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Flashcards in Reductionism Deck (9)
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1
Q

reductionism is the scientific view that it should be possible to explain

A

complex things by reducing them to their most simple structures or processes

2
Q

in psychology this means explaining behavior by

A

boiling theories down to some basic principles

3
Q

testing this in an experiment means

A

that it is possible to establish cause and effect

4
Q

experiments using reductionism are often

A

unrealistically simplified and ignore other influences so they may not be testing real behaviors

5
Q

holism is the argument that

A

human behavior is more complex than the processes that other sciences study

6
Q

because holism argues that human behavior is complex, this means

A

it should be viewed as the product of different influences

7
Q

trying to separate these influences by just studying one of them means that

A

complex behavior can be misunderstood, so a holistic approach avoids this problem

8
Q

if you use Holism, it becomes difficult to test

A

integrated theories because you can’t isolate the variables

9
Q

because you can’t isolate variables

A

its hard to establish cause and effect