Issues And Debates Flashcards
What is holism?
View to understand a person the whole person has to be considered - Gestalt psychologist say the whole is greater than the sum of the parts
What is reductionism ?
The view the human must be reduced into its simplest and smallest component parts to understand more.
What is the level of explanation in psychology ?
There are different ways of viewing phenomena In psychology. The highest is the most holistic which is the context in which a person lives and the cultural context and then its becomes more reductionist from that point
Example of holism
The humanistic approach - Maslows hierarchy of needs - number of needs a person must meet in order to to reach full potential
Person centred therapy views all aspects of the person
Zimbardo
Examples of reductionism.
Biological - attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena is as result of genes and hormones, reducing behaviour down to these causes.
Environmental - all behaviour is in terms of a stimulus response learned from experiences - pavlovs dog
Behaviourist approach- observed behaviour is the only important thing
Evaluation of holism
+ holistic provide a more complete and global understand of complex behaviour- zimbardos study - needs to take into account social aspects of them roles in society.
- doesn’t lead to scientific testing - if we take a holistic view of depression it leads to not seeing what cause is most influential reducing success in therapy
Evaluation of reductionism
+ it lends itself to scientific testing - breaking down variables leads to controlled experiments - to see what areas of the brain do what
- oversimplifies phenomena- doesn’t take into account social aspects, understanding why people do behaviour is important - crime
Conclusion - internationalist approach
We need to take into account both biological and environmental causes for behaviour in order to maximise understanding and develop treatments
Stress diathesis model
