Holism and reductionism

Question 1

What is reductionism

Answer 1

Reductionism is when complex phenomena such as behavior is broken down into it’s constituent parts.

Question 2

The reductionist approach

Answer 2

One part of the behavior is seen as the reason for the behavior occurring. Such as attachment only occurring due to biological reasons.

The explanations for a behavior begins at the highest level and then should progressively look at component elements.

The highest level is social and cultural reasons, then environmental and then biological.

Question 3

Environmental reductionism

Answer 3

Behavior can simplified to simple relationship between behavior and events. An example is reinforcement in attachment as the attachment figure providing food is the only reason attachment occurs even though its a complex behavior.

Question 4

Biological reductionism

Answer 4

This reduces human behavior to the level of active neurons, neurotransmitters, genes, hormones etc. An example is SZ being caused by excessive dopamine activity.

Question 5

Holism

Answer 5

Focuses on systems as a whole rather then focusing on any constituent parts of the system. It suggests that we cannot use internal parts to understand how a system as a whole will behave.

Question 6

Humanistic approach

Answer 6

Individuals react as organized wholes rather then a set of stimulus - response links. A persons identity or sense of wholeness is important a lack of wholeness can lead to mental disorders.

Question 7

cognitive approach

Answer 7

Stresses the importance of understanding the whole memory system. Neurons and neural pathways develop through experience, the network as a whole behaves differently then constituent parts.

Question 8

strengths of reductionism

Answer 8

• ) Both environmental and biological reductionism are viewed as scientific. Breaking complex things down into simpler factors that can be scientifically tested over time can produce scientific explanations of behavior.
• ) Biological determinism has led to biological therapies such as drug therapy being formed. SSRI’s are more effective then placebos then treating OCD symptoms for up to 3 months after the treatment. This shows how biological reductionism has led to psychological advances and a positive effect on people by reducing patients anxiety.

Question 9

Weaknesses of reductionism

Answer 9

• ) much of the research supporting environmental reductionism use non human animals, such as Pavlov and Skinner. Critics argue that from the beginning of our lives we grow up in different environments then animals and this type of reductionism ignores hard to measure factors such as cognition, emotion and intentions.
• ) Biologicals reductionism could lead to errors of understanding it ignores the complex interaction between many factors that determine behavior. Drug therapy for ADHD suggests that ADHD is only caused by neurochemical imbalances however the varied success rates of drug therapies suggest this is not the only factor.
• ) environmental reductionism can mean the true causes of behavior can be overlooked. Wolpe found that a women had a phobia of insects an attempted to use systematic desensitization but this did not work. They alter found out the husband she did not get along with had an insect nickname. This means that her phobia was not caused by classical conditioning.