Reductionism

Question 1

reductionism is the scientific view that it should be possible to explain

Answer 1

complex things by reducing them to their most simple structures or processes

Question 2

in psychology this means explaining behavior by

Answer 2

boiling theories down to some basic principles

Question 3

testing this in an experiment means

Answer 3

that it is possible to establish cause and effect

Question 4

experiments using reductionism are often

Answer 4

unrealistically simplified and ignore other influences so they may not be testing real behaviors

Question 5

holism is the argument that

Answer 5

human behavior is more complex than the processes that other sciences study

Question 6

because holism argues that human behavior is complex, this means

Answer 6

it should be viewed as the product of different influences

Question 7

trying to separate these influences by just studying one of them means that

Answer 7

complex behavior can be misunderstood, so a holistic approach avoids this problem

Question 8

if you use Holism, it becomes difficult to test

Answer 8

integrated theories because you can’t isolate the variables

Question 9

because you can’t isolate variables

Answer 9

its hard to establish cause and effect