HOLISM AND REDUCTIONISM Flashcards
(16 cards)
name the group of german psychologists
gestalt
when did gestalt researchers work
20s - 30s
what did gestalt psychologists declare
‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’
what is holism
an argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisible system rather than its constituent parts
what is reductionism
the belief that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts
what approach uses holism
humanists
what scientific principle is reductionism based on
parsimony
what is parsimony
all phenomena should be explained using the most basic principles
characteristics of parsminoy
simple, easy and economical
what does ‘levels of explanation’ suggest
there are different ways of viewing the same phenomena - some are more reductionist than others
eg of levels of explanation
ocd
what are the levels of explanation
highest - social and cultural
psychological
lowest - biological
what is biological reductionism
based on the premise that we are biological organisms made up of physiological structures and processes thus all behaviour is at some level biological
how is biological reductionism applied to topic areas in psych (ex)
effects of psychoactive drugs on the brain contributing much to our understanding of neural processes and the fact that we can explain psychopathology at a biochemical level
what is environmental reductionism
the attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that are measurable in the lab
environmental determinism - where does the key unit of analysis occur
at the physical level - the mind is a black box!
