holism and reductionism

Question 1

explain holism?

Answer 1

• studies an individual system rather than its constituent parts.
• Zimbardo’s prison study is an example as he looked at interaction between behaviour and people
• higher level of explanation

Question 2

what approaches are reductionist?

Answer 2

• biological

- behaviourist

Question 3

what approaches are holistic?

Answer 3

-humanistic

Question 4

explain the reductionist approach?

Answer 4

• belief that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts
• lower level of explanation

Question 5

explain ‘levels of explanation in psychology’?

Answer 5

• refers to the extent to which an explanation is holistic or reductionist
• higher level of explanation= holistic + consider multiple variables for behaviour
• lower end= reductionist

Question 6

explain biological reductionism?

Answer 6

• a form of reductionism, -believes behaviour was at some point biological and can be explained through genetic influences
• practical application eg. psychoactive drugs for the brain contributed too understanding of neural processes

Question 7

explain environmental reductionism?

Answer 7

-explains behaviour as a stimulus response that has been learnt through experience

Question 8

evaluate evidence to support holism?

Answer 8

• Zimbardo measured effects of conformity and de-individualisation of prisoners looking at them as individuals
• looked at relationship between people and behaviour
• couldn’t have been understood using reductionist approach

Question 9

evaluate evidence against holism?

Answer 9

• explanations cab be vague due to complexity
• lack of empirical evidence
• believes many factors contribute to eg. depression therefore hard to establish the most important factors
• reductionist is better for more real world problems

Question 10

evaluate evidence to support reductionism?

Answer 10

-to obtain operational variables
-behaviours need to be broken down into constituent parts so experiments can be conducted
=more reliable as complex learning can be broken down into stimulus and responses

Question 11

evaluate evidence against reductionism?

Answer 11

• oversimplifies complex aspects= lacks validity
• doesn’t explain WHY behaviour occurs
• MAOA gene shown to cause aggression BUT… why they act aggressive isn’t considered