Issues and Debates: Reductionism Flashcards
Paper 3 knowledge
What is reductionism?
The best way to understand complex systems (human thoughts, emotions & behaviour) is when we break them down and analyse individual components.
Would argue looking at the individual ingredients is the best way to understand what a chocolate cake is – the smallest individual parts
Eg: lab experiments (controlling and manipulating variables)
what is Holism?
The best way to understand a complex system (human thought, emotions & behaviour) is to take a wider perspective, considering how the different aspects of the system interact with each other
Would argue the only way to really understand chocolate cake is when all the ingredients are combined and considered together
Eg: case studies, and unstructured interviews
Most reductionist to most holistic
neurotransmitters/imbalances
Brain/ normal biological functioning
symptoms
thinking
environment.culture and society
what is the structure of the paragraph
Define any key term
Procedural details
Why is it good for psych
Why is it bad for psych
Judgement- link back to debate- is Psychology reductionist
levels of reductionist hierarchy
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.
Raine et al procedural details
aim: The study aimed to investigate whether murderers who pleaded Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) had brain abnormalities compared to non-criminal controls using positron emission tomography (PET scans).
They were injected with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), a radioactive tracer that highlights brain activity by measuring glucose metabolism.
After the CPT, a PET scan was conducted to measure brain metabolism levels.
The scan focused on key regions, including the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, thalamus, and corpus callosum, which are linked to aggression and decision-making.
How is Raine et al reductionist? (brain structure)
- Raine’s study was rich and detailed, focussing on brain abnormalities. He focussed on key regions such as: amygdala, prefrontal cortex and the thalamus. This is reductionist as it reduces human behaviour into purely biological factors, overlooking social and environmental factors. Breaking violence into glucose metabolism and operationalising by using glucose metabolism scores.
Reductionism is helpful to use as by isolating specific brain areas, researchers can test for their role in aggression. This in turn helps develop biological interventions such as as medication and neurotherapy, and also encourage early intervention. This would increase the quality of life of civilians.
However, this limits the scientific credibility, as it ignores the effects of culture, personality, age and upbringing. For example only looking at Brain structure for aggression does not consider how an abusive childhood could influence the development of the brain, or how social relationships with gang members could influence behaviour.
Therefore, Raine et al study shows how reductionism can led to development is treatments, but lacks credibility meaning that the findings cannot be applied to society.
How is Raine et al reductionist (PET scans)
After the task, a PET scan was conducted to measure brain metabolism levels. This is reductionist as they show which brain areas are active, but they don’t explain why a person behaves a certain way. External influences (e.g., childhood experiences, trauma, education) are not accounted for in the scan data.
Reductionism is helpful to use, as PET scans one be helpful in detecting brain damage For example: neurological research In identifying strokes, tutors and head injuries. PET scans offer a quantifiable, biological way to study brain activity, making psychology more scientific and credible. Unlike subjective methods (e.g., self-reports), PET scans provide direct evidence of how different brain regions function.
However: One key limitation of using PET scans is that they have low temporal resolution, meaning they cannot track rapid changes in brain activity in real time. This makes PET scans less effective for studying changes over time.
Sherif et al holistic
Holistic means undertaking complex systems (emotions, thoughts and behaviours) by breaking them down and analysing the components. Having a holistic approach entails looking at the how each other components in the system interact with eachother.
Sherif et al study wanted to investigate: How intergroup conflict develops.
Whether competition over resources leads to hostility, and How cooperation can reduce conflict. This was Conducted in Robbers Cave State Park, Oklahoma, in a realistic summer camp setting. This is a holistic approach as The experiment was conducted in a naturalistic setting (a summer camp), rather than a lab, ensuring that real-world social interactions played a role in shaping behavior.
Having a holistic approach is beneficial as It demonstrated how competition over limited resources fosters intergroup hostility, emphasizing the role of environmental influences on aggression and prejudice.
However, The naturalistic setting and dynamic group interactions make the study hard to replicate exactly, affecting reliability.
Later studies (e.g., Tyerman & Spencer, 1983) failed to reproduce the same level of conflict, suggesting contextual factors may vary.
