reductionism + holism

• Levels of explanation in psychology

  • Social-cultural context
  • Psychological level
  • Physiological level
  • Neurochemical level
• Reductionism

  The view that behaviour is better explained by breaking it down into simpler constituent parts
• Holism

  • Able to explain certain aspects of social behaviour which reductionism could not. Examples are conformity to social roles in the Stanford Prison Study and understanding behaviours like deindividuation by looking at the whole situation
• Holism

  People and behaviour should be studied as a whole system
• Reductionism

  Breaking down behaviour into constituent parts
• Levels of explanation for OCD

  • Socio-cultural level
  • Psychological level
  • Physical level
  • Physiological level
  • Neurochemical level
• Biological reductionism

  Explaining behaviour through neurochemical, neurophysiological, evolutionary and genetic influences
• Environmental reductionism

  Explaining behaviour through simple stimulus-response links at the physical level