Issues & Debates: Holism & Reductionism 24/25 UPDATED Flashcards
What is meant by the term holism?
Examining an individuals complex behaviour by taking into account all aspects of their experience, including culture
What is meant by reductionism?
Examining complex behaviour by reducing it down into small basic components
Is the biological approach reductionist or holistic?
Reductionist
Is the behaviourist approach reductionist or holistic?
Reductionist
Is the humanistic approach reductionist or holistic?
Holistic
Is family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia reductionist or holistic explanation?
Holistic
Why is the biological approach reductionist?
It reduces complex human behaviour into simple basic units of genetics / neurochemistry / neuroanatomy
Why is the behaviourist approach reductionist?
It reduces complex human behaviour into simple basic units of stimulus, response and associations
Why is the humanistic approach holistic?
As it takes into account personal experience when trying to explain behaviours such as incongruence / self-actualisation
Are the explanations of OCD you have studied in Paper 1 reductionist or holistic? Why?
Reductionist - it reduces the complex human behaviour of OCD into simple basic units of mutated genetics (SERT) / imbalance of neurochemistry / and hypersensitivity of the basal ganglia
Is the explanation of acquiring phobias you have studied in Paper 1 reductionist or holistic? Why?
Reductionist - it reduces the complex human behaviour of phobias into simple basic units of associations to the phobic stimulus
Is the explanation of maintaining phobias you have studied in Paper 1 reductionist or holistic? Why?
Reductionist - it reduces the complex human behaviour of phobias into simple basic units of response to avoiding the phobic stimulus
Is the genetic explanation of schizophrenia you have studied in Paper 3 reductionist or holistic? Why?
Reductionist - it reduces the complex human behaviour of schizophrenia into simple basic units of the inheritance of a schizogene (e.g. PCM-1)
What is meant by reductionism?
Examining complex behaviour by reducing it down into small basic components
What is meant by the term holism?
Examining an individuals complex behaviour by taking into account all aspects of their experience, including culture
AO3: How can we criticise the use of holistic approaches?
Do not use scientific methods
AO3: Why do holistic approaches lack scientific methods?
By being holistic, it makes concepts vague and untestable
AO3: What is a strength of reductionist approaches?
They are more likely to lead to practical applications
AO3: Why are reductionist approaches more likely to lead to practical applications?
By studying a single basic unit of behaviour, allows an application to be developed more easily
AO3: Give one example of a practical application which has come from a reductionist approach
- SSRI’s treat OCD (neurochemical explanation)
- typical and atypical antipsychotics treat schizophrenia (neurochemical explanation)
- Nicotine Replacement Therapy for nicotine addiction
AO3: What is a problem of using reductionist approaches?
They could oversimplify a behaviour
AO3: What is the effect of oversimplifying behaviour?
Lowering the internal validity of the explanation
What is meant by levels of explanation (2 marks)
How explanations of human behaviour can vary from those at a lower more fundamental level which focus on basic units to those at a higher more holistic levels which look at multiple influences on human behaviour.
What is the lowest level of explanation? Give an example.
The lowest level is extreme reductionism which explains complex behaviour and experience by breaking it down into smaller component parts. For example, biological reductionism.
What is a mid level of explanation? Give an example.
It focuses on how psychological and environmental factors influence behaviour. For example, the behavioural approach which focuses on learning from the environment and the cognitive approach due to its focus on psychological factors such as internal mental processes.
What does the highest level of explanation consider?
This considers social and cultural explanations where behaviour is explained in terms of influence of social groups.
AO3 - One criticism of holistic approaches is that researchers often do not use scientific methods. Why?
This is because as explanations become more complex and more holistic they become more vague, so psychologists are unable to test them scientifically.
AO3 - One strength of holistic explanations is that it is praised for explaining aspects of human behaviour which only occurs in social contexts. Give an example.
For example, conformity to social roles and deindividuation cannot be understood at the level of the individual group member, because it is created from an interaction between people and it was the behaviour of the group that was important.
AO3 - One strength of reductionist approaches is that they can more easily lead to practical applications. Why?
This is because studying units of behaviour e.g. which chemicals are involved in certain behavioural disorders can lead to effective treatment for that disorder.
