Holism and Reductionism Issues and Debates Essay Plan

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Levels of explanation

Reductionist explanations of behaviour begin at the highest level and progress to simplier component elements.

Highest level- cultural and social expectations affect what we remember

Middle level- psychological explanations of personal, episodic memories

Lower level- biological explanations about neurotransmitters' involvement in forming memories.

Biological reductionism

Biological psychologists reduce behaviour to the action of neurons, neurotransmitters and hormones (e.g. schizophrenia is caused by excessive amounts of dopamine).

Environmental reductionism

Behaviourist explanations suggest that all behaviour arises from learned stimulus-response links (e.g. in attachment).

Experimental reductionism

Reducing complex behaviours to variables is useful for conducting experimental research. Complex behaviours are reduced to operationalised variables that can be measured to determine causal relationships.

Holism

Focuses on whole systems rather than their constituent parts. It suggests that the system is more than the sum of its individual components.

Gestalt psychology

German Gestalt psychologists focused mainly on perception, arguing that explanations for what we see only make…