Holism & Reductionism (AQA A Level Psychology)

The holism-reductionism debate

• The holism-reductionism debate refers to the difference between explaining behaviour via

  • fundamental constituents (reductionism)

  • taking into account all aspects of the individual (holism)

• A reductionist approach involves using a highly specific, often simplistic, ‘reduced’ explanation for a complex behaviour e.g.

  • people are born criminal, it's in their genes (biological reductionism)

  • if you grew up on that estate chances are you're a criminal (environmental reductionism)

• A holistic approach involves taking into account a full range of possible explanations e.g.

  • crime is the result of a complex combination of many factors - biological, psychological, social - impacting the individual

  • to understand the crime we must understand the criminal

Holism

• Taking a holistic approach to research involves the researcher using a range of methods (usually qualitative) in order to achieve a fuller understanding of a topic e.g.

  • interviews, observations and psychometric tests conducted in order to investigate someone with a personality disorder

• Holistic research does not focus on one, limited/restricted explanation of a behaviour or phenomenon

• It aims to take into account the various different explanations that may contribute to a person's behaviour

• The humanistic approach is the only approach that is fully holistic, with its emphasis on phenomenology and individual, subjective experience

• Rutter  (2011) is a good example of a large-scale holistic study:

  • The study used a longitudinal design, allowing researchers to track the physical, cognitive, social and emotional development of adopted Romanian orphans

  • The measures took into account an array of factors that could have influenced the orphans' development

  • This is an example of a holistic approach as it did not focus on one single factor but instead acknowledged that human experience is rich, varied, multi-faceted and occurs on many different levels

• The cognitive interview could be argued to be a more holistic method of interviewing witnesses than previous police techniques as it incorporates the full context of the event from multiple perspectives and timepoints

Evaluation of holism

Strengths

• Humans do not live in a ‘bubble', sealed off from others, their world etc.

  • Taking a holistic approach to research, including biological, psychological and social measures, reflects real experiences more so than a reductionist approach

  • This increases the ecological validity of holistic research

• Mental wellbeing is something that is becoming increasingly important and high-profile in many societies

  • Holistic methods (e.g. Rogers' client-centred therapy) as used in the humanistic approach are well suited to promoting and encouraging good mental health

Limitations

• Humanistic research is quite limited in terms of empirical evidence

  • This means that it lacks scientific rigour as is not easily tested and relies on subjective accounts rather than controlled conditions

  • Therefore it is low in reliability

• Taking a holistic approach may become rather ‘messy’ for researchers

  • If there are too many variables at play in, for example, understanding criminal behaviour it becomes difficult to understand which are the most influential factors (genes / upbringing / peer influence?)

  • This can in turn affect the credibility of holistic approaches

Levels of explanation

• Levels of explanation are part of reductionism in that they seek to establish a hierarchy as to whether psychology is a science according to specific criteria and methods used to investigate specific behaviours

• Psychology as a discipline cannot adhere to the laws of other, 'hard' sciences (e.g. physics) so it applies levels of explanations that are to explain phenomena

  • Kuhn (1990) coined the phrase 'pre-science’ to define psychology

• Using levels of explanation means that the same behaviour/phenomenon can be viewed and explained in a variety of different ways

Example of levels of explanation

• The lowest level of the hierarchy can be seen in biological theories

  • An excess of testosterone/an imbalance in serotonin/damage to the prefrontal cortex might be used to explain aggression at this level

  • In this way it can be seen that the biological approach pares down complex explanations to one, 'pure' idea (e.g. that one single factor such as hormones is responsible for a complex behaviour such as aggression)

• The middle level is occupied by psychological and cognitive processes

  • Faulty information-processing/negative self-schema/a hostile attribution bias might be used to explain aggression at this level

  • In this way it can be seen that the psychological/cognitive approach takes more factors and variables into consideration when explaining aggression (e.g. the mind distorts reality but this is often based on a person's experience and learning)

• The highest level of the hierarchy is taken up by sociocultural theories and approaches

  • Being brought up in an aggressive family/mixing with aggressive peers/experiencing deindividuation as a result of spending time in prison might be used to explain aggression at this level

  • In this way it can be seen that sociocultural explanations offer the broadest and least reductionist approach to behaviour as they consider a wide range of factors

  • This in turn means that they offer the least scientific explanation of behaviour

Biological & environmental reductionism

Biological reductionism

• Biological reductionism is based on the idea that biological functions and structures can explain behaviour e.g.

  • the dopamine hypothesis explanation of schizophrenia assumes that abnormal/irregular levels of dopamine in the brain is the primary explanation as to why and how schizophrenia develops

  • Maguire et al.'s (2000) research claimed that increased grey matter in the posterior hippocampus explains the superior spatial navigation skills of London black cab taxi drivers

• Theories and research within the biological approach are reductionist as they ignore other, alternative explanations e.g.

  • Siffre’s (1973) cave study which explained circadian rhythms as being the result of endogenous pacemakers rather than exogenous zeitgebers experienced outside of the body

  • drug therapy such as the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) assume that neurochemical imbalances result in depression rather than external, life-events

Environmental reductionism

• Environmental reductionism is based on the idea that external forces determine outcomes and behaviour e.g.

  • schizophrenia is the product of having a schizophrenogenic mother i.e. it is home environment rather than neurochemistry which produces schizophrenia

  • environmental reductionism would argue that prolonged learning derived from navigating London streets leads to superior spatial navigation in taxi drivers

• The behaviourist approach embraces environmental reductionism (as well as being a prime example of 'hard' determinism) e.g.

  • its emphasis on the stimulus-response dynamic of classical conditioning reduces complex behaviours such as the development of a phobia to a simplistic learning process

  • other explanations such as biological preparedness are ignored when it comes to some phobias e.g. fear of snakes or spiders

Evaluation of biological & environmental reductionism

Strengths

• Taking a reductionist approach to behaviour (biological or environmental) can be beneficial to psychological research

  • Reductionism helps to 'purify' and isolate the variable/behaviour of interest, ruling out the 'white noise' of other, possibly contradictory explanations

  • By isolating one, simplified explanation of a behaviour it is easier for a researcher to design a study around it as they are very clear as to what they are looking for and what they expect to happen (hypothesis-testing) e.g.

    • research has highlighted the 5HT1-D gene in the transport of serotonin, informing understanding and treatment of mental illnesses such as OCD

• Breaking down behaviour into its component parts as seen in the behaviourist approach, can help to formulate therapies such as systematic desensitisation (a kind of reverse-conditioning) in the treatment of phobias

  • This is a strength as it demonstrates good application of reductionism in practice

Limitations

• The reductionist approach can over-simplify complex behaviours e.g.

  • the ‘cupboard love’ theory of attachment is based purely on a baby's conditioned response to being fed rather than on the complex array of factors involved in the development of a child’s attachment to adult caregivers

  • This is a limitation as it narrows down the scope of human experience to the extent that the essence of what it means to be human is lost

• Reductionist theories/methods are good at showing what but they are far less successful at explaining why e.g.

  • Maguire's taxi driver research showed increased grey matter in taxi driver's posterior hippocampus but with no explanation as to why this brain structure was affected and others weren't or why it was larger in taxi drivers

  • The findings provide limited insight into neuroplasticity