REDUCTIONISM

1
REDUCTIONISM

• The philosophical point of view that complex
  phenomena are best understood by breaking them
  down to their elements
• or
• The analysis of complex things into simple
  constituents.
• Two approaches have emerged from this

2
REDUCTIONISM ACROSS SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES

• ? is multidisciplinary
• Biochemical
• Biological
• Psychsological
• Cultural

Reductionists believe that one day all human
behaviour will be understood at a biological
level.
TASK read blue box - sunsets
3
ADVANTAGES OF REDUCTION

• To be able to understand ourselves from many
  different viewpoints is appealing. May lead to a
  theoretical unification between
• ?ists
• Physiologists
• Biochemists
• Sociologists
• Øy and Biochemistry are considered more
  scientific. They are also more reductionist.
• 3. Even if reduction is not considered the right
  route to understanding behaviour, it is agreed
  that ?al findings should be compatible with other
  disciplines e.g. Ø

4
DISADVANTAGES OF REDUCTION

• Much human behaviour cannot be understood in
  terms of just biology/
• Pulman Peoples ? is a reflection of deeply
  entrenched societal beliefs.
• e.g. how would you investigate voting behaviour
  at a biological level?
• 2. ? describes the processes involved in
  activity. Whereas Ø describes the structures
  involved.
• ? how qs, Ø where qs.
• 3. It has not worked well in practice. Not many
  ?al phenomena can be explained purely in Ø al or
  biochemical terms.
• Psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive and
  humanistic do not use biological terms.
• Many Ø explanations would be irrelevant to ?.
  Think back to stress what was helpful?
• Simplifying Complex Issues
• Another form of reductionism Simple parts
• Reduce complex phenomena e.g. behaviourists
  chunked behaviour into S R

5
BEHAVIOURISTS APPROACH

• Argues that S R association is an appropriate
  unit of analysis in ?.
• Skinner had problems when explaining long
  acquisition. Kids do more than
• reproduce reinforced words and phrases, e.g.
  Wugs.
• H2O non flammable
• H2 and O2 are flammable
• Problem for reductionists.
• Most phenomena in ? operate at different levels
  of complexity and are not all
• built up from simple units. The study of
  language development requires
• Developmentall expertise
• Social expertise
• Cognitive expertise
• ? linguistic expertise

6
BEHAVIOUR THERAPY

• Based on the notion that patients have acquired
  symptoms through faulty
• learning. Therapy alters changing faulty
  responses.
• e.g. Panic attacks It is hard to devise a
  treatment. This is because a patient interprets
  a safe situation as dangerous. They also wrongly
  interpret their body reactions, e.g. if heart
  beats faster, they exaggerate this into thinking
  something is wrong.
• Conclusion
• Reduction can guide theory and research but does
  not provide a detailed
• testable hypothesis.

7
APPROACHES
Biological Ø reductionism. Behaviour
reduced to ?al mechanism Evolutionary reduced
to genes Behavioural Environmental
reductionism All behaviour can be explained
in terms of S, R and reinforcement. Cognitive
Machine reductionism Analogy of brain as an
info-processing computer is reductionist but
internet is holistic because it is not a sum
of parts. Wundt was reductionist therefore he
tried to reduce thought to elementary
reservations, like we reduce works to H O.
Wanted to make ? systematic.
8
APPROACHES continued

• Psychoanalytic reductionist in that it attempts
  to simplify a complex structure. But Freud
  used case studies rich in detail and
  attempted to encapsulate all of human
  behaviour.
• Idea of unconscious is not reductionist.
• Humanistic A reaction against oversimplification.
  Holistic because it attempts to understand
  all of mind and behaviour

Experimental Reductionism Use of controlled
laboratory experts in reductionist. Strips away
all variables except for independent variables
therefore not natural, but it does reduce
complex behaviour to a simple set of variables
which can identify cause and effect.
9
ALTERNATIVES TO REDUCTIONISM

• Humanism
• Does not attempt to divide self up into smaller
  units or identify Øal processes
• associated with self concept.
• Criticisims
• Limited therefore does not consider biological
  factors as having real
• significance
• Eclectic Approach
• Relevant information is gathered from a variety
  of disciplines, e.g. Schizophrenia
• Genetics involved
• Neurotransmitter sensitivity
• Post social relationships
• Adverse life events
• Reductionists would be tempted to produce a
  biochemical theory and ignore
• social factors so eclectic approach would be an
  improvement.

10
CRITICISMS

• Difficult to combine information from different
  disciplines into a single
• theory, e.g. how to combine biochemistry and life
  events. New
• methods, e.g. PET and MRI are assisting our
  understanding of
• cognition, for example, so we may progress as new
  technology is
• used.