Understanding Human Behaviour through Reductionist Approach

Understanding Human Behaviour through Reductionist Approach â€Å"The only way to understand Human Behaviour is to take a Reductionist approach.† Critically discuss with reference to relevant seminal and contemporary literature in psychology. Reductionism can be defined as being the idea that a complex system, such as human behaviour, is nothing more than the sum of its parts and that a description of the system can be reduced to descriptions of the individual components. Many of the main approaches in psychology tend to take a reductionist approach when trying to explain their understanding of human behaviour, including the cognitive approach which uses machine mechanism (using the analogy of machines and their most simple components) to explain human behaviour, such as Berkowitz (1993). The behaviourist approach also tends to be reductionist in how it tries to explain human behaviour, usually reducing behaviour down to simply environmental factors such as reinforcement and punishment. Perhaps the most reductionist approach in psychology however is the biological approach. The biological approach takes a more scientific approach to explaining human behaviour and puts it mainly down to our biology, for example, Lacourse, Boivin, Brendgen et al. (2014) explained that the results from their research suggested that a toddler’s aggression is strongly associated with genetic factors. Many psychologists would agree that â€Å"The only way to understand Human Behaviour is to take a Reductionist approach† for example, Hull (2002) who stated that â€Å"Reductionism at its most extreme asserts that the only level worth investigating is the lowest technologically feasible level. All else is a waste of time.† Given the fact that scientists who use more reductionist approaches to understanding human behaviour tend to get the most grant money for their research, publish the most papers and also tend to make the most scientific advances within psychology, this may be true. However, other psychologists believe that the lower states involved in reductionism do not capture the necessary coherence of the rationalisation relation at the higher level and are known as being anti-reductionist. Biological psychologists explain human behaviour by trying to relate it to the functioning of the brain and the nervous system, relating it to the role of genetic influences and also by putting it down to chemical processes in the brain. These are all reductionist ways to explaining human behaviour due to the fact that, apart from physics, they are the lowest level of explaining behaviour. A prime example of a reductionist explanation to understanding human behaviour such as aggression is through genetics. This type of biological reductionism reduces aggressive behaviour in an individual down to the role of genetic influence, for example Dilalla (2002) concluded from her review on the role of genetics on aggression that there is a â€Å"growing body of evidence on the genetic effects on aggression† with â€Å"the majority of twin and adoption studies on antisocial behaviour in children suggest that genetic effects are important influences† suggesting that aggressive beh aviour is mainly due to the genetic make-up of an individual. This explanation of aggressive human behaviour is solely reductionist and fails to take into account any environmental and cultural factors. The social approach to psychology however, would explain this behaviour through â€Å"The Social Learning Theory† by Bandura (1978), putting aggressive behaviour of a child down to factors such as imitation. Bushman Huesmann (2006) explored aggression in both children and adults, and found that exposure to violence led to participants becoming more aggressive, suggesting that human behaviour such as aggression can be adopted through imitation, leading one to believe that reductionist approaches to human behaviour, such as the biological approach isn’t taking every factor into account that could contribute towards an individual’s behaviour. Reducing human behaviour down to lower levels of psychology that can be studied is useful in trying to understand how things work. Poldrack Wagner (2008) used Atinkson Shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store model of memory in order to assess long-term and short-term memory. This cognitive approach to understanding human behaviour, suggested that remembering information over either the long-term or short-term was due to how we process this information internally. Reducing this behaviour down to a simple component of the individual means that, for example if an individual has long-term memory loss, it is easier to target one specific part of the brain responsible for this, thus easier to treat. However, even though this is a useful aspect of reductionist explanations of human behaviour, some psychologists, such as Hull, would argue that these explanations offer only a simple solution to a much more complicated problem. Depression, for example, according to the biological approach shoul d be treated with anti-depressants as biological psychologists such as Carlson (2005) believe that depression is due to neurotransmitters in the brain. However, social psychologists such as Beattie (2005), who examined the social causes of depression, would say that this is overlooking the real problem which could be issues such as problems within the family. This is a fundamental problem with the reductionist approach to understanding human behaviour; it tends to ignore social and environmental factors that may also contribute towards behaviour and hence when it comes to applying reductionist approaches to everyday life and having implications for human behaviour, the treatments may not be as reliable as they could be. Although there are arguments for â€Å"The only way to understand Human Behaviour is to take a Reductionist approach† there are a lot more anti-reductionist arguments. Anti-reductionist psychologists such as Hull Regenmortel (2002) refer to reductionism in explaining human behaviour as â€Å"as successful as Reductionism has been, it is seriously inadequate and must be supplemented with a more holistic science.† Emotion, for example, is ignored by reductionist explanations due to the fact that it is seen as impossible that an individual’s emotions can be explained through lower levels of psychology, such as neurotransmitters. Thus, factors such as emotion can only be truly explained by less reductionist approaches such as an individual is happy due to the environment that surrounds them, not due to biological factors. A further approach to understanding human behaviour is taking into account the role of the environment. Reductionist biological approaches do not consider the environment when explaining human behaviour, however there is a lot of research suggesting that although an individual is born with certain biological traits, such as genes, environmental factors, for example an individual’s upbringing and people they are exposed to predominately shapes an individual’s behaviour further. However, taking an environmental approach to understanding human behaviour is also reductionist, but psychologists specialising in this area such as Brent are starting to integrate the small parts into the whole. In 1995, Brent assessed risk factors for adolescent suicide and suicidal behaviour and stressed the importance of environmental factors such as family, as well as biological factors on these risk factors. Taking a more holistic approach like Brent (2005) instead of a reductionist approach to understanding human behaviour tends to take many factors into account instead of just reducing an explanation down to its simplest form, thus can lead people to believe that a more holistic approach to understanding human behaviour is a lot more valid and reliable as, for example, when treating an individual of an illness such as depression, not only will the biological aspect of the illness be treated with anti-depressants, but the social aspect of the illness can also be treated with a form of counselling. Using a reductionist approach to understanding human behaviour can be seen to be not so useful when trying to explain individual factors due to the fact that reductionist explanations, although they are reduced to the lowest levels of psychology and thus are in the simplest form, generalise behaviour to a target population. Maguire, Gadian, Johnsrude et al. (2000) found that the amount of time spent as a London taxi driver positively correlated with the volume in the posterior hippocampus and from this, suggested that â€Å"the posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the environment and can expand regionally to accommodate.† Here, Maguire et al (2000) have generalised their study of male, London taxi drivers to the population as a whole. Every individual is unique and so it would not be right to generalise these findings to everyone as the same behaviour in people may be due to different explanations, such as our biology and the environment. In conclusion reductionist approaches to understanding human behaviour can be seen to have led to further scientific advances within psychology due to the fact that reductionist approaches make it easier to find the cause of human behaviour, meaning that it is then easier to treat, by reducing the explanation down to its simplest form. However, as discussed, there are many problems and critiques of the reductionist approach to understanding human behaviour, with the main problem being that the reductionist approaches leave out vital factors such as the environment and social factors when explaining behaviour, thus by using a reductionist explanation it does not give a full explanation for a complex subject such as human behaviour, whereas taking a more holistic approach such as a humanist approach, takes many different factors into account. Therefore, reductionist explanations, is limited when it comes to understanding and explaining human behaviour. Samantha Carlisle

