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level: Holism and reductionism

Questions and Answers List

level questions: Holism and reductionism

QuestionAnswer
What is holism?The idea that human behaviour only makes sense when studying a whole system rather than its constituent parts. Eg: humanistic approach
What is the order of levels from most holsitic to reducitonist-Socio-cultural level -Psychological elve -Physical level -Physiological level -Neurochemical level
What is the socio-cultural levelBehaviour influenced by people around you
What is the psychological level?the cognition behind behaviour
What is the physical level?physical movements involved in behaviour
What is the physiological level?activity within the brain and body
What is the neurochemical level?effect of neurotransmitters and hormones
What is reductionism?The idea that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituents parts. It explains behaviour using the lowest levels of explanation.
What is biological determinsim?The idea that we are biological organisms so all behaviour at some point if biological. Explains behaviour thorough neurochemistry, evolutionary and genetic influence
What is environmental reductionism?The idea that environment shapes our behaviour. Breaks complex learning up into stimulus-response links. Occurs at the physical level, not concerned with cognition occuring at the psychological level.
What level is biological approach on?Neurochemical and physiological (Biological reudctionist)
What level is the cognitive approach on?Psychological Machine reductionist
What level is the learning approach on?Social learning theory: social-cultural level Behavourist - Physical level Environmentally reductionist
What level is humanism on?Sociocultural level Holism
What level is psychodynamic on?Psychological level Reductionist
A strength of the holistic approach?-Certain behavouris only emerge in a group context -Eg: Zimbardo research would not have made sense on a reductionist levle as the experiment needed to see the ways in which ppts would react to being surrounded with people in similar situations -It was the ppts interactions with others and the prison environemnt that was significant -Therefore, holisim and socio-cultural level is better at explaning grp behaviour
A strength of the reductionist approach?-It makes for a more scientific approach -Makes it posisble to conduct experiments and obersvations in an objective and reliable way -Operationalisation is key in psychology and reductionism allows varibles to be clearly defined -By following the laws of science, psychology as a subject can gian more credibility and make nomothetic laws of behaviour
Weakness of Holism approach?-Can be seen as a less scientific approach -Holisitic explantion are often criticiesd for being unfalsifiable - like the humanistic apporahc -It also makes it difficult to create effective treatemtns when considering multiple factors -Therefore, reductionism is better for treating psychopathologies (eg: the neurochemical level to create drugs)
A weakness of reductionist?-It can be seen to over-simplify complex phenomena -Explanations that focus on neurochemicals ignore the social context in which behaviour occurs -So, although treatments like drugs may help patients, they do not address the social trigger of disorders like depression/OCD -Therefore, reductionsit explanattions can only ever be part of an overall explantion, meaning that if a pateint overall issue is not helped with the drug, it is uneffective.