holism and reductionsim

Question 1

holism

Answer 1

looks at a system as a whole and sees any attempt to subdivide behaviour or expienced into smaller units as inappropriate

argued that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

knowing baout the parts does not help us undead the essence of that perosn

humanistic psychology fouses on individual expience which is not something that can be reduced

qualitative methods to investigate the self whereby these are analysed rather than breaking the concept into component behaviours

Question 2

reductionism

Answer 2

seeks to analyse behaviour by breaking down to its constituent parts

based on scinetifitds principle of parsimony - that all phenomena should be explained using the simplest principles

Question 3

levels of explanation in psychology

Answer 3

different ways to explain behaviours some more reutionist than others

example - OCD

soicocultural level
psychological level
physical level
environmental level
physiological level
neurochemical level

psychology can be placed in the hierarchy of science

researchers who favour recutionsim would see psychology as ultimately being replaced by explanations derived form those scinces lower down in the hierarchy

Question 4

biological reductionism

Answer 4

includes the neurochemicsal and physiological levels and also evolutionary and genetic influences

based on the premise that we are biological organisms

all behaviour is at some level biological

Question 5

environmental (stimulus-response) recutionsim

Answer 5

behaviourist approach is built on environmental reductionism

proposing that all behaviour is learned and acquired through interactions with he environment

behaviourists explain behaviour in terms of conditioning which is focused on simple - stimulus and response links reducing behaviour to these basic elements

Question 6

limitation

Answer 6

practical value

limitation of holism is that it 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 filled

if we accept form a humanistic perosecotbve that there are many different factors that contribute to depression such as peoples past , their present relationships and there job

it then becomes difficult to knwo which is the most infleunctial

then difficult to knwo which to priories as a basis of therapy

Question 7

strength

Answer 7

scientific approach

strength of reductionist approaches is that they often form the basis of a scientific approach

in order to conduct well-controlled research we need to operationsile the variables to be studied - to break target behaviours down into constituent parts

this makes it possible to conduct expoermients or record observations in a way that is objective and reliable

example - research on attachment (the strange situation) operation is lied component behaviours such as separation anxiety

this sientifitfc approach gives psychology greater credibility placing it on equal terms with he natural sciences

Question 8

limitation

Answer 8

higher level

limitation of reductions is that some behaviours can only be understood at a higher level

often there are aspects of social behaviour that only emerge within a grow context and cannot be understood in terms of the individual group members

exmaple - the effects of conformity o social roles in the prisoners and guards in the stanford prison study could not be understood by observing the participants as indidcuals

it was th interaction between the popes and the behaviour of the group that was important

no conformity gene that we know of so social processes like conformity can only be explend at the level in which they occur

suggest that for some behaviours higher level explanations such as holistic provide a more valid account