5.4 Holism and Reductionism

Question 1

What is holism?

Answer 1

An approach to understanding the human mind/behaviour that focuses on looking at a system as a whole rather than its smaller units

Question 2

What is an example of a holistic approach?

Answer 2

• Humanistic psychology focuses on the individuals experience, using qualitative methods to investigate the self

Question 3

What is reductionism?

Answer 3

The belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking down behaviour into the simplest/most basic parts

Question 4

What does the principle of parsimony state?

Answer 4

All phenomena should be explained using the simplest principles

Question 5

What are levels of explanation?

Answer 5

The idea that there are several ways that can be used to explain behaviour

Question 6

What are 6 levels of explanation?

Answer 6

• Socio-cultural
• Psychological
• Physical
• Environmental/behavioural
• Physiological
• Neurochemical

Question 7

How can the levels of explanation be used in terms of OCD?

Answer 7

• Socio-cultural = OCD disrupts social relationships
• Psychological = experience of anxiety
• Physical = movements
• Environmental/behavioural = learning experiences
• Physiological = abnormal functioning in frontal lobe
• Neurochemical = underproduction of serotonin

Question 8

How does reductionism relate to the levels of explanation?

Answer 8

• Each level is more reductionist than the one before
• Reductionist researchers would see psychology as derived from lower down in the hierarchy

Question 9

What is biological reductionism?

Answer 9

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level e.g genes, hormones

Question 10

What is environmental reductionism?

Answer 10

The idea that all behaviour is learned through experience and acquired through interactions with the environment (stimulus-response links)

Question 11

What are 2 examples of environmental reductionism in psychology?

Answer 11

• Learning theory of attachment (association between person doing the feeding and conditioned response of food = pleasure)
• Behavioural approach (explains behaviour through conditioning + stimulus-response)

Question 12

One limitation of holism

Answer 12

Lacks practical value:
- holistic accounts are complex = practical dilemma
- humanistic perspective claims many factors involved in mental disorders e.g depression
- e.g their past, their relationships, their job, family circumstances
- Difficult to know which factor more influential
- So difficult to know which factor to prioritise the basis of therapy

Question 13

One strength and one limitation of reductionism

Answer 13

Scientific approach:
- Well controlled research involves operationalisation (breakdown of target behaviours into constituent parts)
- Makes it possible to conduct experiments/observations in an objective and reliable way
- e.g attachment SS operationalised component behaviours as separation anxiety

Some behaviours only understood at a higher level:
- some aspects of social behaviour only understood within group context rather than individual members
- e.g Zimbardos prison study could not be understood by observing participants as individuals
- interaction between people + group behaviour important
- social processes e.g conformity only understood at level they occur
- Some behaviours better understood/more valid using higher level explanations