Holism vs Reductionalism

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  • 3 layers of Reductionism:
    • Biological
    • Psychological (Cognitive, Behavioural)
    • Social & Cultural (social influence)
  • Reductionism - the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts
  • Reductionism is based on the scientific assumption of parsimony: the idea that complex phenomena should be explained in the simplest terms possible.
  • Occham's Razor: one should not make unnecessary assumptions and that the answer to a problem is often the simplest.
  • Holism - human behaviour should be viewed as a whole experiences, and not as separate parts
  • holos - greek word for whole
  • Psychologists who adopt a holistic approach are known as Gestalt Psychologists