Reductionism-Holism

• Holism argues that the 'whole is greater than the sum of the parts' which means that to understand a person, the whole of that person needs to be considered
• Reductionists believe that the best way to understand humans is to analyse component parts and to explain behaviour in terms of basic units. A reductionist approach is similar to other sciences such as physics and biology
• What are levels of explanation

  These are explanations which vary from those at a lower or fundamental level focusing on basic components or units (e.g. biological- genetics) to those at a higher, more holistic multivariable level (e.g. socio-cultural- society)
• Biological reductionism is the explanation of behaviour at the level of genes, brain chemicals ect...
• Environmental reductionism is explaining behaviour at the level of stimulus-response units
• Machine reductionism is explaining behaviour in terms of mechanic models
• The humanistic approach takes a holistic view of behaviour- Maslow believed the 'entire' human was more than just a collection of biology, cognitions or learned behaviour
• Early cognitive models of information processing were based on machine reductionism- both the wmm and msm break the memory system down into a collection of components (memory stores)- this did mean that is could be studied easily in lab research
• The reductionist approach fits well with psychology's drive for scientific status. Component parts can be tested empirically (e.g. memory experiments). These methods ensure evidence is observable and unaffected by subjective interpretation- this means there is greater clarity of understanding
• Reductionism can lead to over-simplification of human behaviour and it is difficult to combine findings from component parts into an unified theory. This means that even though reductionist theories allow for the inference of casual relationships, there is perhaps a lack of meaning
• Holism seeks to integrate different components in order to understand the person as a whole and has led to useful applications (e.g. client centred therapy)
• Some behaviours (social behaviours) can only be studied in a holistic context in which they occur. However, this doesn't lend itself to scientific testing and reductionist approaches have also led to successful treatments (e.g. SSRI's for OCD)