Reductionism in the explanation of behaviour Flashcards
Social
Agency theory is reductionist as our obedience is divided into two behavioural categories - Agentic and Autonomous. It states that we are obedient because we’re in agentic state. Does not consider individual differences.
Social learning theory is less reductionist as it considers the cognitive processes as well as learned responses.
Personality explanations of prejudice and obedience can also be reductionist as they focus only on the character of the individual and disregard the social conditions in which prejudice and obedience are more likely to occur. Sherif argued that a multifacted approach to understanding social influence was necessary.
Social impact theory can be criticised for developing an equation to calculate how people will behave under certain social conditions. However, the theory does not consider of how the social conditions and individual interact with one another. Ignoring the interrelation between the individual and social factors can be considered reductionist.
Cognitive
The multi-store model can be considered as reductionist because it artificially fragments short-term and long-term memory stores without discussing the interconnections between each store.
Baddeley and Hitch divide short term memory into the slave systems to study how different observations or auditory memories are stored.
Bartlett recognised that perception if affected by previously stored knowledge in his theory of reconstructive memory, which can be considered less reductionist than other model of memory as other factors apart from different memory stores are affecting the recall.
Research using brain-imaging has helped us to appreciate the interrelations of different parts of the brain when we perform cognitive functions, and amnesia patients have helped us understand that loss of functionality may not be a direct consequence of damage to a particular region of the brain, but an interaction between different regions.
Biological
Reductionism applies to biological theories in that they study aspects such as biochemistry, genetics and neuroanatomy.
Freud’s psychodynamic explanation argues that behaviour such as aggression can be divided into evolutionary pressures that affected us.
Brain functioning as an explanation for aggression can be reductionist as the production of aggressive behaviour has been reduced to all neural units and ignores other factors such as SLT. However, looking at neural units and genetic inheritance, may only be a part of the picture. If these, upbringing and cultural factors were considered, would provide a more valid explanation.
A scientific study of biological psychology is to take one element, such as how the brain works chemically and to study it in detail. The biological explanation is reductionist in the sense that all human behaviour is fragmented and explained in the simplest sense by our biology. The biological approach, for example, sees behaviour as arising from neurological factors. As this is about science, then it is not surprising that a scientific approach to study is used.
Learning 1
Reductionism can give useful data by isolating areas for study but can miss a wider view of human behaviour.
Both classical and operant conditioning are reductionist as behaviour is reduced to learned responses whereas SLT is less reductionist due to both cognitive factors and learned responses being considered. Bandura’s SLT considers behavioural and cognitive factors associated with learning through observation and imitation.
Becker et al. (2002) in Fiji used questionnaires and self-report data before and after TV was introduced, then drew conclusions about the girls’ focus on weight issues and dieting. This is reductionist as other factors might also be there as it was years between their two sets of data and there would be changes other than the introduction of TV in that time.
Clinical
Isolating mental health to biological process in the brains of those who experience disorders is a contentious issue. It simplifies complex behaviour by focusing on purely biological factors such as neurotransmitters and pathways in the brain at the expense of understanding the interrelationships between biology and environment. This is leads to biological treatments designed to alter brain structure or chemistry
Therapies, such as family therapy, recognise the importance of communication and relationships within the family as a mediating factor for triggering relapse of mental illness. This approach is less reductionist because it does not focus on one component of mental illness, but instead looks at the wider social, emotional, communication and family support involved.
Child
Most developmental research cannot be accused of being reductionist in the methodology or explanations of behaviour. For example, day care often considers the complex mediational effects of the biological disposition of a child, rearing strategies, quality of day care and family background
Research into attachment types can argued only to consider the nature of the parent-child relationship, ignoring childhood temperament as interactional influence on how children are raised and subsequently attached to a parent.
Learning 2
Behaviourism ignores the role of cognition in human behaviour acquisition, which means that what makes up a whole person is not touched by reducing learning to parts. However, if it is learning that is studied, that is just part of human behaviour, and so it might be acceptable to use a reductionist approach. Separating material for study, as learning theories do, is reductionist.
Reductionism also applies to learning theories because they look only at behaviour and not the ‘black box’ in between, which is where information processing takes place.
Reductionism also applies to learning theories in that they take aspects of behaviour and study them separately, such as in classical conditioning where just stimulus and response (including reflexes) are studied. This makes the behaviour less complicated, because each stimulus-response link can be isolated, and causation can be ascertained; however this is only a partial explanation because it ignores the role of other factors that affect how and what we learn.
Biological 2
Also, as humans are complex, perhaps studying in a reductionist way is a strength as it enables the study of aspects of humans that would otherwise not be reachable. The study of how lower serotonin levels, which is linked to greater aggression is carried out using animals and human studies. These studies support each other. Biological psychology links very closely to biology, chemistry and science and, like them, involves studying aspects of a person not the whole.
Reductionism applies to biological psychology when neurotransmitter functioning is studied because the brain is a lot more complex than that, so this is about looking at one specific part of the working of the brain.
Nativist genetic view suggests a lack of free will as heredity and chemical imbalances are thought to dictate our behaviour…
