Holism Vs reductionism
- Created by: Hannah Brearley - Bayliss
- Created on: 19-03-15 19:39
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- Holism Vs reductionism
- Reduction to separate parts.
- Looking at things as parts rather than as whole.
- Reduction to a lower level:
- Psychology sits between sociology and biology as a science.
- Psychological level of explanation:aspects internal to the person.
- Cognitive processes; personality; emotions.
- Biological reductionism:
- Explains behaviour in terms of neuropsychology, biochemistry or genes.
- Made up biological components.
- Other levels of explanation are unimportant.
- Evaluation:
- Strengths:
- Explains conditions like schizophrenia, addiction, depression, crime and forgetting.
- Precise and concise.
- Easier to understand than social
- Fits with idea of 'science'.
- Limitations: Few ideas accept bio reductionism as an adequate explanation.
- Strengths:
- Behaviourist:
- Only overt behaviour should be the data for psychology.
- Physical and muscular level.
- Higher levels are readily observable.
- Reduced to stimulus- response behaviours.
- Radical behaviourism= all psychological phenomena are behaviours and should ignore cognitive processes.
- Evaluation:
- Strengths:
- Highly scientific.
- Objective.
- Limitations:
- Research conducted on animals.
- Ethical problems.
- Humans more complex?
- Humanistic psychologist argue that humans qualitatively and quantitively different from animals.
- Gestalt: learning was not association between S-Rut reconstruction and reorganisation of whole situation.
- Research conducted on animals.
- Strengths:
- Only overt behaviour should be the data for psychology.
- Evaluation:
- Strengths:
- Reductionism consistent with science.
- Simplifies and behaviour and explains it in concrete and concise terms.
- Limitations:
- Complexity of behaviour is missed.
- Distract attention from other levels of explanation.
- Strengths:
- Gestalt (holism):
- It is essential to look at unified wholes, complete structures and totals.
- Behaviour not explained by parts that make up a whole.
- 'Dividing phenomena can destroy character'.
- Gestalt view opposed S-R behaviour.
- Cognitive:
- Investigates all aspects of the person.
- Drive for self- actualisation gives purpose and unity to behaviour.
- Rogers and Maslow were central.
- Interactionist:
- Considers several levels of explanation.
- Explains abnormal behaviour.
- Evaluation:
- Strengths:
- Provide more complex picture than reductionist.
- Do not ignore complexities so more meaningful.
- Limitations:
- Difficulty investigating.
- More hypothetical than falsifiable.
- Cohen (1977):
- Behaviour is variable and determined by many factors.
- Lower levels can be helpful.
- More than one level is necessary.
- Strengths:
- Reduction to separate parts.
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