Holism and Reductionism Flashcards
Reductionism
Reductionism is an approach that breaks complex phenomena (i.e. human behaviour) down into more simple components.
Those who take a reductionist position believe that the best way to understand behaviour is to look closely at the constituent parts that make up our systems, and then use the simplest explanations to understand how they work.
Holism
Holism is when a behaviour is perceived as a whole integrated experience, rather than the individual features and/or relations between them.
A group of German researchers working in the 1920s and 30s – known collectively as Gestalt psychologists – famously declared that the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’.
Levels of Explanation
The HIGHEST LEVEL considers social and cultural explanations, where behaviour is explained in terms of the influence of social groups.
The MIDDLE LEVEL considers psychological explanations (e.g. cognitive and behavioural).
The LOWEST LEVEL considers physiological (biological) explanations, where behaviour is explained in terms of neurochemicals, genes and brain structure.
Example: Levels of Explanation
An individual has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD):
Socio-cultural level: Producing behaviour, such as repetitive hand-washing, would be regarded as odd or irrational by most people.
Psychological level (cognition and emotion): The experience of having obsessive thoughts and high levels of anxiety.
Physical level: A sequence of movements involved in washing one’s hands.
Physiological level: Overactive OFC; damaged caudate nucleus.
Neurochemical level: Underproduction of serotonin; overproduction of dopamine.
Which of these provides the ‘best’ explanation for OCD is a matter for debate, but each level is more reductionist than the one before.
Biological Reductionism
Biological Reductionism is explaining behaviour using biological systems (physical level), such as genetics, physiology of the body and brain, or biochemistry (hormones, neurotransmitters). It is as reductionist as psychology goes.
Examples of biological reductionism in psychology:
Approaches: The biological approach
Biopsychology: The nervous and endocrine system, localisation of function
Psychopathology: the biological approach to explaining (COMT and SERT gene) and treating (drug therapy) OCD
Addiction: the A1 variant of the DRD2 gene, the role of dopamine in nicotine addiction, drug therapy
Gender: the role of chromosomes and hormones in sex and gender; gene variants of the androgen receptor, which influences the action of testosterone, involved in the masculinisation of the brain.
Evaluation of Biological Reductionism
An advantage of biological reductionism is that it is a more precise and simple explanation, which is a great deal more scientific than the ones at the higher and more general levels of explanation. An explanation that is biologically reductionist can also be tested more easily and more effectively.
Biological reductionism has led to the development of biological therapies, such as drugs.
For example, SSRIs are more effective than placebos at treating the symptoms of OCD and reduce the symptoms for up to three months after the treatment (Soomro et al., 2008). The use of SSRIs in patients with OCD has helped to reduce the anxiety associated with OCD, thus providing relief for some patients.
Drug therapy is a more humane approach to the treatment of mental illness insofar as it does not blame the patient, which may, in turn, lead to greater tolerance of the mentally ill.
However, drug therapies are fraught with difficulties because the success rates are variable and they treat the symptoms and not the causes, and thus may not have lasting effects.
Reducing mental illness to the biological level ignores the context and function of such behaviour. Psychological explanations take more account of these and have produced many successful therapies, such as CBT.
Therefore, a disadvantage of biological reductionism is that explanations are often too simplistic and therefore viewed as incomplete, because higher levels of explanation are not taken into consideration.
Environmental (stimulus-response) Reductionism
simplifies a behaviour to a stimulus-response action. Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be reduced to the simple building blocks of stimulus-response (S-R) associations and that complex behaviours are a series of S-R chains.
Classical and operant conditioning explains behaviour in terms of S-R associations….
Examples of environmental reductionism in psychology:
Approaches: The learning approach
Attachment: The learning theory of attachment
Psychopathology: The behavioural approach to explaining (two-process model) and treating (systematic desensitisation, flooding) phobias
Addiction: The learning theory of smoking (cue reactivity) and gambling (partial and variable reinforcement); behavioural interventions (aversion therapy and covert sensitisation).
Evaluation of Environmental Reductionism
An advantage of environmental reductionism is that it can explain many behaviours really well and it also has the advantage of parsimony….
This means that by being simple it is argued to be more effective than a complex explanation for the same behaviour.
A disadvantage of environmental reductionism is its simplicity.
Arguably, the explanations are inadequate for describing the complexities of human behaviour. For example, can learning theory alone explain why someone might kill?
The behavioural approach was developed as a result of experiments with non-human animals, which is problematic because….
It may be appropriate to explain their behaviour in terms of simple components, but such explanations may not be appropriate for more complex human behaviour.
Humans are not scaled up versions of other animals - human behaviour is influenced by social context, intentions and so on.
Lower levels of explanation can create problems in terms of misunderstanding the causes of behaviour.
For example, when children with ADHD are prescribed Ritalin, they may miss the real cause of the hyperactivity (e.g. family or emotional problems).- This can have implications in terms of whether the right treatment is identified.
The use of a reductionist approach to behaviour can be useful in allowing scientific study to be carried out.
Scientific study requires the isolation of variables to make it possible to identify the causes of behaviour (e.g. Little Albert; research into the effect of testosterone, etc.)
This way a reductionist approach enables the scientific causes of behaviour to be identified and advances the possibility of scientific study (therefore, taking a more holistic approach can make it difficult to study behaviour scientifically).
Holism advocates looking at the whole person rather than at one specific part to explain behaviour.
Holists believe that looking at a person at a reductionist level is inadequate - they don’t deny the potential influence of genetics or biochemistry, but argue that behaviour is complex, and it is important to take a step back from the detail and consider the person from a less reductionist level.
Holism suggests that we can’t predict how an individual will behave based only on an understanding of individual parts/components.
Social context is very important, as are family/friends in terms of influence.
Therefore, holists are drawn to the higher levels of explanation (i.e. social groups, social cognition).
Humanistic psychology advocates a holistic approach as it argues…..
…..that the individual reacts as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus-response links. By seeing someone as elements and only considering parts of them, much of what makes the person who they are might be missed.
For example, humanists (e.g. Rogers) do not agree with focusing on childhood in therapy – the whole life course should be considered.
Humanists argue that the ‘self’ is a functioning whole and a person’s sense of a unified identity is important – the self is essential and unique to humans and sets psychology apart from the natural sciences.
Reductionist explanations therefore run counter to and destroy the very object of psychological enquiry – a holistic view is the basis of all knowledge of the human psyche.
Evaluation of Holism
Holism is seen as less scientific and it makes behaviour hard to predict, unlike the reductionist explanations.
However, it does have its advantages in that it does not overlook the complexity of human behaviour.
The Interactionist Perspective
The interactionist stance on the debate believes that several levels of explanation are necessary to explain behaviour (they combine and interact) ranging from the more reductionist to the more holistic.
Interactionists argue that the explanations all have relevance and that, ultimately, it is difficult to establish the explanation with the best explanatory power and that this varies from situation to situation anyway.
For example, the diathesis-stress model has
been used to explain the onset of mental disorders. It assumes that they come about as a result of a predisposition (often genetic), which is triggered by some stressor (often an experience). This model has led to a more multi-disciplinary and ‘holistic’ approach to treatment e.g. combining drugs and family therapy
