Holism and Reductionism

Question 1

What is holism?

Answer 1

• The argument that human behaviour is more complex than the processes that other sciences study, e.g. chemical processes,
• Means it should be viewed as the product of different influences, which all interact,
• Trying to separate these influences by just studying one of them means that complex behaviour can be misunderstood, a holistic approach avoids this,
• It is difficult to test integrated theories because you can’t isolate the variable; hard to establish cause and effect.

Question 2

What is reductionism?

Answer 2

• The view that it should be possible to explain complex things by reducing them to their most simple structures or processes,
• In psychology, this means explaining behaviour by boiling theories down to some basic principles, e.g. aggression is caused by conditioning,
• Testing this in an experiment means that it is possible to establish cause and effect,
• Experiments are often unrealistically simplified and ignore other influences, they may not be testing real behaviour.

Question 3

Holism/reductionism in the psychodynamic approach

Answer 3

• By considering unconscious forces and childhood experiences, the psychodynamic approach is a relatively holistic approach,
• For instance, Freud emphasised that personality is the result of interaction between different components, such as the Id and the ego, which is a more holistic view.

Question 4

Holism/reductionism in the biological approach

Answer 4

• All behaviours can be explained as the product of biological influences like genetics, brain structure, and brain chemistry,
• This is biological reductionism,
• Aims to establish cause and effect, focuses less on other influences on behaviour.

Question 5

Holism/reductionism in the cognitive approach

Answer 5

• Brain’s cognitive processes are compared to the working of a computer; machine reductionism,
• There is input, various stages of processing, and then an output,
• Reductionist as it doesn’t explain why humans function differently to computers.

Question 6

Holism/reductionism in the behaviourist approach

Answer 6

• Human behaviour is shaped by the environment through the processes of operant and classical conditioning; known as environmental reductionism,
• Other possible influences (e.g. genetics) are focused on less.

Question 7

Holism/reductionism in the humanistic approach

Answer 7

• Holistic as it studies the individual in the context and tries to understand their subjective experiences,
• Uses self-report techniques, rather than breaking down behaviour into its component parts,
• Disagrees with reducing behaviour to cause and effect reactions.