Issues and Debates - Holism and reductionism

Question 1

Define Holism

Answer 1

Perceiving the whole experience rather than the individual feature and or the relations between them.

Question 2

Define Reductionism

Answer 2

An approach that breaks complex phenomena into more simple components and implies that this is desirable because complex phenomena are best understood in terms of a simpler level of explanation.

Question 3

What are levels of explanation?

Answer 3

These are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in Psychology.
- Socio-cultural
- Psychological
- Physical
- Biological

Question 4

What are the highest level explanations?

Answer 4

Cultural and social explanations of behaviour e.g depression being explained by a withdrawal from social activities, low energy levels and insomnia, which is viewed as odd by society.

Question 5

What are the middle level explanations?

Answer 5

Psychological explanations of behaviour e.g depression being explained by Beck’s Cognitive Theory and Ellis’ ABC model.

Question 6

What are the lower level explanations?

Answer 6

Biological explanations of behaviour e.g depression being explained by the action of candidate genes and neural factors.

Question 7

What is biological reductionism?

Answer 7

Reducing behaviour to biology as it is based on the premise that we are biological organisms
i.e depression can be explained biochemically as a result of low levels of serotonin in the synaptic gaps between neurons.

Question 8

Strengths of holism?

Answer 8

+ Provides a more complete picture; some examples of behaviour can only be understood at the holistic level, such as conformity and deindividuation of Zimbardo’s prisoners and guards in his Stanford Prison Experiment.

Question 9

Limitations of holism?

Answer 9

• It is difficult to investigate the many differing types and levels of explanations. This poses a practical problem for researchers who attempt to combine many higher-level explanations ,because it becomes difficult to identify which explanation is most influential.
• More hypothetical and not based on empirical evidence - Holistic explanations are frequently used by the humanistic approach. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence associated with higher-level explanations and holistic viewpoints may simplify complex phenomena too far.

Question 10

Strengths of reductionism?

Answer 10

+ Consistent with the scientific approach - Scientific psychology aims to be able to predict and control behaviour. Therefore, reductionism is consistent with the aims of science because it allows for this. Smaller, constituent parts of behaviour are easily measured and manipulated after strict laboratory conditions, and so ‘cause and effect’ relationships between variables can be reliably established .

+ Practical application in the development of drug therapy - a reductionist approach towards researching and explaining mental disorders has led to the development of powerful and effective drug therapies e.g SSRIs to treat depression, based on the view that a deficiency in serotonin causes depression (biological reductionism). This also reduces need for institutionalisation, where sufferers can continue with their day to day lives through the use of non-invasive treatment and without regular hospital visits.

Question 11

Limitations of reductionism?

Answer 11

• Ignores the complexity of behaviour - reductionist explanations may lead to a loss of validity because they ignore the social context where behaviour occurs , which often gives behaviour its meaning . E.g speaking from a reductionist pov would be the same across all scenarios due to each individual having the same biological mechanism for this. However such a view ignores the social context of this speaking such as with the aim of altering someone, voicing an opinion etc. Therefore, reductionism may simplify complex phenomena too much.