Holism and reductionism Flashcards
What is reductionism?
An approach that breaks complex phenomena into more simple components, implying that this is desirable because phenomena are best understood at a simpler level of explanation.
What are levels of explanation?
The idea that any behaviour can be explained at different levels of reductionism.
What are the different levels of explanation?
Highest: social/cultural explanations
Middle: psychological
Lowest: biological
What is biological reductionism?
Attempting to understand behaviour by reducing it to the physical level: neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones etc. Common in mental illness diagnosis.
What is Environmental reductionism?
Suggest that all behaviour can be explained by simple stimulus-response links. E.g. behaviourist explanation for attachment.
What is experimental reductionism?
Reducing complex behaviours to isolated, operationalised variables that can be manipulated and measured to determine causal relationships.
What is holism?
With respect to any complex behaviour/phenomenon, perceiving the whole experience rather than the individual features and/or relations between them.
Explain the importance of holism in humanistic psychology.
Believe the individual works as an organised whole, rather than a set of organised stimulus-response links. Highlight the importance of the sense of a unified identity - a lack of this wholeness = mental disorder.
What is Gestalt psychology?
‘The whole’ in German. Approach favoured by group of German psychologists in first part of 20th century. Focused especially on perception, arguing that explanations for what we see only make sense through a consideration of the whole.
(AO3) What is a weakness of particularly reductionist approaches?
If explanations of behaviour are taken into isolation, the meaning and causes of behaviour can be overlooked. E.g. Wope failed to treat a women with phobia through SD as phobia was not a result of conditioning (behaviourist - reductionist). Phobia was actually more complex and involved projection - Freud. Shows how other influences can be ignored = weakness.
(AO3) Describe a positive and negative consequence of biological reductionism.
Development of drug therapies. Offer a more humane approach treating mental illness, less blame on patient. Leads to greater tolerance of mentally ill.
Variable success of drug therapies may be due to them treating symptoms of mental illness rather than the causes. This is because biological reductionism ignores any social context which may be very important.
(AO3) What is a limitation of using experimental reductionism?
Operationalising variables may make it measurable, but do not represent behaviour in real life. E.g. lab studies of EWT don’t match trends from real-life EWT. Reducing behaviour ignores certain factors in real world that have an influence.
(AO3) Explain strengths and limitations of holism.
Accepts and deals with complexity of behaviour. Considers all factors including context, providing a more complete account of human behaviour.
More hypothetical approach. Less experimental method = lack of predictive power and scientific validity - important in psychology.
