ISSUES & DEBATES ( HOLISM & REDUCTIONISM) Flashcards
Define Holism and give an example of an approach showing it
Holism suggests that human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integrated experience , and not as separate parts.
Eg. Humanistic approach argues that humans react to stimuli as an organised whole rather than a set of stimuli - response links , it uses qualitative methods.
Define reduction and outline what the three levels consist of
Reductionism is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts. There are 3 levels of explanation :
Social and cultural explanations ( influence of social groups on behaviour) - Eg Schz explained by migration and social dislocation
Psychological explanations ( cognitive,
behavioural/environmental) - Eg. Sz explained by cog abnormalities - bias interpretations of people, cog processing deficits
Biological explanations ( neurochemical, genetic) - schz explained by dopaminergic abnormalities
Define biological reductionism and give an example
Biological reductionism - refers to the way that biological psychologists explain beh in terms of neurons , hormones , brain structure
EG: Psychopathology - the bio apprch claims OCD is caused by high dopamine and low serotonin
Define environmental reductionism and give an example
Assumes all behaviour can be reduced to stimulus-response associations and that’s where all complex behaviours stem from.
EG: Psychopathology - claims all phobias are initiated through classical and maintained through operant conditioning.
Evaluate Holism
CASE FOR : Some social behaviours occur within a group context and cannot be explained at the level of the individual.
Eg. conformity - cannot be explained by studying individuals , it may be explained through the interaction of people in a group.
CASE AGAINST: More speculative and vague rather than scientific eg. Holistic approach to understanding human behaviour but lacks empirical validity.
EVALUATE REDUCTIONISM
CASE FOR : Forms a basis for scientific research to create operationalised variables. It demonstrates how complex learning could be broken down to simple response links which can be measured or predicted.
CASE AGAINST : Oversimplifies complex behaviour results in validity issues. Bio explanations that focus on genes , neurotransmitters and neurons do not include an analysis of social contexts.
