holism and reductionism✅

Question 1

HOLISM: (whole - ism )

definition?

Answer 1

• behaviour cannot be understood in terms of the components that make them up, it should described as a whole

Question 2

REDUCTIONISM:

definition?

Answer 2

• human behav. is explained by breaking behaviour down into smaller constituent parts

Reductionists say that the best way to understand why we behave as we do is to look closely at the very simplest parts that make up our systems, and use the simplest explanations to understand how they work.

Question 3

REDUCTIONISM:

this is based on the scientific Principle of parsimony, what is that?

what are the 5 levels in psychology?

Answer 3

• that complex phenomena should be explained by the simplest underlying principles possible. Strong supporters of reductionism believe that behaviour and mental processes should be explained within the framework of basic sciences

1- sociology
2- psychology 
3- biology
4- chemistry 
5- physics

Question 4

HOLISM:

3 examples of holism in psych.?

Answer 4

1️⃣ Humanism- investigates all aspects of the individual as well as the interactions between people… free will v determinism

2️⃣ Social - looks at the behav. of individuals in a social context. Group behavior (e.g. conformity, de-individualization) may show characteristics that are greater than the sum of the individuals which comprise it.

3️⃣ Psychoanalysis – Freud adopted an interactionist approach, in that he considered that behav. was the results of dynamic interaction between id, ego and superego.

Question 5

REDUCTIONISM:

3 examples of reductionism in psych.

Answer 5

1️⃣ Behaviorism - uses a very reductionist vocabulary: stimulus, response, reinforcement, and punishment. These concepts alone are used to explain all behav. This is environmental reductionism because it explains behav. in terms of simple building blocks of S-R (stimulus-response) and that complex behav. is a series of S-R chains. Behaviorists reduce the concept of the mind to behavioral components, i.e., stimulus-response links.

2️⃣ The psychodynamic approach - is reductionist in so far as it relies on a basic set of structures that attempt to simplify a very complex picture (e.g. id, ego, superego, unconscious mind).

3️⃣ Structuralism – One of the first approaches in psychology. Wundt tried to break conscious experiences down into its constituent (i.e. basic) parts: images, sensations and feelings.

Question 6

holism - AO3:

✅ strength

❌ weakness

Answer 6

✅ aspects of social behav. only that emerge in a group context and cant be understood at the level of the ind. group members. eg. zimbardos prison exp. shows the effect of conformity through the interaction between ppl + the behav. of the group that was important - increases internal validity

❌ this approach lends itself to vigorous sceinfitic testing and can become vague and speculative as they become more complex. when it comes to finding solutions for real world problems, lower levels explanations may be more suitable … decreasing the internal validity

Question 7

reductionism - AO3:

✅ strength

❌ weakness

Answer 7

✅ forms the basics of scientific research and in order to create operationalised variables its necessary to break target behav. into parts. makes it more possible to conduct meaningful and reliable exp. - gives it greater credibility and equals it to other sciences - increases internal validity

❌ accused of oversimplifying complex phemonena leading to a loss of validity. explanations that operate at the level of gene and neurotransmitter don’t include an analysis of the social context which behav. occurs. so reductionist explanations can only ever be from part of a explanation and so the internal validity is decreased