Holism vs Reductionism

Question 1

What is Holism?

Answer 1

• focuses on the person as a whole rather than on individual parts
• holism takes multiple variables into account when explaining behaviour
• all humans are unique and motivated to achieve their full potential

Question 2

What is reductionism?

Answer 2

• levels of explanation: we can consider behaviour in terms of all levels
• biological: as humans are made up of atoms, then behaviour must be explainable at this basic level
• behavioural: as humans learn from the environment their behaviour must be explained at this basic level
• experimental psychology: all behaviour has a cause and effect and therefore reducing behaviour to variables means it can be explained at this basic level

Question 3

AO3: the ability to explain complex behaviour

Answer 3

• a strength of holism is that it can explain complex elements of human behaviour
• it can explain social behaviours that only emerge within a group context
• for example, the effects of de-individualisation of prisoners and guards in the Stanford prison experiment could not be understood by studying the participants as individuals

Question 4

AO3: oversimplifies complex human behaviour

Answer 4

• a limitation of reductionism

- this is when an explanation only focuses on one level and ignored the other levels

Question 5

AO3: real life application

Answer 5

• this is when the principles of an approach are put into practice outside of the laboratory
• for example, since the 1950s, drug therapies like antidepressants have been used to help balance neurotransmitter levels in the brain
• a reductionist approach is beneficial and had led do a decrease in the number of people being hospitalised for depression

Question 6

AO3: interactionist approach

Answer 6

• not possible to separate either debate s both contribute to behaviour
• abnormal behaviour would be best explained by considering all factors but in some cases you can only treat abnormal behaviour using reductionism