holism and reductionism

• P: a strength of biological explanations has been the development of drug therapies

  E: such treatments have led to a considerable reduction in institutionalisation since the 1950s. they also are a more humane approach to the treatment of mental illness insofar as they do not blame the patient, which may lead to greater tolerance of the mentally ill. drug therapies are not always successful and reducing mental illness to the biological level ignores the context and function of such behaviour
• link for biological reductionism

  L: while drug therapies have a role to play in treating symptoms, psychological explanations take more account of causal factors and have produced many successful therapies
• P: a limitation of the behavioural approach is that it was developed using experiments with non human animals

  E: while it may be appropriate to explain non human animals behaviour in terms of simple components, such explanations may not be appropriate for more complex human behaviour. humans are not scaled up versions of other animals. even in non human animals, reductionist explanations ignore other possible influences such as cognitive and/or emotional factors
• link for environmental reductionism

  L: this means that environmental reductionism ignores other possible influences on human behaviour, such as social context, intentions and emotions
• Holistic explanations are often vague and lack empirical evidence. Theories that consider too many interacting variables are difficult to isolate and study scientifically, which reduces the credibility and testability of the approach. This is a particular issue in therapies based on humanistic principles, which may lack clear evidence of effectiveness.