5.5. Reductionism vs Holism

Question 1

Reductionism

Answer 1

• Breaking a complex phenomenon down into more simple components
• Desirable as complex phenomena are best understood more simply
• Led to major discoveries

Question 2

What is reductionism also known as?

Answer 2

Parsimony

Question 3

Holism

Answer 3

Simple components don’t express that essence of behaviours- sum of parts doesn’t equal the whole

Question 4

What is holism also referred to as?

Answer 4

Gestalt psychology

Question 5

What is reductionism based on?

Answer 5

Principle of parsimony- all phenomena should be explained using the simplest principles
Suggests explanations begin at highest level

Question 6

Highest level

Answer 6

Cultural and social explanations of how our social groups affect our behaviour

Question 7

Medium level

Answer 7

Psychological explanations of behaviour

Question 8

Lower levels

Answer 8

Biological explanation of how hormones affect our behaviour

Question 9

Biological reductionism

Answer 9

• Reduce behaviour to neurons, hormones and neurotransmitters
• Sz explained by excessive dopamine

Question 10

Environmental reductionism

Answer 10

• Behaviour can be explained in terms of stimulus response links, a relationship between behaviour and events in the environment
• E.g. in attachment, mother provides food, removes hunger, gives pleasure

Question 11

Experimental reductionism

Answer 11

• Reducing complex behaviour to isolated variables is useful for conducting research
• Behaviours are reduced to operationalised variables that can be manipulated and measured to determine casual relationships

Question 12

What does holism suggest?

Answer 12

We cannot predict how the whole system will behave just from knowledge of individual components

Question 13

What is Gestalt psychology?

Answer 13

Focus on perception arguing that explanations for what we see only make sense through consideration of the whole

Question 14

Humanistic psychology

Answer 14

• Individuals react as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus response links
• What matters most is a person’s sense of unified identity; therefore a lack of wholeness leads to a mental disorder

Question 15

Cognitive psychology

Answer 15

• Memory is a complex system, the idea is that each unit within the overall network is linked to many other units
• Develop through experiences which will weaken or strengthen
• Holistic acts differently from individual parts

Question 16

Discussion: danger of lower levels of explanation

Answer 16

• If lower levels are taken in isolation then the meaning of behaviour can be overlooked - leads to errors in understanding
• Lower levels distract us from a more appropriate level of explanation e.g. to only focus on the genetic explanation for sz instead of taking in the environment as well

Question 17

Discussion: biological reductionism

Answer 17

• Drugs have been developed to treat the therapies, these have decreased institutionalisation + are more humane as the\y don’t blame the person, meaning mental illness isn’t a bad thing
• Led to development of antipsychotics

Question 18

Discussion: Environmental reductionism

Answer 18

• May be appropriate to explain behaviour in simple components but such explanations may not be appropriate for more complex human behaviour.
• Humans are not the same as animals, we are influenced by social context and interactions
• Even the animals research is reductionist as it ignores other possible influences such as cognitive processes.

Question 19

Discussion: experimental reductionism

Answer 19

• A lot of research has been developed from this area
• Is reliability of research applicable to everyday life?
• E.g. studies like Loftus and Palmer have not been backed up by real life studies
• There are other factors in life that cannot be recreated in a lab experiment - therefore findings cannot reflect the real world

Question 20

Discussion: the mind body problem

Answer 20

• Problem of explaining the relationships between the mind and the brain
• Solution 1: everything is reducible to the physical world, however we can only observe that certain physical events are associated with mental events -> Psychologists jump to conclusions
• Solution 2: Analyse how the different levels of explanation interact -> research has show the mind can affect our body
  - Martin found that depressed patients who received psychotherapy experienced the same changes in levels of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain as those experiencing those receiving drug therapy
  - Kandel: such physiological change should not be surprising because we know that learning creates new neural connections