Holism & Reductionism

• Reductionism is made up of socio-cultural, psychological, and biological factors
• Reductionism is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into smaller components
• Reductionism is useful in scientific study as science requires isolation of variables in order to identify causes
• Reductionism allows us to look closely at smaller parts and use the simplest explanations
• Reductionism is oversimplistic as humans and their environments are complex so it lacks ecological validity
• Reductionism does not address larger social issues e.g. poverty
• Biological reductionism is explaining behaviours in terms of neural or genetic mechanisms
• Environmental reductionism is explaining behaviour in terms of the relationship between stimulus and response
• Experimental reductionism is reducing complex behaviours down to isolated variables
• Operationalism makes scientific study able to do
• Parsimony is the idea that we should seek out the simplesy best explanation which will be the easiest to use and the most efficient or economical
• Holism focuses on the whole system rather that individual features
• Holism acknowledges that systems work as a unified whole
• Holism does not ignore complexity
• Holism has more ecological validity
• Holism may overcomplicate simple behaviours
• Holism does not include scientific method so it is hard to determine cause & effect