Reductionism/Holism

Question 1

Define Holism

Answer 1

seeing behaviour as a whole and looking at how a multiple factors interact to cause behaviour

Question 1

Define Reductionism

Answer 1

understanding human behaviour by breaking it down into simpler components. doesn’t look at how multiple factors interact to cause behaviour

Question 2

Positions of reductionism/holism debate

Answer 2

Debate over whether it is more appropriate to study behaviour by breaking it down into small components (reductionism)

or think about behaviour as being affected by many interacting factors (holism)

Question 3

Types of reductionism

Answer 3

Biological reductionism - behaviour is reduced down to biological factors e.g

Environmental reductionism - behaviour is reduced to simple relationship between behaviour and events in the enviroment

Parsimony - simplest explanation is the best as its easy to understand + apply

^ Experimental reductionism - complec behaviour to isolated variables in order to conduct research

Question 4

Strengths of Reductionism

Answer 4

+ can easily be applied to real life

+ identifies cause and effect between variables and therefore scientific + reliable

+ quantitative data, less affected by bias and easy to analyse

Question 5

Weaknesses of Reductionism

Answer 5

• lacks validity as misses wider picture of how different variables interact to influence behaviour
• should be cautiously applied due to simplistic nature

Question 6

Strengths of Holism

Answer 6

+ High validity as seeing behaviour as being affected by multiple factors is more reflective of real life

+ tend to collect qualitative data which allows for an in-depth analysis of behaviour

Question 7

Weakness of Holism

Answer 7

• difficult to apply findings to real world, as cant identify a single cause for human behaviour
• doesn’t establish cause and effect as doesn’t examine behaviour in terms of operationalised variables that can be manipulated > less scientific
• difficult to understand complex variables

Question 8

Links to other debates

Answer 8

Nature/Nurture - reductionist as only considers human behaviour as being entirely related to genes/environment

Free will/Determinism - reductionist as says behaviour is entirely determined by certain factors