Examples of Reductionism in Psychology
o Behaviourism assumes that all behaviour can be reduced to simple building blocks of S-R (stimulus- response) and that complex behaviour is a series of S-R chains.
o Biopsychology - Explanations for the cause of mental illnesses are often reductionist. Genetics, and neurochemical imbalances are frequently highlighted, as being the main cause of these disorders. In the case of schizophrenia for example excess production of the neurotransmitter dopamine is seen as a possible cause. This view clearly has implications for treatment. Gender can also be reduced to biological factors (e.g. hormones). Also, language can be reduced to structures in the brain, e.g. Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area (but holism could state: influence of family, education, social class on language). Another example of biological reductionism is aggression – e.g. testosterone levels.
o Structuralism – One of the first approaches in psychology. Wundt tried to break conscious experiences down into its constituent (i.e. basic) parts: images, sensations and feelings.
Holism refers to any approach that emphasises the whole rather than their constituent parts. In other words ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. Qualitative methods of the humanistic approach reflect a holistic position. Social psychology also takes a holistic view.
A holistic approach therefore suggests that there are different levels of explanation and that at each level there are “emergent properties” that cannot be reduced to the one below. Reductionist explanations, which might work in some circumstances, are considered inappropriate to the study of human subjectivity because here the emergent property that we have to take account of is that of the “whole person”. Otherwise it makes no sense to try to understand the meaning of anything that anybody might do.
o Humanistic psychology investigates all aspects of the individual as well as the interactions between people.
o Social Psychology looks at the behaviour of individuals in a social context. Group behaviour (e.g. conformity, de-individualisation) may show characteristics that are greater than the sum of the individuals which comprise it.
o Psychoanalysis – Freud adopted an interactionist approach, in that he considered that behaviour was the results of dynamic interaction between id, ego and superego.
o Abnormal psychology – mental disorders are often explained by an interaction of biological, psychological and environmental factors. An eclectic approach to therapy is often taken using drugs and psychotherapy.
o Perception – This is were the brain understands and interprets sensory information. Visual illusions show that humans perceive more than the sum of the sensations on the retina.
The biological approach. Reductionism is often equated with physiological reductionism, offering explanations of behaviour in terms of physiological mechanisms. The evolutionary approach uses evolutionary reductionism when reducing behaviour to the effects of genes, as in some explanations of altruism or atypical behaviour (e.g. depression).
The behaviourist approach uses a very reductionist vocabulary: stimulus, response, reinforcement, and punishment. These concepts alone are used to explain all behaviour. This is called environmental reductionism because it explains behaviour in terms of simple environmental factors. Behaviourists reduce the concept of the mind to behavioural components, i.e., stimulus-response links.
The cognitive approach uses the principle of machine reductionism. Information-processing approaches use the analogy of machine systems, and the simple components of such machines, as a means to describe and explain behaviour. More recent computer innovations, such as the Internet and connectionist networks can be described as holist because the network behaves differently from the individual parts that go to make it up. The whole appears to be greater than the sum of its parts.
The psychodynamic approach is reductionist in so far as it relies on a basic set of structures that attempt to simplify a very complex picture (e.g. id, ego, superego, unconscious mind). On the other hand, Freud used idiographic techniques (e.g. case study or individual interview) that aim to preserve the richness of human experience rather than teasing out simple strands of behaviour.
The humanistic approach emerged as a reaction against those dehumanising psychological perspectives that attempted to reduce behaviour to a set of simple elements. Humanistic, or third force psychologists, feel that holism is the only valid approach to the complete understanding of mind and behaviour. They reject reductionism in all its forms. Their starting point is the self (our sense of personal identity) which they consider as a functioning whole. It is, in the words of Carl Rodgers, an “organised, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself”. It includes an awareness of the person I am and could be. It directs our behaviour in all the consciously chosen aspects of our lives and is fundamentally motivated towards achieving self-actualisation.
For humanists, then, the self is the most essential and unique quality of human beings. It is what makes us what we are and is the basis of a difference between psychology and all natural science. Reductionist explanations undermine the indivisible unity of experience. They run counter to and ultimately destroy the very object of psychological enquiry. A holistic point of view is thus in humanist terms the very basis of all knowledge of the human psyche.