Holism N Reductionism

Question 1

Reductionism

Answer 1

Reductionism is the concept of explaining behaviour by breaking it down into smaller, more fundamental components. It operates within a hierarchical
structure, moving from extreme reductionism in the hard sciences to broader explanations in psychology and sociology

Question 2

Three levels of explanations

Answer 2

Highest level: Sociological level – Cultural and social explanations of behaviour.

Middle level: Psychological level – Behavioural and cognitive explanations.

Lowest level: Biological level – Physiological explanations. This is the most extreme form of reductionism, as it breaks complex behaviours into their smallest component parts.

Question 3

Types of reductionism

Answer 3

Biological reductionism (Most extreme)

Machine reductionism (Mid-level)

Environmental Reductionism (Less Extreme)

Question 4

Biological Reductionism (Most Extreme)

Answer 4

o Reduces human behaviour to the activity of neurons,
neurotransmitters, hormones, and genes.
o Example: Schizophrenia has been linked to excess dopamine activity, as drugs that block dopamine receptors have been shown to reduce symptoms.

Question 5

Machine Reductionism (Mid-Level)

Answer 5

o Treats organisms, including humans, as machine-like systems where behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into distinct cognitive processes.
o Example: The cognitive approach often uses machine reductionism by comparing human thinking to computer processing.

Question 6

Environmental Reductionism (Less Extreme)

Answer 6

o Reduces behaviour to a stimulus-response relationship, ignoring internal processes.
o Example: Attachment is explained as a learned association—the mother provides food, which is reinforcing, leading the infant to view her as a “loved one.”

Question 7

Holism

Answer 7

Holism is the highest level of explanation of behaviour, taking account of all aspects of a person’s behaviour/experience. It is the opposite of reductionism.

The humanistic approach believes that the individual reacts as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus-response links. What matters is a person’s
sense of a unified identity and thus a lack of identity or sense of ‘wholeness’ leads to a mental disorder.

Question 8

Reductionism eval (+)

Answer 8

+ Both biological reductionism and environmental reductionism are viewed as scientific. Breaking complex behaviours into small constituent parts means that they can be scientifically tested and over time explanations of behaviour based on scientific evidence will emerge.

+ 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. The use of SSRIs in patients with OCD has helped to reduce the anxiety associated with OCD thus providing relief for some patients.

Question 9

Reductionism eval (-)

Answer 9

• Some psychologists argue that biological reductionism can lead to errors of understanding because it is simplistic and ignores the complex interaction of many factors in determining behaviour. For example, to treat conditions like ADHD with drugs in the belief that the condition consists of nothing more than neurochemical imbalances is to mistake the symptoms of the phenomenon for its
  true cause. Ritalin may reduce these symptoms, but the varied factors which gave rise to the ADHD have not been addressed. Since the success rates of drug therapy are so highly variable, the purely biological understanding seems
  inadequate.
• Much of the research which supports environmental reductionism used non-human animals (e.g. Pavlov and Skinner). But is human behaviour simply a scale-up version of that of dogs or rats? Critics of reductionism point to the social context in which humans are embedded from the earliest moments of life, and to hard-to-measure factors like cognition, emotion, and intentionality. In this
  case as well, the reductionist position seems, if not clearly incorrect, then at least inadequate.
• Environmental reductionism can mean that the true meaning of a behaviour is overlooked. For example, Wolpe (1973) treated a women who had a phobia of insects with systematic desensitisation, but found no improvement. It turned out that her husband, whom she was not getting along with, had an insect nickname. Her phobia was not the result of classical conditioning but an expression of her marital difficulties.