Social And Cognitive: Reductionism Flashcards
What does reductionism mean?
The belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into smaller component parts- based on parsimony.
What is holism?
The idea that behaviours should be treated as a whole rather than being broken down into smaller component parts.
What does parsimony mean?
That complex phenomena should be explained by the simplest underlying principles possible.
Is agency theory reductionist, why or why not?
-Yes as it breaks down obedience into only 4 stages, two of which a person is actually can be in.
Is social identity theory reductionist, why or why not?
-Yes as it breaks prejudice into three stages.
-But the causes of prejudice it states are less reductionist.
Is realistic conflict theory reductionist, why or why not?
-Yes as it over-simplifies the causes of prejudice to only conflict.
Is social impact theory reductionist, why or why not?
-Yes at it says only three factors can cause someone to eb obedient and looks at them as an equation.
Are personality types like authoritarian personality reductionist, why or why not?
Yes as the largely ignore any situational factors.
Are modern social psychology theories reductionist, why or why not?
-No as more modern social theories try to include cognitive elements so are more holistic.
Is the multi store model reductionist, why or why not?
-Yes as it breaks down memory into the sensory register, STM and LTM.
Is Tulving’s theory of long term memory reductionist, why or why not?
-Yes as it breaks down LTM into two parts.
Is the working model of memory reductionist, why or why not?
-Yes as the STM is split into the slave systems.
Is reconstructive memory/schema theory reductionist, why or why not?
-No it is more holistic because it is based on schemas which are specific to a person and considers things such as perception and experiences.
