Holism And Reductionism Flashcards
Reductionism definition:
An approach that reduces a complex phenomenon such as human behaviour to the simplest explanation eg. Explain behaviour and experiences in reference to one factor (schizophrenia and dopamine hypothesis)
Reductionism argues that there are different levels of explanation:
Lowest level - biological explanations (neurochemical, genetic, brain structure etc.)
Middle level - psychological explanations (cognitive, behavioural/environmental)
Highest level - social and cultural explanations (the influence of social groups on behaviour)
We can explain the same behaviour using these different levels.
Example of how to explain the same behaviour using the different levels of explanation:
Lowest level - memory can be considered in terms of biological components, as Maguire et al. found association between the size of the hippocampus and memory for spatial navigation.
Middle level - memory can also be considered on a psychological level eg. cognitive psychologists miller examined the capacity of the STM and Peterson examined the duration of the STM.
Higher level - memory could be explained on a social and cultural level, as research suggests that cultural expectations affect what we remember and how we recall information (Bartlett - schema theory)
Biological reductionism:
Refers to the war that biological psychologists try to reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in terms of neurones, neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure etc.
Environmental reductionism:
(Aka stimulus-response reductionism)
Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be reduced to the simple building blocks of stimulus-response associations and that complex behaviours are a serious of -s-r chains
Example of biological reductionism:
The biological approach claims that OCD is caused by higher levels of dopamine and lower levels of serotonin.
Example of environmental reductionism:
The behaviourist approach claims that phobias are initiated through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.
Advantages of reductionism:
- helps understand the world better
- easier to study one component rather than several
- study more objective and scientifically acceptable because other variables isolated.
Disadvantages of reductionism:
- makes complex behaviour very simplistic
- isolated component doesn’t give full explanation of behaviour
- difficult to isolate component, influence of extraneous variables
- ignores other explanations
Holism definition:
Looks at individuals as a whole and looks at all factors which together might explain a behaviour. Eg. Humanistic approach
Humanistic approach argues that humans react to stimuli as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimuli-response links. As an approach, it uses qualitative methods to investigate all aspects of an individual, as well as the interactions between people.
Advantages of Holism:
- provides a more complete picture
- understands complexity of behaviour
- considers individual differences
- more useful - understands that many factors influence behaviour.
Disadvantages of holism:
- difficult to investigate all the different components = very costly
- not based on empirical evidence, more hypothetical
- prevents predicting behaviour
- neglects importance of physiological influences.
What reductionism does the cognitive approach use?
Machine reductionism.
Information-processing approaches uses the analogy of machine systems, and the simple components of such machines, as a means to describe and explain behaviour.
What does social psychology include?
Looks at the behaviour of individuals in a social context; group behaviour (eg. Conformity, de-individualisation - makes people more anonymous, they feel like they have less responsibility eg. Stanford prison experiment where the guards wore glasses and inform) may show characteristics that are greater than the sum of the individuals which comprise it.
Individual differences - mental disorders are often explained by an interaction of biological, psychological and environmental factors. An eclectic approach to therapy is often taken using drugs and psychotherapy.
