Reductionism vs Holism Flashcards
What is holism?
Considers a system as a whole and sees any attempt to subdivide behaviour or experience into smaller units as inappropriate.
How is the humanistic approach holistic?
It considers the whole person and their free will to make whatever choices they wish.
Is qualitative or quantitative data used to investigate the humanistic approach?
Qualitative, it uses opinions to investigate the self.
What is Gestalt psychology and how is it holistic?
Gestalt psychology considers how we always view things as whole in the real world rather than breaking things down into smaller pieces.
What is reductionism?
Seeks to analyse behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts.
What is parsimony?
States that complex phenomena should always be studied using its simplest counter parts
What is environmental reductionism?
All behaviour is a result of stimulus response interactions with the environment.
What approach is environmental reductionism based off?
Behaviourist
What is biological reductionism?
All behaviour is a result of genes, evolution and neurochemistry.
What are levels of explanation?
What would the lowest, middle and highest levels be?
The idea that there are several ways that could be used to explain a behaviour. The lowest level considers biological explanations, the middle level considers psychological explanations and the highest level considers socio-cultural explanations.
Explain the strength of reductionism being scientific.
How are lab experiments kept scientific and what is this type of reductionism called?
Lab experiments lead to _________ and _____.
Is holism scientific or not?
Scientists are typically drawn to reductionist explanations. For example, most experimental psychology assumes that human behaviour can be studied effectively in relatively simple experiment, where complex behaviour is reduced to isolated variables (known as experimental reductionism). This allows researchers to study different factors that influence human behaviour in a controlled manner while establishing causal relationships. Consequently, both biological and environmental reductionism are viewed as scientific whereas holism is not.
Explain the strength of reductionism having implications for treatment of OCD.
How have scientists reduced OCD?
What is the biological cause of OCD?
How does this demonstrate the importance of OCD?
By reducing OCD down into it’s biological factors, it has enabled scientists to develop treatments for it and other mental illnesses. For example, we have found that low levels of serotonin in the brain can lead to low mood and symptoms of depression. This has allowed scientists to create drugs such as SSRIs that raise levels of serotonin. Therefore, this demonstrates the importance of reductionism because it has practical values in the real world.
Explain the limitation of reductionism that some behaviours need to be understood at a high level.
Use the example of Zimbardo’s study needing to focus on interactions of PPTs and not the PPTs themselves.
What is conformity NOT caused by?
Therefore, what approach to explaining behaviour might be more important in some situations?
Often, there are aspects of social behaviour that only emerge within a group context For instance, the effects of conformity to social roles in Zimbardo’s study could not be understood by observing PPT behaviour but by observing their interactions with each other. There is no conformity gene that we know of so social processes like conformity can only be explained at the level they occur at. This suggests that for some behaviours, higher level explanations (or holistic ones) would provide a more valid account.
Explain the limitation of non human animals being used in reductionism research.
How do we explain animal behaviour - why is this not appropriate to do when explaining human behaviour?
What factors do reductionist behaviours ignore in behaviour?
More specifically, what does environmental reductionism ignore?
While it may be appropriate to explain on animal behaviour in terms of stimulus-response, it might not be appropriate to do the same for humans because we are more complex. But even in animals, reductionist explanations ignore other possible influences such as cognitive and emotional factors. This means that environmental reductionism ignores other possible influences on human behaviour, such as social context, intentions and emotions.
