holism vs reductionism

Question 1

what is the holism-reductionism debate

Answer 1

question whether holism/reduction is the better approach to use when understanding human behaviour

Question 2

holism vs reductionism

Answer 2

holism = looks at systems as a whole, used by humanistic psychologists = analyse themes rather than break concept of self into component behaviours

reductionism = analyse behaviour by breaking down into consituent parts, based on parsimony

Question 3

what is the scientific principle of parsimony

Answer 3

all phenomena = should be explained using simplest/lowest level principles

Question 4

6 levels of explanation

Answer 4

1. socio-cultural
2. psychological
3. physical
4. environmental/behavioural
5. physiological
6. neurochemical

Question 5

apply levels of explanation to example

Answer 5

understanding OCD
1. socio-cultural = OCD interrupts social relationships

2. psychological = person’s experience of anxiety
3. physical = movements, like washing hands repeatedly
4. environmental/behavioural = learning experiences
5. physiological = abnormal functioning of frontal lobe
6. neurochemical = underproduction of serotonin

Question 6

biological vs environmental reductionism

Answer 6

biological = includes neurochemical/physiological levels and genetic/evolutionary,
- reduced all behaviour to some biological level

environmental = behaviour learnt and acquired through interactions with environment
- explained via conditioning = simple stimulus-response explanation, reducing all behaviour to these simple elements

Question 7

example of biological reductionism

Answer 7

drugs working to increase serotonin found effective treating OCD
= low serotonin may be cause of OCD
= reduced OCD to level of neurotransmitter activity

Question 8

example of environmental reductionism

Answer 8

learning theory of attachment = reduce love between infant/caregiver to learned association between feeder and food = resulting in pleasure

Question 9

limitation of holistic approach

Answer 9

lack practical value
= tend to be hard to use as behaviour become more complex
- if we assume there are many different factors contributing to certain behaviour/mental disorder = can be difficult to know which factor most influential, and therefore, what to prioritise in treatment/therapy

e.g. depression can be caused by person’s past, present relationships, job, family circumstances etc = not knowing what is most influential, difficult to provide effective therapy

Question 10

strength of reductionist approach

Answer 10

scientific approach
= well-controlled research requires operationalising the variables (AKA breaking down target behaviours into constituent parts)

• e.g., ainsworth’s strange situation looked at attachment through 4 operationalised behaviours, 1 = separation anxiety.

= use of scientific approach increases credibility of psych, making it on par with natural sciences

Question 11

limitation of reductionist approach

Answer 11

oversimplistic
= e.g., displays of conformity in social situations (e.g., conformity to social roles in the stanford prison experiment)
= only be understood when observing interactions between people and group behaviour, as opposed to studying only the individual

• considering all parts of complex phenomena could be argued to provide greater/more informative context/insight = holistic view has increased validity compared to reductionist views