Holism and Reductionism Flashcards
What is reductionism
Breaking down a phenomenon into more simple components. It implies that this is better as complex phenomena are best understood in terms of a simpler level of explination
What are the levels of reductionism
The Highest Level - Cultural and Social explinations of how our social groups affect our behaviour
The Middle Level - psychological explinations of behaviour
The Lowest Level - Biological explinations of how genes and hormones etc affect our behaviour
Is it possible for behaviours to be explained in terms of all three levels of reductionism
Yes, for example memory could be explained by how:
-cultural expectations affect what we remember
-Episodic Memories etc
-Areas of the brain where memory are stored
What are three kinds of reductionism
Biological reductionism, Environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism and Experimental reductionism
What is Biological reductionism
Since all animals are made up of atoms, human behaviour must be explainable at this level, ie all behaviour can be reduced to the physical level. As such bilogical reductionists reduce behaviour to the action fo neurons, neurotransmitters and hormones. For example, Sz is caused by excessive dopamine
What is Environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism
Behavioural view on reductionism, where behaviour can be explained with simple stimulus-response links. For example attachment can be explained by food and drive reduction
What is Experimental reductionism
Reducing complex behaviours to isolated varaibles is a useful strategy for conducting research. It underlies the experimental approach where behaviours are reduced to operationalised variables that can be manipulated
What is Holism
The view that simple components do not express the essence of a behaviour or experience, and that the whole experience has to be considered rather than the individual features and/or relations between them
What is Gestalt psychology in relation to the holism-reductionism debate
From ‘Gestalten’ which is Deutch for ‘the whole’. This was an approach favoured by a group of German psychologists in the early 20th century. They focused especially on perception, arguing that explinations for what we see only make sense through the consideration of the whole rather than the individual elements.
What is humanistic psychology in relation to the holism-reductionism debate
Humanistic psychologists believe that the individual reacts as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus-response links. What matters most is a person’s sense of unified identity and a lack of identity or ‘wholeness’ leads to mental disorder
What is cognitive psychology in relation to the holism-reductionism debate
Focused on memory. Recently memory has been understood as a connectionist network, where neurons are linked to other neurons, with these links developing through experience, which also causes them to be strengthened or weakened. Connectionist networks are described as Holist as the network as a whole behaves differently than it’s individual parts
Explain the dangers of lower levels of explination
When take in isolation, lower level explinations can mean that the meaning of a behaviour is overlooked. This leads to errors in understanding, for example Wolpe, who developed systematic desensitization, treated a woman for her fear of insects but found no improvement using SD. It turned out her husband, who she hated, was given an insect nickname, so her fear was not a result of conditioning but a means of representing her marital problems. Focusing on the behavioural level and ignoring meaning would have been an error, which highlights how lower levels may distract us from a more appropriate elvel of explination and thus treatment.
Who treated a women for fear of insects and thus demonstrated the weakness of lower levels of explination
Wople treated a women for fear of insects using systematic desensitisation, but turns out she was actually using insects as a means of representing her marital problems
What is an issue with experimental reductionism
Reducing behaviour to a studyable form is productive for study, but may not tell us much about everyday life. For example, results from lab experiments investigating eye witness testimony (Loftus and Palmer) have not always been confirmed by studies of real life eyewitnesses, where memories have been found to be more accurate. Operationalisation may create measurable variables but means it bears no resemblance to the real thing
What is an strength of biological redctionism
It has been used successfully in the development of drug therapies. Such treatments have led to a considerable reduction in institutionalisation since the 1950s. It is a more humane approach to treatment of mental illness as they don’t blame the patient leading to tolerance of the mentally ill. However these drug therapies are not always successful and may ignore the context and function of such behaviour, as there are many psychological therapies that are also successful
Who discovered that psychotherapy has a similar effect on serotonin as drugs
Martin
