Issues And Debates: Holism + Reductionsism Flashcards
Holism
‘All’, ‘whole’, ‘entire’
Human behaviour should be viewed as a while integrated experience and not as separate parts
Though analysing the person or behaviour as a whole rather than its constituent parts
- Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology
German psychologists who specialised in the study of perception - explanations for what we see only makes sense through a consideration of the whole rather than individual elements
Applied to the study of perceptions - explains why we are tricked by many visual illusions - perceive them as whole
Holism - Humanism
Investigates all aspects of the individual as well as interactions between people
Individual acts as a whole person and not in components
Unified sense of identity is important
Lack of “wholeness” leads to mental disorders
Emphasis on ‘free will’ and self-actualisation
Human motivation using hierarchy of needs
CCT focuses on all aspects of the whole person
Holism evaluation
Benefits:
Provides a more complete picture
Accepts + deals with complex nature of hpbehaviour
Behaviour influenced by many factors, holistic explanation may be more useful
Uses rich, detailed info
Limitations:
Difficult to investigate the many differing types and levels of explanation
More hypothetical - not based on empirical evidence
Lacks predictive power of more scientific explanations
Lack objectivity, cannot establish cause + effect
Prevents predicting behaviour
Neglects importance of biological influences
Types of reductionism
Biological reductionism
Environmental reductionism
Biological reductionism
Biological psychologists try to reduce behaviour to a physical level + explain it in terms of neurones, neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure
Environmental reductionism
Stimulus-response reductionism
Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be reduced to the simple building blocks of S-R
Complex behaviours are a series of S-R chains
Biological reductionism - OCD
OCD is caused by higher levels of dopamine and lower levels or serotonin
Environmental reductionism - phobias
Behaviourist approach claims that phobias are initiated through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
Biological reductionism evaluation
Strengths:
Development of drug therapies became possible with reductionist approach.
Looking at behaviours as a result of small components (hormones, etc)
More humane/ethical approach for treating mental disorders, doesn’t blame the patient
Greater tolerance/acceptance of mental disorders in society
Limitations:
Drug therapies based on lowest level of explaining behaviour.
Treat the symptoms and not the cause
Dependency on drugs
External locus of control
No appreciation of the social or psychological context
Environmental reductionism evaluation
Strengths:
Consistent with scientific approach as clearly defined behaviours reduced to single components
Empirical method of research can be used (lab experiments)
High level of predictive power, can make predictions about the cause + effect of certain behaviours
Limitations:
Behaviourist S-R approaches based on animal studies
Humans are more complex than animals and environmental reductionism, reduces human behaviour to S-R while ignoring potential influencing factors, such as the socio-cultural context
Levels of explanation
There are different ways (levels) of viewing the same phenomena in psychology
Explanations vary from those at lower or fundamental level focusing on basic components or units to those at a higher more holistic level
Levels of explanation using a hierarchy
Highest level: cultural and social explanations of how social group effects our behaviour, Holism as highest level - taking account of all aspects of a persons behaviour/experiemce
Middle level: psychological explanations of behaviour (cognitive, SLT) - refer to the abilities and psychological characteristics of individual people
Lowest level: biological explanations (how biological aspects like genes, hormones affect our behaviour)- extreme reductionism, biological reductionism as the most basic level in psychology
Example of depression + levels of explanation
Highest level: differences in prevalence of depression between men and women+ women afpcross cultures.
Substantially higher for woman than men, higher in Western cultures than Eastern cultures.
Sex cultural differences provide insight inti factors that cause depression
Middle level: psychological therapy directed at helping indicpviduals cope with negative life experiences that may cause depression
Lowest level: how chemicals in the brain influence the experience of depression
Allowed psychologists to develop + prescribe drugs
Stress example - levels of explanation
Highest level: differences in prevalence of stress differences such as gender + social support
Middle level: psychological types A and B personality
lowest level: how chemicals adrenaline and cortisol influence the experience of stress
