Holism And Reductionism Flashcards
Reductionism
The belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into small component parts and they believe it’s the best way to understand human behaviour
Reductionism operates at different levels
Lowest- biological explanations of how genes and hormones affect behaviour
Middle- psychological explanations like cognitive and behavioural
Highest - cultural and social explanations
Two explanations of reductionism
Behavioural and biological
Behavioural reductionism
Skinner explains all behaviour can be explained in terms of simple stimulus and our response to them are the basis for all we know and how we behave
Biological reductionism
Psychological problems can be treated with drugs. Identifying the source of someone’s mental illness as an imbalance of chemicals in the brain being reductionism
Holism
Perceiving the whole experience rather then just individual features
Example of holistic psychology
Humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology
Agree with holism believe that an individual reacts as an organised whole rather than a set of stimulus response. They believe that what matters most is a persons sense of unified identity and so a lack of identity or a sense of wholeness can lead to a mental disorder
Evaluation of environmental reductionism
The behavioural approach was developed as a result of experiments with non human animals. May be appropriate to explain their behaviour in terms of simple components but such explanations for human behaviour may not take into account complexity of human mind
Biological reductionism evaluation
Development in drug therapies. Success rates vary and treat symptoms but not causes. So may not have long lasting effects. Reducing mental illness to biological level leaves the context and function of such behaviour. Psychological explanations take more into account of these and have produced successful therapies
