Holism vs Reductionism

• The Principle of Parsimony

  • problem solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with smallest possible set of elements
  • Occam's razor - when faced with two equally good hypotheses, always choose the simplest
  • one should prefer the hypothesis that require the fewest assumptions and carries the most explanatory power
  • striving for scientific credibility
• Reductionism

  • researchers simplify down to the most simplistic explanations
  • characteristics - opposite of holism, simplified, complex phenomenon broken down
  • levels of explanation
• Biological Reductionism

  • lays its foundations in our biological make up
  • atoms provide a physical explanation for behaviours
  • schizophrenia - excessive activity of dopamine
  • depression - lack of serotonin reaching receptors of post-synaptic neuron
• Environmental Reductionism

  • behaviour can be explained by looking at the relationship between behaviour and events and the environment/stimulus response
  • learning theory - attachment is a complex emotion that is reduced to a set of possibilities
  • doesn't consider all factors that are involved
• Experimental Reductionism

  • reducing complex behaviour to isolate variable in order to conduct research
  • operationalised behaviour list- the strange situation attachment types
• Low level explanations are problematic

  • if you look in isolation, it may overlook the true explanation
  • e.g. Ritalin may not treat the real cause of hyperactivity like family/emotional problems
• Reductionism evaluation - drug therapies

  • drug therapies led to considerable reduction in institutionalisation and greater tolerance of mental health issues - real world application
  • success rates of drug therapies may vary in terms of success rate of treating the symptoms not the causes and it may also ignore the actual function of the behaviour being exhibited
• How do animal studies evaluate reductionism?

  • animal studies produce simplified explanations for components of behaviour, but these may not account for the complexities t hand with human behaviour
  • humans are influenced by the social context and the environment
• Efficiency and validity of reductionism

  • reducing behaviour into categories may be useful in ensuring efficiency in research but it may not really inform us about every day life
  • while reductionism may be productive, the ecological validity leads us to question the true value of it
  • it has great application and therefore values, there are dangers associated with lower levels of explanation
  • we must therefore consider behaviour in a more interactionist way
• Holism

  • an approach that focuses on the whole system rather than its individual features, it acknowledges that systems work as a unified whole
• Gestalt

  • an approach favoured by German psychologists in the twentieth century
  • explanation of what we see, are only explained when considering the whole
  • gestalt- illustrates that the whole is not simply a sum of its parts
• Humanistic Holism

  • an individual reacts as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus response links
  • a unified identity- a lack of this mat lead to a mental health disorder
  • to understand people, ourselves and others, as a whole greater than the sum of their parts
  • to acknowledge the relevance and significance of full life history of an individual
  • to recognise the importance of an end goal of life ina healthy person
• Cognitive Holism

  • connective networks can be used to explain memory for example - one neuron can link to million of other neurons
  • the network as a whole and behaves differently to the parts of linear models
• Evaluation of Holism

  • holism is the only way to examine some behaviours - the social behaviours like deindividuation cannot be studies in a reductionist way: it only appears under certain personal and socio-environmental conditions
  • Holistic approaches can have greater explanatory power/be more appropriate
  • If we accept that a behavioour is caused by an interaction of intra and interpersonal factors, then doing anything meaningful is difficult
  • high level and complex theories do not lend themselves to scientific testing
  • holism may not actually be useful - low utility/RWA
• Interactionism

  • an alternative to seeing the mind and body as separate entities, by considering different levels of interaction
  • dualists consider a physical brain and a non-physical mind which interact with each other
  • Martin et al (2001)- depressed patients who received psychotherapy experience the same changes in levels of serotonin and norepinephrine