Issue And Debates : Holism And Reductionism Flashcards
Biological Reductionism
“Biological reductionism refers to the way that biological psychologists try to reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in terms of neurons,
neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure, etc.”
Environmental Reductionism
“Environmental reductionism is also known as stimulus-response reductionism. Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be reduced to the simple building blocks of S-R (stimulus-response) associations and that complex behaviours are a
series of S-R chains.”
Experimental Reductionism
Experimental Reductionism is where a complex behaviour is reduced to a single
(isolated) variable for the purpose of testing.
Holism
Holism comes from the Greek word ‘holos’, which means ‘all’, ‘whole’ or ‘entire’ and is the idea that human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integrated experience, and not as separate parts.
Interactionist Approach
An interactionist approach argues that several levels of explanation are necessary
to explain a particular behaviour, ranging from lower (biological) to higher levels (social and cultural).
Levels of Explanations
The reductionist approach suggests that behaviour can be explained at different
levels (e.g. social and cultural, psychological or biological).
Parsimony
Parsimony is the idea that complex phenomena should be explained in the simplest terms possible.
Reductionism
Reductionism is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it
down into simpler component parts.
What is reductionism based on?
Reductionism is based on the scientific assumption of parsimony: the idea that complex phenomena should be explained in the simplest terms possible.
What is Parsimony?
Parsimony is similar to the idea of Occam’s Razor, which was established by William of Ockham in the 14th century. Like parsimony, this theory states that one should not make unnecessary assumptions and that the answer to a problem is often the simplest.
What is the reductionist approach?
The reductionist approach suggests that there are different levels of explanation. The lowest level considers physiological (biological) explanations, where behaviour is explained in terms of neurochemicals, genes and brain structure; the middle level considers psychological explanations (e.g. cognitive and behavioural) and the highest level considers social and cultural explanations, where behaviour is explained in terms of the influence of social groups.
An example of biological reductionism?
For example, explanations of psychological disorders are often biologically reductionist, as genes and neurochemical imbalances are offered as the main cause. For example, a meta-analysis of 14 twin studies of OCD found that monozygotic twins were more than twice as likely to develop OCD in comparison to dizygotic twins if their co-twin also had the disorder (Billett et al., 1998), thus suggesting a genetic link.
An example of Environmental reductionism?
example, behaviourists reduce the complex behaviour of attachment down to a stimulus-response link, where the mother becomes the conditioned stimulus who becomes associated with the pleasure from feeding. Therefore the child comes to feel pleasure (conditioned response) when he or she encounters their mother, leading to the formation of an attachment.
Example of experimental reductionism?
- For example, Miller (1956) examined the capacity of short-term memory and Peterson and Peterson (1959) examined the duration of short-term memory.
- Experimental reductionism underpins the experimental approach; complex behaviours are reduced to operationalised isolated variables in order to measure and determine causal relationships.
What is Gestalt psychology?
Gestalt psychology adopts a holistic approach to perception: when we perceive something in the real world, we do so as a whole rather than as a collection of bits and pieces. What we see only makes sense when we consider the whole image, rather than the individual elements that make up our vision.
