ISSUES AND DEBATES: holism and reductionism

Question 1

what is the holism and reductionism debate?

Answer 1

Is the question to whether holism or reductionism is the better approach to use in order to understand human behaviour.

Question 2

what is holism?

Answer 2

the idea that human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integrated experience, and not as separate parts

Question 3

which type of psychology takes a holistic method?

Answer 3

Humanistic psychology - use qualitative methods to investigate the self, rather than breaking up the concept into components.

Question 4

what is reductionism?

Answer 4

Seeks to analyse behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts. Based on parsimony principle - idea that all phenomena should be explained using the simplest principles.

Question 5

what is the levels of explanation in psychology?

Answer 5

The idea that there are several levels that can be used to explain behaviour.

Lowest level - physiological/biological explanations
Middle level - psychological explanations
Highest level - social and cultural explanations

Question 6

what is biological reductionism?

Answer 6

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level ( in terms of genes hormone action )
Biologically reductionist arguments often work backwards.

Question 7

what is environmental reductionism?

Answer 7

The attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience.

Question 8

evaluate the holism approach.

Answer 8

• lacks practical value = Holistic accounts of human behaviour is hard to use as they become more complex. It considers too many factors, eg in depression (past present, jobs etc) so it is difficult to know what to prioritise as the basis of therapy, for instance.
• harder to test with controlled experiments, reducing psychologies scientific credibility

Question 9

evaluate the reductionist approach.

Answer 9

+ scientific approach = breaks behaviour into components which allows for objective, reliable research. variables are operationalised . gives psychology greater scientific credibility.

• accused of oversimplifying complex phenomena = reducing validity
  eg explanations that operate level of the genes or NT dont analyse social context when behaviour occurs.
• some behaviours can only be understood at higher levels= eg info about interaction between people and the behaviour of group is needed to understand social conformity.
• cognitive neuroscience cannot fully explain subjective experiences = explanatory gap in brain science which suggests that thinking is one step beyond what is happening in the brain.