I&D - Holism and reductionism

Question 1

What is the opposite to reductionism?

Answer 1

Holism

Question 2

What is the opposite to holism?

Answer 2

Reductionism

Question 3

Holism

Answer 3

With respect to a behaviour such as memory or mental disorder, perceiving the whole experience rather than the individual features and/or the relations between them.

Question 4

Reductionism

Answer 4

An approach that breaks complex phenomena into more simple components, implying that this is desirable because complex phenomena are best understood in terms of a simpler level of explanation.

Question 5

What is important about the levels of explanation in reductionism?

(What do they mean/what are the levels?)

Answer 5

The reductionist approach suggests that explanations begin at the highest level and progressively look at component elements:

• Highest level: cultural and social explanations of how our social groups affect our behaviour.
• Middle level: psychological explanations of behaviour.
• Lower level: biological explanations of how hormones and genes, etc. affect our behaviour.

We can consider any behaviour in terms of all three levels.

Question 6

What is the highest level of explanation in the reductionist approach in psychology?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is the middle level of explanation in the reductionist approach in psychology?

Answer 7

Psychological explanations of behaviour.

Question 8

What is the lowest level of explanation in the reductionist approach in psychology?

Answer 8

Biological explanations of how hormones and genes, etc. affect our behaviour.

Question 9

How can memory be explained in terms of all three levels of explanation (reductionist approach)?

Answer 9

Social level in terms of how cultural expectations affect what we remember.

Psychological level in terms of episodic memories (memories of events in a person’s life).

Biological level in terms of the areas of the brain where the memories are stored (hippocampus and temporal lobe) and the neurotransmitters involved in forming memories (e.g. acetylcholine).

Question 10

How can memory be explained in terms of the social (highest) level of explanation (reductionist approach)?

Answer 10

Social level in terms of how cultural expectations affect what we remember.

Question 11

How can memory be explained in terms of the psychological (middle) level of explanation (reductionist approach)?

Answer 11

Psychological level in terms of episodic memories (memories of events in a person’s life).

Question 12

How can memory be explained in terms of the biological (lowest) level of explanation (reductionist approach)?

Answer 12

Biological level in terms of the areas of the brain where the memories are stored (hippocampus and temporal lobe) and the neurotransmitters involved in forming memories (e.g. acetylcholine).

Question 13

Which type of reductionism is a popular way of explaining mental illness?

Answer 13

Biological reductionism.

Question 14

What are the 3 types of reductionism?

Answer 14

Biological reductionism.

Environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism.

Experimental reductionism.

Question 15

Why must human behaviour be able to be explained at the biological level of explanation?

Answer 15

Since all animals are made up of atoms - behaviour can be reduced to a physical level.

Question 16

What do biological psychologists reduce behaviour to?

Biological reductionism.

Answer 16

The action of neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones, etc.

Question 17

Give an example where biological reductionism is present in psychology

Answer 17

A popular way to explain mental illness is in terms of such biological units.

It has been suggested that schizophrenia is caused by excessive activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine because drugs that block this neurotransmitter reduce the symptoms of this disorder.

Question 18

What do behaviourist psychologists reduce behaviour to?

Environmental reductionism.

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What do behaviourist explanations suggest about behaviour?

Answer 19

Behaviourist explanations suggest that all behaviour can be explained in terms of simple stimulus-response links.

Question 20

Give an example where environmental reductionism is present in psychology

Answer 20

Attachment - The complex emption of attachment is reduced to a set of probabilities: the mother is likely to provide food which is reinforcing (reduces discomfort). Hence, she is a rewarding individual and so becomes a ‘loved one’.

Question 21

What type of reductionism refers to behaviourist explanations?

Answer 21

Environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism.

Question 22

What does experimental reductionism reduce behaviour to?

Answer 22

Reduces complex behaviours to isolated variables.

Question 23

Why do experimental reductionists reduce complex behaviours to isolated variables?

Answer 23

Because it is a useful strategy for conducting research.

Question 24

What does experimental reductionism underly?

Answer 24

The experimental approach where behaviours are reduced to operationalised variables that can be manipulated and measures to determine causal relationships.

Question 25

What does the holistic approach focus on?

Answer 25

Systems as a whole rather than on the constituent parts.

Question 26

What does holism/the holistic approach suggest?

Answer 26

Suggests that we cannot predict how the whole system will behave just from a knowledge of the individual components.

Question 27

Because the holistic approach suggests that we cannot predict how the whole system will behave just from a knowledge of the individual components, what does this mean about reductionist explanations?

Answer 27

It means that reductionist explanations would only play a limited role in understanding behaviour.

Question 28

What are the 3 types of holism?

Answer 28

Gestalt psychology.

Humanistic psychology.

Cognitive psychology.

Question 29

What does the word ‘Gestalten’ mean in German?

Answer 29

‘The whole’.

Question 30

Who was the Gestalt approach favoured by?

Answer 30

A group of German psychologists in the first part of the 20th century.

Question 31

What does Gestalt psychology focus especially on?

Answer 31

Perception arguing that explanations for what we see only make sense through a consideration of the whole rather than the individual elements.

Question 32

What do humanist psychologists believe?

Answer 32

That the individual reacts as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus-response (S-R) links.

What matters most is a person’s sense of a unified identity; and thus a lack of identity or sense of ‘wholeness’ leads to a mental disorder.

Question 33

What does humanistic psychology believe causes a mental disorder?

Answer 33

What matters most is a person’s sense of a unified identity; and thus a lack of identity or sense of ‘wholeness’ leads to a mental disorder.

Question 34

What is memory as defined in cognitive psychology?

Answer 34

A complex system which in recent years has been understood in terms of connectionist networks.

Question 35

What does cognitive psychology explain things in terms of?

Answer 35

Connectionist networks.

Question 36

What is the idea of a network in cognitive psychology?

Answer 36

The idea is that each unit (such as a neuron) is linked to many other units (other neurons).

Question 37

How do the links in connectionist networks explained in cognitive psychology develop?

Answer 37

They develop through experience and, with each new experience, the links are strengthened or weakened.

Question 38

Why are connections networks described as holistic?

Answer 38

Because the network as a whole behaves differently than the individual parts; linear models (where one item links only to the next in a sequence) assume that the sum of the parts equals the whole.

Question 39

What are linear models and what do they assume?

Answer 39

Linear models (where one item links only to the next in a sequence) assume that the sum of the parts equals the whole.

Question 40

What happens to the links developing in connectionist networks with each new experience?

Answer 40

They develop through experience and, with each new experience, the links are strengthened or weakened.