Hard Times Essay

Mr Gradgrind says ‘ is it satisfactory to me†¦ to know that you do not come to the consideration of that question with the previous habits of mind, and habits of life, that belongs to many young women’ in reference to fancy and emotion when deciding whether to marry Mr Bounderby or not. Later on in the page we are told that Louisa was ‘ compelled to throw herself upon his breast and give him the pent-up confidences of her heart’. However this doesn’t happen because Mr Gradgrind fails to see it. This is because of the ‘artificial barriers’ that have been set up between him and his daughter and these barriers are primarily fact and his utilitarian views. It is a utilitarian view because he believes the decision should not be made based on the individual happiness of Louisa but on what will be best for everyone and therefore looking past her. It also is criticising Utilitarians and Mr Gradgrind through the use of dramatic irony in the sense that we see that Loo yearns to talk to her father but he doesn’t and we are criticising his inability to see it. The barriers being set up are metaphorical barriers he has put between himself and his daughter emotionally to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The barriers are themselves blocking out ‘subtle essences of humanity’ with reference to fancy. By saying that fancy is an essence of humanity in accompaniment with Gradgrind’s will to get rid of fact we see that Dickens is showing us that utilitarian principles strip us of these essences of humanity and therefore de-humanises us. Furthermore it is a very human ideal for a daughter to confide with her father or parent in general but here Louisa has been stripped of that showing us even more then de-humanising qualities of fact. Dickens then goes on to say that these subtle essences of humanity ‘will elude the utmost cunning of algebra until the last trumpet†¦ blow even algebra to wreck’ saying to us that fancy and emotion will always beat fact. The ‘last trumpet’ is judgement day so Dickens is saying that fancy will win until the end of eternity. This passage clearly shows Dickens preferences to emotion and how he feels it is superior although he does give fact some credit when he says ‘blow even algebra’ as if algebra is a tough subject to blow. Then dickens talks about how ‘with his†¦ utilitarian†¦ face he hardened her again’ telling us that utilitarianism is hardening Loo. First of all this builds sympathy for Loo because we were told earlier that Loo wanted to throw herself upon her father but she cant because of the barriers and is hardened again and secondly builds up our dislike for Gradgrind and utilitarianism more because of its hardening qualities.

