Holism V Reductionism

• Holism & reductionism

  In the 1920’s and 30’s Gestalt Psychologists declared: 

  ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’ 

  Holism: Attempts to understanding human behaviour can only be done through by analysing the person or the behaviour as a whole rather than its constituent parts. 

  Reductionism: Analysing behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts. It is based around the scientific principle of parsimony. All behaviour should be explained using the most basic (lowest levels) principles.
• Holism:

  • Consider the whole person’s experience:
  • Cognitive,
  • Emotional,
  • Spiritual,
  • Developmental,
  • Social,
  • Cultural,
  • Environmental,
  • Economic.
  • Deal with person holistically.
• Reductionism:

  • Consider major systems involved:
  • Biological: serotonin system.
  • Behaviourist: learned behaviours; stimulus, response.
  • Treat symptoms according to involvement of each system.
• Holism

  The theory that the parts of any whole cannot exist and cannot be understood except in their relation to the whole.

  • Humanistic perspective.
  • Cognitive psychology
  • Gestalt psychology
• Holism: Gestalt psychology

  Gestalten = ‘Whole’ in German

  They focus mainly on perception. 

  Explanations for what we see only make sense through a consideration of the whole rather than the individual elements

  “the whole is different from the sum of its part”
• Holism: Humanistic psychology

  • The ind. reacts as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus-response links.
  • What matters most: a person’s sense of unified identity.
  • Thus, a lack of identity or a sense of Wholeness leads to mental disorder
• Holism

  Benefits

  • Provides a more complete picture.
  • Accepts and deals with the complex nature of behaviour.
  • Behaviour is influenced by many factors, so holistic explanations may be more useful.
  • Limitations 
  • It is difficult to investigate the many differing types and levels of explanation.
  • More hypothetical – not based on empirical evidence.
  • Lacks predictive power of more scientific explanations.
  • Neglects importance of biological influences.
• Reductionism

  The theory that all complex systems can be completely understood in terms of their components.

  • Biological & behaviourist perspectives
• Reductionism

  Suggests that explanations begin at the highest level and progressively look at the component elements:

  • Highest level: Cultural and social explanations of how our social groups affect our behaviour
  • Middle level: psychological explanation of behaviour
  • Lower level: Biological explanation of how hormones and genes etc affect our behaviour.

  We can consider any behaviour in terms of all 3 levels.
• AO3 - Lower level reductionism 

  If lower levels are taken in isolation, then meaning of behavior may be overlooked = this may lead to fundamental errors of misunderstanding

  Lower level explanations may distract us from more appropriate level of explanation.

  Example: the administration of the amphetamine Ritalin to hyperactive children may miss the real causes of a child’s hyperactive behavior (E.g. family or emotional problems)
• Different types of reductionism

  There are three different types of reductionism you need to know:

  • Biological reductionism 
  • Environmental reductionism (stimulus-response)
  • Experimental reductionism
• Biological reductionism

  Since all animals are made of atoms, then human behaviour must be explainable at this level ie. it can be reduced to  a physical level.

  Biological psychology reduce behaviour to the action of neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones and so on

  A popular way to explain mental illness is in term of such units.

  Example: schizophrenia is cause by excessive activity of neurotransmitter dopamine because drugs that block that neurotransmitter reduce the symptom of this disorder
• Biological reductionism - AO3

  • One consequence of biological explanations has been the dvpt of drug therapies.
  • The strength of such treatments is that they have led to a considerable reduction in institutionalisation since in the 1950s.
  • More human approach as it doesn’t blame the patient, which leads to greater tolerance of the mentally ill
  • HOWEVER

  Drug therapies can have variable success rates; they treat symptoms but not causes and thus may not have lasting effects

  Psychological explanations take more account of context of behaviour and have produced successful therapies
• Environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism

  All behaviour can be explained in term of simple stimulus –response links ie. behaviour can be reduced to a simple relationship between behaviour and events in the environment.

  Behaviourist explanation of Attachment (learning theory)

  The theory of attachment is reduced to a set of probabilities: the mother is likely to provide food which is reinforcing (reduced discomfort). 

  Hence, she is a rewarding ind. and so becomes a “ loved one”
• Environmental reductionism - AO3

  • Behavioural approach developed as a result of experiments with non-human animals.
  • Such explanations may be appropriate for simple components BUT not for more complex human behavior
  • Humans are not “scaled-up” version of animals.
  • Even in non-human animals, reductionist explanation ignore other possible influences such as cognitive and/or emotional factors
• Experimental reductionism

  Reducing complex behaviours to isolated variables is a useful strategy for conducting research.

  Behaviours are reduced to operationalised variables that can be manipulated and measured to determine causal relationships
• Experimental reductionism - AO3

  • Reducing behaviour to a form that can be studied is productive and may be necessary to understand how things work. BUT, how much such findings are actually telling us about everyday life?

  E.g Research into EWT. These studies don’t reflect the real world - why not?
• AO3 (General) - The mind-body: An interactionist approach 

  Mind-body problem: Problem of describing the relationship between the mind a body/brain.

  One solution to this problem: to consider that everything is reducible to the physical world.

  Materialism assumes that physical state (E.g. REM electrical activity) cause mental events (dreams). They often make the mistake of leaping to the assumption that one causes the other.
• AO3 (General) - The mind-body: An interactionist approach 

  Another way to deal with the mind-body problem as well as dealing with reductionism: To analyse how the different levels of explanations interact. Dualists suggest that mind and body interact in both  directions; the mind can cause physical changes

  Example: Martin (2001) found that depressed patients who received psychotherapy experienced the same changes in level of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain than those receiving drugs
• Why is it good to use reductionism in psychology?

  • Fits with scientific status of psychology. Focus on objectivity and empiricism.
  • Reductionism leads to clearly defined variables which can be operationalised and observed objectively which allows for the inference of causal relationships – establishing a cause and effect relationship.
  • Usefulness of reductionist treatments, eg use of drugs – effectiveness can be empirically tested
• Why is it not that good to use reductionism in psychology?

  • Reductionism leads to loss of meaning – components do not add up to reflect whole experience . This contrasts with holism – studying and valuing human experience as a whole, considering meaning, feeling, personal experience/context.  Only by studying the whole can we really understand human experience 
  • Only by studying the whole can we really understand human experience?  Some behaviours, particularly social behaviours can only really be investigated in the holistic context in which they occur