson explains:

Buddhism has always been concerned with feelings, emotions,
sensations, and cognition. The Buddha points both to cognitive and
emotional causes of suffering. The emotional cause is desire and its
negative opposite, aversion. The cognitive cause is ignorance of the way
things truly occur, or of three marks of existence: that all things are unsatisfactory, impermanent, and without essential self.

The noble eightfold path is, from this psychological viewpoint, an
attempt to change patterns of thought and behavior. It is for this
reason that the first element of the path is right understanding (sammā-diṭṭhi), which is how one’s mind views the world. Under the wisdom (paññā) subdivision of the noble eightfold path, this worldview is intimately connected with the second element, right thought (sammā-saṅkappa),
which concerns the patterns of thought and intention that controls
one’s actions. These elements can be seen at work, for example, in the
opening verses of the Dhammapada: The noble eightfold path is also the fourth noble truth.

All experience is preceded by mind,

Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak or act with a corrupted mind,
And suffering follows
As the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox.

All experience is preceded by mind,
Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak or act with a peaceful mind,
And happiness follows
Like a never-departing shadow.

Thus, by altering one’s distorted worldview, bringing out “tranquil
perception” in the place of “perception polluted”, one is able to ease
suffering. Watson points this out from a psychological standpoint:

Research has shown that repeated action, learning, and memory can
actually change the nervous system physically, altering both synaptic
strength and connections. Such changes may be brought about by
cultivated change in emotion and action; they will, in turn, change
subsequent experience.