Holism and Reductionism

• Holism is idea that behaviour can only be understood if you look at the 'whole' person. Breaking behaviour down into smaller components is useless. This view is also shared by the humanist approach. In contrast, reductionists believe behaviour is best explained and understood if it is broken down into its smaller constituent parts. It is based on the scientific principle of parsimony that all behaviour should be explained using the most simple, basic principle since this is the easiest and most economical explanation.
• Biological reductionism is the idea that we are biological organisms made up of physiological structures and processes. Biological reductionism therefore assumes that all behaviour is at some level biological and can be explained through genetics, neurochemicals , neurophysiology and evolution. This is a key assumption of the biological approach and has been successfully applied to different areas of psychology for example psychoactive drugs have led us to understand the effects of neurotransmitters on the brain and can help us explain schizophrenia.
• Environmental reductionism is a slightly different way of looking at reductionism. Within psychology, the behavioural approach is considered reductionist, because it breaks behaviour down into smaller, observable units. Behaviourists break behaviour down into stimulus-response links that can be observed in the lab which Pavlov and Skinner done. They only look at physical behaviour on the 'outside' and are not interested in what is happening on the 'inside' of someone's head the thought processes like a cognitive psychologist would.
• So, this type of reductionism focuses only on observable, measurable behaviour than we can see. As well reductionism is scattered across psychology for example the psychodynamic approach is reductionist as it relies on a basic set of structures that attempt to simplify a very complex picture like the id, ego superego, unconscious mind.
• A reductionist approach often forms the basis of scientific research. For instance, in order to make operationalised variables, we have I to break behaviours down into smaller units. This makes it possible to conduct experiments and observations in a reliable way. This can be seen with behaviourisms which demonstrated how behaviour can be broken down into simple stimulus-response links within the lab.
• This suggests that reductionism gives psychology credibility, by placing it on equal terms with 'natural sciences' lower down the reductionist hierarchy. On the other hand, Reductionist approaches can oversimplify complex phenomenon leading to a loss of validity.
• For example, explanations that operate at the level of neurons, neurotransmitter and genes do not include acknowledge the social context in which the behaviour occurs. This can be seen as a reductionist explanation could tell us how a finger is pointed, but wouldn't tell us why someone pointed their finger as it could be because of aggression. This suggests that reductionist explanations can only ever form part of an explanation.
• There are some aspects of behaviour that only emerge when studied in a group context. For example, Zimbardo's prison study was highly important in showing us the effects of conformity to social roles. This would not be shown if we had studied people on an individual level- the interaction between the people was what made this study so important.
• This suggests that a holistic explanation is necessary to give us greater understanding of certain behaviours in psychology. On the other hand, Holistic explanations in psychology do not lend themselves well to scientific methods of testing, and have been accused of being vague and 'speculative'.
• For instance, the humanistic approach has been criticised for its lack of empirical evidence and is seen as just a loose set of concepts. Furthermore, higher level explanations which combine different approaches present a dilemma that if we say there are many different factors that contribute to depression, how should we treat it? It doesn't help us , find the best therapy by taking a holist approach. This suggests that for real world problems, such as mental health, lower level explanations are more appropriate and useful.