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20 - Challenges in the Relationships between Psychological and Biological Phenomena in Psychopathology

from Section 7

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2020

By
Gregory A. Miller  and
Morgan E. Bartholomew
Edited by
Kenneth S. Kendler ,
Josef Parnas  and
Peter Zachar
Kenneth S. Kendler
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University
Josef Parnas
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Peter Zachar
Affiliation:
Auburn University, Montgomery
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Summary

This chapter addresses three questions posed for the 2018 Copenhagen conference. We argue that reduction in the widely assumed sense of eliminating psychological constructs is not a feasible option in psychopathology research. We argue that the popular “levels of analysis” metaphor is more problematic than helpful. We argue that a recent movement in philosophy of science, known as the new mechanists, offers a promising alternative to the naïve biological reductionism that has driven much thinking and research on psychopathology in the Decades of the Brain. Finally, we evaluate the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative in the context of these three questions, citing key features that facilitate moving clinical research forward more quickly and more effectively than what has characterized the field for decades. RDoC avoids reductionism, fosters integration of psychological and biological constructs, methods, and data, and is well suited to the emerging research agenda in the psychopathology literature.

Keywords

psychopathologyreductionismlevels of analysisDecade of the Brainnew mechanistsResearch Domain CriteriaRDoC matrixcomputational psychiatry
Type
Chapter
Information
Levels of Analysis in Psychopathology
Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives
 , pp. 238 - 266
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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