Reductionism Vs Holism Flashcards
what is reductionism?
-belief that human behaviour best explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts.
-best way to understand behaviour is to look closely at parts that make up our different systems, whether biological or psychological and then choose simplest explanation to understand how our behaviour works
what is reductionism based on?
-the scientific principle of parsimony
-which means all phenomena should be explained using most basic principles
-most basic principles are often the simplest, easiest and most economical level of explanation.
what are the levels of explanation?
-reductionist approach argues diff levels of explanation
-lowest level biological or psychological factors (neurochemicals, genetics, brain structure)
-middle level psychological explanations (cog or behaviourist explanations)
-highest level social and cultural explanations (explain behaviour in terms of influence of social groups on individual)
levels of explanation - cognitive processes
-cog processes like memory
-basic physiological level (role of hippocampus)
-social-psychological level (effects of social factors in post even contamination)
behaviourism and reductionism
-behaviourism uses very reductionist vocabulary (stimulus, response, reinforcement)
-these concept saline are used to explain all behaviour
whats environmental reductionism?
-behaviour explained in terms of simple building blocks of stimulus-response and that complex behaviour is series of S-R chains.
-behaviourists reduce concept of mind to behavioural components (stimulus-response links)
schizophrenia - levels of explanation
-basic physiological level (dopamine action at synapse
-versus a social-psychological level (family dysfunction, expressed emotion)
obedience - levels of explanation
-basic physiological level (role of nervous system in transmitting + analysing verbal prompts of Milgrams experimenter)
-social-psychological level (situational pressure due to being at Yale )
what is biological reductionism?
-way that biological psychologists try to reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in terms of neutrons, neurotransmitters, hormones etc.
-biological approach claims OCD is explained by lower levels of serotonin.
whats environmental reductionism?
-known as stimulus-response reductionism
-behaviourists assume all behaviour can be reduced to simple building blocks of S-R associations and that complex behaviours are a series of S-R chains.
-behaviourist approach claims phobias are explained through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.
what is holism?
-comes from Greek word ‘holos’ which means ‘all’,’whole’,’entire’
-idea that all human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integrated experience and not as separate parts
-saying we shouldn’t consider diff levels of explanation but consider the whole behaviour as a whole experience.
what do humanistic psychologists argue?
-argue humans react to stimuli as an organise whole and not s a set of stimulus and response links, very against environmental reductionism
-take a quantitative approach to investigate individual and look at interactions of ppl within society
whats the starting point of humanistics psychologists approach?
-starting point is the self (sene=se of personal identity) which they consider a functioning whole.
-In Carl Rogers words “organised, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself
-includes awareness of the person I am and could be.
-directs behaviour in all consciously chosen aspects of our lives and is fundamentally motivated towards achieving self-actualisation
