Holism and reductionism Flashcards
what is holism
an argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisible system rather than its constituent parts
essentially, it is about studying the whole
what is reductionism
the belief that human behaviour is best understood by studying the smaller constituent parts
what approach in psychology takes a holistic approach
humanistic
humanistic psychology focuses on the individual’s experience, which is not something that can be reduced
e.g. biological units
Humanistic psychologists use qualitative methods to investigate the self whereby themes are analysed rather than breaking the concepts into components of behaviour
what approach in psychology takes a reductionist approach
behaviourists
Behaviourists explain behaviour in terms of conditioning which is focused on simple stimulus - response links- reducing behaviour to these basic elements
who proposed the holistic approach
the view was put forward by Gestalt psychologists who argued that the “whole was greater than the sum of its parts”
Therefore knowing about the parts e.g. the characteristics that a person may have does not help us understand the essence of that person
what is reductionism based on
it is based on the scientific principle of parsimony-
that all phenomena should be explained using the simplest (lowest level) principle
what are the levels of explanation in psychology
The idea is that there are several ways (levels) that can be used to explain behaviour.
The lowest level considers
physiological/ biological explanations,
the middle level considers the psychological explanation
and the highest level considers social and cultural explanations
using the levels of explanation, how can OCD be explained as
Socio-cultural - OCD interrupts social relationships
Psychological -Psychological level
Environmental /behavioural -movements e.g. washing one’s hands
Physiological level - abnormal functioning in the frontal lobes
Neurological - underproduction of serotonin
which level is the best explanation for OCD
which of these has the best explanation is a matter of debate but each level is more reductionist than the one before
where does psychology fit on a hierarchy of reductionism
Sociology
Psychology
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
with the most reductionist at the bottom
Researchers who favour reductionism would see psychology as ultimately being replaced by explanations derived from those sciences lower down the hierarchy
what is biological reductionism
a form of reductionism that attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest level ( in terms of the actions of genes, hormones e.t.c)
It is based on the premise that we are all biological organisms and therefore, all behaviour on some level is biological
how do biologically reductionists arguments work
their arguments often work backwards
e.g. drugs that increase serotonin have been found to be effective in treating OCD
Therefore, working backwards low serotonin may be a cause of OCD
We have reduced OCD to the level of neurochemical activity
what is environmental reductionism ( stimulus-response)
It is the attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience
what is an example of a reductionist theory
the learning theory of attachment reduces the idea of love (between a baby and the person who does the feeding) to:
learned association between the person doing the feeding ( neural stimulus) and food (unconditioned stimulus) resulting in pleasure (conditioned response)
