16 mark essay plan

AO1

The holistic approach looks at a system as a whole rather than subdividing behaviour or
experience into smaller units. This was the view of Gestalt psychologists – argued the whole
is greater than the sum of its parts. Humanistic psychology focuses on the individual’s
experience, which can’t be reduced into smaller units. Humanistic psychologists use
qualitative methods to investigate the self whereby themes are analysed rather than
breaking the concept into component behaviours.

Reductionism analyses behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts.

Biological reductionism attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level (in terms
of the actions of genes, hormones, etc.).
Environmental reductionism attempts to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response
links that have been learned through experience. The behaviourist approach is built on this,
as it proposes that all behaviour is learned through interactions with the environment.

Levels of explanation is the idea that there are several ways to explain behaviour, these
include the socio-cultural, psychological, physical, environmental/behavioural, physiological
and neurochemical levels (from least to most reductionist).

AO3

Limitation of the holistic approach – lacks practical value.

Holistic accounts of human behaviour may be hard to use as they become too complex,
leading to a practical dilemma for researchers. For example, in depression, given there are
many different factors that contribute to it, determining which is the most influential and
which to prioritise becomes difficult.

Strength of the reductionist approach – form the basis of a scientific approach.

Variables are operationalised and target behaviours are broken down into constituent parts,
making it possible to conduct experiments or record observations in an objective and
reliable way. Gives the reductionist approach greater credibility due to its scientific
approach.

Limitation of the reductionist approach – overly simple.

Reductionist approaches may oversimplify complex phenomena, leading to reduced validity.
Explanations that operate at the level of the gene or neurotransmitter don’t include an
analysis of the social context within which behaviour occurs. Reductionist explanations can
therefore only form part of the explanation.

Limitation of the reductionist approach – some behaviours can only be understood at a

higher level,
There are aspects of social behaviour that are only relevant within a group context and
cannot be understood by looking at the individual group members. For example, when
studying conformity, it is important to study the interaction between people and the
behaviour of the group – there’s no conformity ‘gene’.

2 exam questions

Explain the difference between biological reductionism and environmental reductionism (4)
Answer:
Biological reductionism attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level (in terms
of the actions of genes, hormones, etc.), based on the premise that we are biological
organisms and all behaviour is at some level biological. However, environmental
reductionism attempts to explain behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have
been learned through experience, proposing that all behaviour is learned through
interactions with the environment.

Explain what is meant by ‘levels of explanation’ (2)

Answer:
The idea that there are several ways to explain behaviour. The lowest level considers
physiological/biological explanations, the middle level considers psychological explanations,
and the highest level considers social and cultural explanations.