Holism and reductionism Flashcards
What is holism?
A theory which says it only makes sense to study an indivisible system rather than its constituent parts.
What is reductionism?
The belief that human behaviour is best studied by breaking it sown into smaller parts.
What are the levels of explanation in psychology?
It suggests that there is different ways of learning things. For example, looking at OCD at a psychological level, a physical level, a physiological level and a neurochemical level. Psychology can be placed into a hierarchy as micro disciplines are at the bottom and macro disciplines at the top.
What is biological reductionism?
A form of reductionism which explains psychological phenomena at a biological level in terms of genes, hormones etc.
What is environmental reductionism?
The attempt to explain all behaviour with stimulus-response links that have been learnt through experience.
What is the case for holism?
There are often aspects of behaviour which can only be understood by studying them as a group. For example, studying the effects of conformity in ZPE would not be possible if it was looking only at individuals. This shows that a holistic explanation provides a more complete understanding of behaviour.
What is the case against holism?
Holistic explanations tend not to allow rigorous testing. For example, the humanist approach takes a holistic approach but it is criticised for the lack of empirical evidence. Also, combining perspectives and factors, it becomes difficult to establish which is most influential and which one to use for example for therapy. This suggests that when finding solutions, lower level explanations may be more approprriate.
What is the case for reductionism?
In order to create operationalised variables, target behaviour must be broken down into constituent parts. This allows experiments to be carried out in a meaningful way and also allows complex ideas to be broken down into simple terms.
What is the case against reductionism?
Reductionist approaches are accused of oversimplifying complex phenomena and therefore leading to a loss of validity. For example, only looking at genes and neurons may mean that it ignores the social context of behaviour. Therefore, meaning reductionist explanations only form part of an explanation.
