Holism vs reductionism

• What is holism?

  Humanistic psychology where the whole is better than the sum of its parts. Humans react to stimuli as a whole. Psychologists consider all facets of a person, with Carl Rogers being the proponent of the humanistic approach.
• what is reductionism?

  when one only focuses on observable, measurable behaviour. behaviour is best explained when broken down into it’s smaller constituent parts.
• what is reductionism based on?

  the scientific principle of parsimony. This is when all behaviour should be explained using the most simple, basic principle.
• what are the two types of reductionism?

  biological and environmental (stimulus-response)
• what is environmental reductionism?

  this is when behaviour is broken down into stimulus response associations which are then observed in a lab. They only look at physical behaviour on the “outside”, but nothing on the inside.
• what is biological reductionism?

  this assumes that al behaviour can be explained through genetics, evolution, neurochemistry and neurophysiology. We are biological organisms made up of physiological structures and processes.
• example of biological reductionism

  a meta-analysis of twin studies found that MZ twins are more than 50% likely to develop OCD compared to DZ twins. This suggests the genetic link.
• what are the levels of explanation?

  this refers to the different ways of viewing the same phenomenon in psychology. Reductionism suggests that lower-level explanations will eventually replace higher-level explanations, according to the reductionist hierarchy of science.
• explain the levels of explanation?


  Explanations begin at the highest level and eventually reduce down to the bottom of the hierarchy.
• what is the positive?

  reductionist approaches often form the basis of scientific research. In order to make operationalised variables, we must break behaviours down into smaller units.
• what is the negative?

  reductionist approaches can oversimplify complex phenomenons, leading to a loss of validity.