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Key concepts of the debate - Coggle Diagram
Key concepts of the debate
Holism
This approach looks at a system as a whole + sees any attempt to subdivide behaviour/experience into smaller units
as inappropriate
Argued that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
So knowing about the parts (i.e. characteristics of a person) doesn't help us understand the essence of that person
Humanistic psychology focuses on the individual's experience - not something that can be reduced to
Reductionism
Seeks to analyse behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts
Based on scientific principle of parsimony (all phenomena should be explained using simplest principles
There are different levels of explanation in psychology - different ways to explain behaviour (some more reductionist than others
For OCD:
Socio-cultural level (OCD interrupts social relationships)
Psychological levels (e.g. the person's experience of anxiety)
Physical level - movements (e.g. washing one's hands)
Environmental/behavioural level (learning experiences)
Physiological level (e.g. abnormal functioning in frontal lobes)
Neurochemical level (e.g. underproduction of serotonin)
Biological reductionism
Includes neurochemical and physiological levels + evolutionary + genetic influences
Based on premise that we are biological organisms
All behaviour is at some level biological
These arguments often work backwards
Environmental reductionism
Behaviourist approach is built on environmental reductionism
It proposes that all behaviour is learned + acquired through interactions with the environment
Behaviourists explain behaviour in terms of conditioning - focused on simple stimulus-response links
Key term definitions:
Holism: Argument/theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisible system rather than its constituent parts
Reductionism: belief that human behaviour is best understood by studying smaller constituent parts
Levels of explanation: idea that there are several ways that can be used to explain behaviour - lowest level considers physiological/biological explanations, middle level considers psychological explanations. Middle level considers psychological explanations. Highest level considers social + cultural explanations
Biological reductionism: a form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at lowest biological level
Environmental reductionism: attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience