Holism & reductionism

Question 1

What is holism?

Answer 1

An approach to human behaviour/the mind that focuses on looking at things as a whole.

Question 2

What is reductionism?

Answer 2

The idea that complex behaviour can be broken into more simple components as this is more desirable because complex phenomena are best understood in terms of a simpler level of explanation.

Question 3

What does the reductionist approach suggest?

Answer 3

Suggests that explanations begin at the highest level and progressively look at component elements.

Question 4

What is the highest level in reductionism?

Answer 4

Cultural and social explanations of how our social groups affect our behaviour.

Question 5

What is the middle level in reductionism?

Answer 5

Psychological explanations of behaviour.

Question 6

What is the lowest level in reductionism?

Answer 6

Biological explanations of how hormones and genes affect our behaviour.`

Question 7

How do these levels link to behaviour?

Answer 7

Behaviour is considered in all three levels. For example, memory can be explained at a social level in terms of how cultural expectations affect what we can remember and it can be explained in a psychological level in terms of episodic memories and biological levels in terms of areas of the brain where memories are stored and neurotransmitters in forming memories.

Question 8

What do biological psychologists do?

Answer 8

They reduce behaviour to the action of neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones etc.

Question 9

How does biological reductionism help with explaining mental illness?

Answer 9

Mental illness can be measured in terms of units, eg it has been suggested that schizophrenia is caused by excessive activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine as the drugs that block this neurotransmitter reduce the symptoms of this disorder.

Question 10

What do behaviourist explantions suggest about environmental reductionism?

Answer 10

Behaviourist explanations suggest that all behaviour can be explained in terms of simple stimulus-response links (meaning behaviour can be reduced into a simple relationship between behaviour and events in the environment.

Question 11

How can reductionism link to experiments?

Answer 11

As reducing complex behaviour is isolated to variables is a useful strategy for conducting research.

Question 12

What does experimental reductionism underly?

Answer 12

Underlies the experimental approach where behaviours are reduced to operationalised variables that can be manipulated and measured to determine causal relationships.

Question 13

What does holism focus on?

Answer 13

Focuses on system as a whole rather than seperate parts.

Question 14

What does holism suggest?

Answer 14

Suggests we can’t predict how the whole system will behave just from a knowledge of the individual components and this means that reductionist explanations only play a limited role in understanding behaviour.

Question 15

What does ‘Gestalten’ mean?

Answer 15

Means the whole in German and was an approach favoured by a group of german psychologists in the early 20th century.

Question 16

What did the German psychologists focus on in Gestalt psychology?

Answer 16

Focused on perception arguing that explanations for what can be seen only makes sense through a consideration of the whole rather than the individual elements.

Question 17

What do humanistic psychologists believe?

Answer 17

Believe an individual reacts as an organised whole rather than a set of stimulus response links and what matters most is a persons sense of unified identity and so a lack of identity or a sense of wholeness leads to a mental disorder.

Question 18

How does cognitive psychology link?

Answer 18

Memory is complex and is made up in terms of connectionist networks and the idea of a network is that everything is interconnected through experienc and is strengthened or weakened and these networks are described as holist as the network as a whole behaved differently than idividual parts.