issues and debates

• what is the holistic view?


  look at the whole person and all influences on them to explain behaviour. only meaningful to look at the whole person and all the things that influence behaviour.

  ➢Knowing parts of the person does not understand the essence of that person and their individual experience
• Who came up with the holistic view in Psychology?

  The holistic approach comes from the Gestalt Psychologists working in Germany in the 1920s and 30s. This group declared that 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts'.
• Which approach takes a holistic approach? How?

  Humanistic Approach - argues that humans react to stimuli as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus-response links. As an approach, it uses qualitative methods to investigate all aspects of the individual, as well as the interactions between people - e.g. idiographic methods
• Explain how it is best to take a holistic approach to explaining social psychology.

  Social behaviour is often best understood in a group context rather than at an individual level.

  ➢e.g. studying conformity to social roles in Zimbardo's study by looking at the nervous system, would not have helped us understand behaviour.

  ➢For some behaviours, taking a holistic approach gives a more complete and global understanding of behaviour.
• Give an example of taking a holistic approach in Biopsychology.

  Many functions of the brain involve different parts working holistically together.

  ➢e.g. to understand how our brain processes language, we need to look at how the left hemisphere (more localised for language) interacts and with the right hemisphere (interprets the emotional content/intention behind what is said)
• Give an example of taking a holistic approach in Schizophrenia.

  The interactionist approach studies how a combination of different risk factors lead to the development of schizophrenia in individuals - This is important in establishing the appropriate treatment for an individual
• what is the reductionist view?

  Reductionists look at individual explanations. This involves breaking human behaviour down into component parts and finding the simplest (lowest) level of explanation.
• Explain levels of explanation in regard to this debate. This may be easiest using OCD as an example.

  ➢There are different ways to explain behaviour- some are more reductionist than others. there are LEVELS of reductionism - social/cultural being the least reductionist and neurochemical being the most reductionist

  
  

  eg: with OCD the social/ cultural level is that OCD can interrupt social relationships and the neurochemical factor could be the underproduction of serotonin
• What is biological reductionism? Why might this be a useful approach to take?


  This is the idea that all behaviour can be explained by physiological, neural, biochemical, evolutionary and genetic influences (the biological approach)

  ➢Assumes we are all biological organisms→all behaviour must be at some level biological

  ➢This approach has certainly gone some way to explaining a variety of behaviours, including the biochemical basis of some mental disorders
• Give an example of biological reductionism in a topic you have previously studied.

  Localisation of brain function e.g. Broca's area is responsible for speech production
• What is environmental reductionism?


  Key assumption of the behaviourist approach- all behaviour is due to learning and can be traced back to simple stimulus-response links we can measure in the lab
• Give an example of environmental reductionism in a topic you have previously studied.

  Behavioural explanation of phobias
• Why is the reductionist approach more scientific? Why does this suggest this perspective may be better than the holistic approach?

  S+C: how can this be countered in terms of the practical application of taking a holistic perspective?

  reductionism is a more scientific approach- means theories/ hypotheses can be tested allowing for psychology to be seen as more credible due to rigorous methods

  ➢also allows causes for mental illnesses to be discovered + treatments to be created

  ➢Holism not scientific- fails to have the same strengths as reductionism

  
  

  counter: holistic treatments have still been created e.g. client centred therapies that have been developed through view of whole person
• How might the reductionist perspective suffer from over-simplifying behaviour? Why is this a problem for this perspective?

  reductionist approaches to explaining behaviour ignores wider influences on an individual's behaviour such as the social context that gives behaviour meaning e.g. comparison between statistical infrequency + deviation from social norms
• What might be a limitation of taking a holistic perspective? Why might this be a problem for this perspective?

  cannot be used in all areas of Psychology e.g., it is impossible to find a genetic cause without taking a reductionist approach+ cannot understand the relative importance of a factor on behaviour (that reductionism can).
• How is interactionism an alternative to being reductionist or holistic? Give an example of taking an interactionist perspective and explain why this might be better than being purely reductionist or holistic.


  The interactionist approach considers how different levels of explanation may combine and interact. A good example of this is the diathesis-stress model that is used to explain things like schizophrenia and depression.

  
  

  ➢Taking a reductionist approach helps us study the individual influences on behaviour - we then need to combine these influences and how they interact to gain a fuller understanding - in other words, break it down then put it all together!