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 (which is the reductionist approach).
what is reducationism?
The belief that human behaviour is best understood by studying the smaller constituent parts.
what is the levels of explanation?
The idea that there are several ways (levels) that can be used to explain behaviour. The lowest level considers physiological/ biological explanations, the middle level considers psychological explanations and the highest level considers social and cultural explanations.
what is biological reductionism?
A form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level (in terms of the actions of genes, hormones, etc).
what is environmental reductionism?
The attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience.
what is the holism-reductionism debate?
it is the question of whether holism or reductionism is the better approach to use in order to understand human behaviour.
This debate is more about a preference for either holism or reductionism and the different approaches in psychology take sides. For example humanistic psychologists take a holistic approach whereas behaviourists are reductionist.
Within the reductionist approach there is a continuum - the levels of explanation.
what is the holism approach?
The holistic approach looks at a system as a whole and sees any attempt to subdivide behaviour or experience into smaller units as inappropriate.
Humanistic psychology focuses on the individual’s experience, which is not something that can be reduced to, for example, biological units.
Humanistic psychologists use qualitative methods to investigate the self whereby themes are analysed rather than breaking the concept into component behaviours.
what is the reductionism approach?
Reductionism seeks to analyse behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts. It is based on the scientific principle of parsimony - that all phenomena should be explained using the simplest (lowest level) principles.
what are the levels of explanation?
There are different ways to explain behaviour. For e.g. OCD
-Socio-cultural level, e.g. OCD interrupts social relationships.
-Psychological level, e.g. the person’s experience of anxiety.
-Physical level - movements, e.g. washing one’s hands.
-Environmental/behavioural level - learning experiences.
-Physiological level, e.g. abnormal functioning in the frontal lobes.
-Neurochemical level, e.g. underproduction of serotonin.
what is the biological reductionism approach?
it includes the neurochemical and physiological levels and also evolutionary and genetic influences.
It is based on the premise that we are biological organisms.
Thus, all behaviour is at some level biological.
Biologically reductionist arguments often work backwards.
what is the environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism approach?
The behaviourist approach is built on environmental reductionism. Behaviourists explain behaviour in terms of conditioning which is focused on simple stimulus-response links, reducing behaviour to these basic elements.
For example, the learning theory of attachment reduces the idea of love (between baby and person who does the feeding) to a learned association between the person doing the feeding (neutral stimulus) and food (unconditioned stimulus) resulting in pleasure (conditioned response).
what is the practical value limitation?
-holism approach may lack practical value.
-Holistic accounts of human behaviour tend to become hard to use as they become more complex. This can present researchers with a practical dilemma.
-If we accept, from a humanistic perspective, that there are many different factors that contribute to depression then it becomes difficult to know which is most influential.
-It is then difficult to know which to prioritise as the basis of therapy, for instance.
-This suggests that holistic accounts may lack practical value.
what is the scientific approach strength?
-reductionist approaches (and limitation of the holistic approach) often form the basis of a scientific approach.
-In order to conduct well-controlled research we need to operationalise the variables to be studied - to break target behaviours down into constituent parts.
-This makes it possible to conduct experiments or record observations (behavioural categories) in a way that is objective and reliable.
-For example, research on attachment (the Strange Situation) operationalised component behaviours such as separation anxiety.
-This scientific approach gives psychology greater credibility, placing it on equal terms with the natural sciences.
what is the scientific approach counterpoint?
-Reductionist approaches have been accused of oversimplifying complex phenomena, leading to reduced validity.
-Explanations that operate at the level of the gene or neurotransmitter do not include an analysis of the social context within which behaviour occurs - and this is where the behaviour may derive its meaning.
-For instance, the physiological processes involved in pointing one’s finger will be the same regardless of the context. However, an analysis of these will not tell us why the finger is pointed - it might be to draw attention to some object or person, as an act of aggression, etc.
-This suggests that reductionist explanations can only ever form part of an explanation.
what is the higher level limitation?
-with reductionism only some behaviours can only be understood at a higher level.
-Often, there are aspects of social behaviour that only emerge within a group context and cannot be understood in terms of the individual group members.
-For instance, the effects of conformity to social roles in the prisoners and guards in the Stanford prison study could not be understood by observing the participants as individuals.
-It was the interaction between people and the behaviour of the group that was important. There is no conformity ‘gene’ so social processes like conformity can only be explained at the level at which they occur.
-This suggests that, for some behaviours, higher level explanations (or even holistic ones) provide a more valid account.
