Holism + Reductionism Flashcards
(21 cards)
What does the Holism/Reductionism debate focus on?
Whether behaviour should be explained / studied as a whole or if we can look at the component parts and use these to explain the whole.
What are the 2 important factors to the Holism/ Reductionism debate?
- Diverse levels of explanation available that can be used
- approaches/ explanations form a continuum from most reductionist to most holistic
Where does ‘Holism’ route from and what is the definition? What is the statement?
Routed from the Greek word ‘holos’ meaning ‘all’ ‘entire’ or ‘whole,’ the idea that human behaviour is viewed as a ‘whole’ integrated experience, not as separate parts
‘The whole is greater than the sum of the parts’
What are emergent properties? How are they different in Holism/ Reductionism?
Extra properties appear (emerge) when a network becomes more complex.
They can be tested at a reduced level (e.g cells) and are missed when reductionism is used.
How are visual illusions an example of an emergent property? What is reductionism’s position on them?
- For example shapes can offer an additional shape/ meaning that is visible only due to higher-level networks interacting with conscious experience, reductionism cannot explain this.
- Reductionism fails to account of the hidden shapes/ meanings as it doesn’t incorporate visual cortex cells.
How does Humanism advocate Holism? What is the strength to this approach?
- Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour/ experience into smaller components and instead promote understanding subjective experiences by considering the whole person (Holism)
- Strength - more likely to use qualitative techniques to gather rich data about individuals which can be analysed via thematic analysis.
What is Reductionism?
The belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into component parts and is based on parsimony.
What is parsimony in Reductionism?
Complex phenomena that should be explained by the most simplest, underlying principles as possible.
What is the main strength to Reductionism?
By focusing on each part we can have heightened knowledge into what is going on and make predictions about what will occur if the one part is changed.
What two beliefs do reductionist researchers believe?
- Believe higher level processes (e.g a cell) can be accurately understood via smaller parts
- Emergent properties don’t occur
What is biological reductionism?
Refers to the way that the Biological Approach tries to reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in terms of neurons, neurochemistry, hormones and brains structure.
What is Environmental Reductionism and what is it also known as?
Known as stimulus—response reductionism, E.g behaviourists assume that all behaviours can be reduced to building blocks of S-R associations + that complex behaviours are a series of S-R chains.
What is Experimental Reductionism and according to this why isn’t Holism tested?
Belief that it is desirable to try to explain human behaviour by isolating single physical structures/ behaviours.
Holism cannot be tested as, according to this belief, researcher’s cannot achieve the necessary control by trying to study the “whole” person as there are too many variables to test.
What did Westland (1978) suggest about research that only accounts for one aspect of behaviour? Provide examples and what are the 4 things ignored?
Suggested that any research that only accounts for one aspect of behaviour rather than the whole person is limited.
E.g measuring personality/ intelligence without considering emotional states, social/cultural backgrounds, or test conditions won’t provide a complete explanation of the behaviour.
What are the 6 levels of explanation to behaviour?
-Socio-cultural
-Psychological
-Physical
-Environmental/Behavioural
-Physiological
-Neurochemical
Provide an example for each of the following 6 explanations for an OCD patient.
Socio-cultural, Psychological, Physical, Environmental/Behavioural, Physiological, Neurochemical
Socio-cultural, E.g OCD prevents person from spending time with friends
Psychological, E.g person experiences feelings of anxiety
Physical, E.g the person washes hands due to fear of contamination
Environmental/Behavioural - E.g person leans a particular type of OCD
Physiological - E.g abnormal functions in frontal lobes/ worry circuit
Neurochemical - E.g Underproduction of serotonin/ overproduction of dopamine.
Why are scientists/ psychologists more drawn to reductionist explanations? (2 points)
- Most experimental psychology assumes behaviour can be studied effectively in simple experiments, where complex behaviour is reduced to isolated variables.
- They favour rigorous controlled studying with cause and effect able to be established
In contrast to why scientists/psychologists favour Reductionistic approaches, how is Humanism different? (2 things, provide an example for 2nd)
- Advocate Holism which tends to not focus on scientific rigour/ testing.
- Maslow and Roger’s use qualitative methods e.g case studies, diaries and interviews to gain an understanding of individual experience/ perception of self to understand behaviour.
What is the main issue to Humanism, and what is the main issue with subjectivity for Psychology? ( 2 things )
- Humanism is criticised for its lack of empirical evidence and scientific rigour
- Such techniques used to test subjective experience/ behaviour often lack scientific evidence criticising Psychology for its scientific nature.
How is social behaviour an issue for Reductionism? Provide a famous study as an example and explain it. ( 2 things )
- Even if a single person’s behaviour is fully understood / able to be predicted, there is the uncertainty of this being applied for when they are apart of a group
- E.g Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study included individuals acting in a way not easy to predict via studying genes, as there isn’t a gene yet to be found that triggers social conformity.
What did Levine (1983) suggest about neuroscientists and the synapse? What did they call this and what may this suggest?
They suggested that while neuroscientists can explain neurotransmitters link to crossing synapse and action potentials, they can’t explain the emotions associated
Called this the ‘explanatory gap’, suggests that Reductionism can’t fully explain human thoughts/ emotions.
