Holism vs Reductionism Flashcards
(11 cards)
AO1: Holism
This proposes we should examine individuals complex behaviour by taking into consideration all aspects of evidence including social and cultural context. For example The humanistic approach states a persons subjective experience and understanding of the world is more important than understanding the person. through objective realty
AO1: Reductionism
It is based on the assumption that complex human behaviour should be explained in the simplest terms possible e.g. breaking down into smaller components of simple basic units.
What are the two types of reductionism?
1) Biological
2) Environmental
AO1: Biological reductionism
Biological reductionism is explaining complex human behaviour by narrowing it down into basic biological systems e.g. genetics, physiology of the body or brain and biochemistry. For example in the biological explanations of SZ it reduces SZ down to inherited maladaptive candidate genes such as PCM1 or an imbalance of neurotransmitters such as high levels of dopamine activity levels in the brain.
AO1: Environmental reductionism
Environmental reductionism simplifies complex human behaviour down to learning through stimulus and response association e.g. classical conditioning. For example the learning theory suggests a phobia of snakes can be developed through an experience of a bite from a snake where fear and pain are associated with the snake. This explanation ignores both biological and cognitive influences on the development of phobias.
AO1: Levels of explanation
Levels of explanation refer to how explanations of human behaviour can vary from lower, fundamental levels which focus on simple basic units to those at higher more holistic levels which look at multiple influences on human behaviour.
The highest level of explanation considers social and cultural explanations where behaviour is explained in terms influence of social groups
A mid level of explanation focuses on psychological and environmental factors influence behaviour. For example the behavioural approach focuses on learning from the environment and the cognitive approach focuses on psychological factors such as internal mental processes.
The lowest level explanation is extreme reductionism which reduces complex human behaviour into smaller components. For example biological reductionism explains behaviour by neurochemicals, brain structure and genes.
The holism/reductionism debate asks whether its appropriate to look at one level specifically or whether more than one level is appropriate.
For example SZ can be explained by various levels: Social cultural context such s family dysfunction, psychological levels such as dysfunctional thought processes e.g. metarepresentation and biological level such as neurochemicals e.g. high levels of dopamine or genetics. All these attempt to explain behaviour at different levels. No explanation on its own can be correct therefore several explanations at several levels would be more appropriate.
What are the evaluations for holism/reductionism? (4)
1) Scientific methods
2) Social contexts
3) Practical applications
4) Simplify
AO3: Scientific methods
A criticism of the holistic approach is that researchers don’t use scientific methods to investigate human behaviour unlike the research from reductionist explanations. This is because as explanations become more complex and more holistic they become more vague so they are unable to test them scientifically unlike reductionism such as the biological approach which can use objective and empirical methods to establish cause and effect. therefore a reductionist approach to understand human behaviour may be favoured due to increased internal validity when compared to holistic approaches.
AO3: Social context
Holism is praised for understanding behaviour in terms of social context. For example in conformity to social roles and deindividuation it’s the interaction between people and the behaviour of the group that’s important. Therefore in these cases it’s important to take into account the holistic view when explaining behaviour.
AO3: Practical applications
A strength of reductionism in understanding human behaviour is that it’s more likely to lead to practical applications than holism. This is because it looks at the simple basic units e.g. which chemicals lead to certain disorders which leads to treatments for the disorders. For example in SZ the main neurotransmitter involved is dopamine which has led to the treatment of antipsychotics which regulate dopamine levels and have been effective in reducing symptoms of SZ. Therefore reductionism is an important part of applied psychology as it helps to treat people in the real world.
AO3: Simplifying
The reductionist approach can be argued to oversimplify complex phenomena which would lower the internal validity when understanding human behaviour. For example a nicotine addiction could not solely just be due to stimulus, response and associations between cue and cravings. It could be due to faulty thought process to do with the danger of cigarettes and family/peer influences which which increase the likelihood of an addiction to nicotine. Therefore the reductionist approach doesn’t allow us to understand behaviour in context.