Emerging Models by Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice

The article Emerging Models by Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice discussed several behavior management techniques that can be implemented especially in schools for children with disabilities. School-wide strategies was found effective as long as there is staff commitment, clearly defined procedures, and support plans that address the behavior problems of students (CECP, 1997). These strategies, supported with unified behavior management approach and practices can prevent student behavior problems. For beginning teachers, it is recommended that they follow a set of behavior management techniques as guidelines in managing student behavior. For instance, strategies such as â€Å"Self-Manager Program† which gives students with points for good behavior, or the â€Å"Chance Ticket System† which rewards students for their good behavior, are some of effective system that facilitates management of student behavior (CECP, 1997). The article Emerging Models is a useful source for this subject because it provides brief and yet sensible information on how to manage student behavior. Paraprofessionals are among the important elements in managing student behavior. They are the personnel who help teachers focus on their responsibilities through assistance in student monitoring and clerical works (Afolabi, 2002). In general, their roles focus on aiding and assisting teachers in their classroom duties. To plan and best utilize the roles of paraprofessionals, it is important that they are given with more training, not just as a teacher aide, but also as future teachers. The article written by Alfobi (2002) is a useful resource for this subject because it discusses information on the roles of a paraprofessional, as well as recommendations on how to improve the status of paraprofessionals.

MNN3701 Module slides - 2443 Words

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP MNN3701 FACILITATOR: Ms Tracey Cohen Agenda: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Introduction and ground rules SU 1 – â€Å"Imagine† SU 2 – Course Overview SU 3 – Sustainable Development SU 4 – Corporate Citizenship Defined SU 5 – Milton Friedman and the Business of Business SU 6 – The â€Å"Why?† of Corporate Citizenship SU 7 – The â€Å"How?† of Corporate Citizenship SU 8 – Corporate Citizenship and Leadership 2 Contact Details Tracey Cohen Lecturer: Department of Business Management ï€ ©: 012 429 6136 eï€ ª: cohent@unisa.ac.za 3 Ground Rules †¢ Question time †¢ Quiet please †¢ Cell phones – Switched off or put on silent. 4 Objectives of this Lecture †¢ Run through the Study Units †¢ Think about CC †¢ Ask questions about CC †¢ Have some fun†¦show more content†¦argument? Have I defended my own opinion – quality of evidence presented? Questions? †¢ Any questions? 17 Agenda: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Introduction and ground rules SU 1 – â€Å"Imagine† SU 2 – Course Overview SU 3 – Sustainable Development SU 4 – Corporate Citizenship Defined SU 5 – Milton Friedman and the Business of Business SU 6 – The â€Å"Why?† of Corporate Citizenship SU 7 – The â€Å"How?† of Corporate Citizenship SU 8 – Corporate Citizenship and Leadership Some extra stuff 18 What is Sustainable Development? Definition: â€Å"Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.† Brundtland Report, 1987 THE SOCIAL CASE FOR CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP 19 Four Conditions DEVELOPMENT MUST†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¢ Fulfil â€Å"needs† (material and other) for better quality of life for this generation; †¢ As equitably as possible; While †¢ Respecting ecosystem limits; and †¢ Building the basis on which future generations can meet their own needs. 20 21 The Balancing Act ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY The Triple Bottom Line FINANCE Does the balancing act make sense? Source: King (2010) 22 Does the balancing act make sense? Environment Society Finance 23 Africa Asia US Canada Europe Latin America and Caribbean UAE 10.0 U.S. 8.0 (ha per capita) Ecological Footprint Oceania 6.0 China 4.0 RSA Peru 2.0 0.0