Psychological Reductionism

Definition of Psychological Reductionism

The Canada social science dictionary [1] provides the following meaning of Psychological Reductionism: The process of reducing all social activity and behaviour to the psychological characteristics of the human actors involved. Such reduction eliminates the possibility of sociology since it denies that there is anything greater than the individual. Society is simply an aggregation of individuals. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) argued against this in his study of suicide by arguing, and demonstrating, that even after providing a psychological explanation for individual acts of suicide there was something still to account for: the difference in suicide rates between societies. This he showed was derived from characteristics of the society and could be not explained as dependent on individual psychological characteristics.

Psychological Reductionism: Resources

Notes and References

• Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). (Concept of) Psychological Reductionism. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada