ISSUES AND DEBATES - Reductionism
- Created by: EmilyEther
- Created on: 26-03-19 12:38
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- Reductionism
- Scientific explanations tend to be reductionist
- eg, symptoms of flu mean that you have been infected by the virus
- reductive explanation
- reduced a diverse set of symptoms to a simpler cause
- BUT we are generally happy with this explanation
- causal link
- accept that symptoms can be satisfactorily explained
- rhinovirus is an appropriate level of explanation for the flu
- in this case, the reductive nature of the explanation is an advantage: it fully explains problem, offers useful avenues for treatment etc
- eg, symptoms of flu mean that you have been infected by the virus
- Psychology levels of explanation
- social cognition to biochemistry
- social cognition:
- social groups, family etc:
- interpersonal interaction:
- cognition and emotion:
- learned associations
- genetics
- cellular biology
- biochemistry
- The bio model
- activation of the lateral hypothalamus when eating
- BUT no happy with model - other factors involved
- Eval (A03)
- reductionism is a problem for psychological theories when the explanation offered is incompatible with the phenomena that need to be explained
- for some, natural science is overly reductionist (eg. flu linked to stress)
- however, some say there is nothing wrong with reductionism - ultimately we will be able to explain all behaviour using one level of explanation
- Reductionism is not...
- not the same as determinism (two are related though)
- not just about biological explanations - behaviourism is also criticised as reductionist because it breaks behaviour down into S-R units etc
- not the same as over-simplification or leaving out another viewpoint
- Scientific explanations tend to be reductionist
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