Holism & reductionism

Question 1

Outline Holism

Answer 1

Holism — With respect to a behaviour such as memory or mental disorder, perceiving the
whole experience rather than the individual feature and or the relations between them.
Gestalt psychologists suggest that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ and so it
does not make sense to break down target behaviours into their constituent parts, but
rather study behaviours as part of an indivisible system.

Question 2

Reductionism

Answer 2

Reductionism — An approach that breaks complex phenomena into more simple
components and implies that this is desirable because complex phenomena are best
understood in terms of a simpler level of explanation. This is in contrast with holism. For
example, a reductionist explanation of depression would be the consequence of low levels
of serotonin in the brain. This is biological reductionism and a neurochemical viewpoint.

Question 3

Levels of explanation

Answer 3

Levels of explanation — These are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in Psychology e.g. socio-cultural, psychological, physical, physiological and neurochemical.
Reductionism suggests that lower-level explanations will eventually replace higher-level explanations, according to the reductionist hierarchy of science i.e. Sociology, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and Physics (from top to bottom). Explanations begin at the highest level and progressively reduce down to the bottom of the hierarchy
Highest level — Cultural and social explanations of behaviour e.g. depression being
explained by a withdrawal from social activities, low energy levels and insomnia, which is
viewed as odd by society.
Middle level — Psychological explanations of behaviour e.g. depression being explained by
Beck’s Cognitive Theory (the product of the cognitive triad of automatic negative
thoughts, faulty information processing and negative self-schemas) and Ellis’ ABC model
(an activating event produces an irrational belief which leads to an emotional or
behavioural consequence).
Lower level — Biological explanations of behaviour e.g. depression being explained by the
action of candidate genes (e.g. 5HT1-D beta controlling the efficiency of synaptic
serotonin transport) and neural factors (e.g. abnormal functioning of the left
parahippocampal gyrus and the lateral frontal lobes).

Question 4

Types of Reductionism

Answer 4

Biological reductionism — Reducing behaviour to biology as it is based on the premise than we are biological organisms. i.e. depression can be explained biochemically as a result of low levels of serotonin in the synaptic gaps between neurons. A characteristic feature of the biological approach.

Environmental reductionism —
Behaviourist explanations suggest that all behaviour can be
explained in terms of simple stimulus response links, i.e. phobias are obtained and maintained using classical and operant conditioning (through repeated pairings between the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus to produce an unconditioned response, and then leading to a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response, as
shown through Watson and Rayner’s study of Little Albert).