Issues and debates- Holism and reductionist Flashcards
What does reductionism suggest?
The belif that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpiler components
What is the highest level?
Cultural + social explanations of how social groups influence behaviour
-parenting styles
-van izendoorn and krronenbergs study
What is the middle level?
Psychological explanations of behaviour
-critical/sensitive period
-monotropy
-interactional synchrony
-reciprocity
What is the lowest level?
-Biological explanations of how hormones and genes effect behaviour
-evolutionary explanations
What does biological reductionism argue?
-Animals are made up of atoms
-Behaviour is caused by the effects of neurotransmitters, neurons, genes ect
What is environmental reductionism/stimulus reductionism?
-The belief that behaviour is reduced to S-R associations
What is meant by holism?
-Any approach that empahsizes the whole thing rather than separate parts
Give examples of holism
-The humanistic approach- psychology investivgates all aspects of the individual as well as the interactions between people
-Social psychology- looks at the behaviour of indiciduals in a social context
-Psychoanalysis- freud adopted an interactionalist approach
Give examples of reductionism
-Behaviourists- skinner
-Biological- abnormalities reduced down to things such as chemical imbalances in the brain
-Wundt process of introspection
What are the levels of explanation?
-The idea that there are different ways of viewing the same behaviour in psychology
What is parsimony
The idea that complex phenomena should be explained in the simplest terms possible
Give an evaluation point for holism (practical application)
-Hollistic explanation allows us to identify why behaviours occur which allows for real life application
-Useful for flight our flight- running away from a large dog as stress response (flight) activated releasing adreniline allowing us to run fast
-Reductionist approach wouldnt be able to explain why we are afraid of the dog in the first place so cannot actually explain why behave the way we do
-Although hollistic explanations do not examine behaviour in terms of operationalised variables that can be operationalised + measures so is not scientifc
Give an evaluation point (interactionalsit approach)
-Considers how different levels of explanation combine + interact
-Diathesis stress model explains mental health disorders such as scizophrenia
-Symptoms are often triggered by an eviromental stressor such as family dysfucntion but individuals can be predisposed to it by genetics
-Model has lead to a more multidisiplinary+ hollistic approach to treatment such as combining CBTp and antipsychotics
-Effective as lower rates of relapse reported
Give an evaluation point (biological reductionism)
-An advantage of reductionism is that it has practical applicvation to the devolpment of drug treatments
-Understanding biological functions can lead to this
-Breaking down what causes mental illnesses such as anxiety + depression leads to drugs being devolped to target the chemical imbalances
-Resulted ina reduction in isntitutionalism since the 1950s
-More humane approaches being taken as the paietent is no longer blames
-Reduced stigma
-Drug treatments succesful at treating symptoms but not always reducing it at the biological level as individual differences
Give an evaluation for holism (high validity
)
-High validity
-Some behaviours can only be seen in group/complex contexts which cannot be understood by breaking them down
-Conformity cannot be explained by an individual looking at brain scans as behaviour changes depending on the situation + the interactions they have with others
-Ignore cognitive and emotional factors
Which resaerch metrhods are usually used investigate the hollistic approach?
involves the researcher using a range of methods (usually qualitative) in order to achieve a fuller understanding of a topic
