Reductionism/holism

• Reductionism

  Aims to get to the heart of specific problems by finding a single lower-level explanation that accounts for the various higher-level psychological explanations
• Holism

  Focuses on whole phenomena and is not really interested in studying their isolated parts but instead stresses the need to understand the complex interactions that take place
• Reductionism strengths

  • Taking a reductionist approach allows psychological research to be more scientific (as it allows researchers to test the impact on the behaviour of one factor at a time)
  • Studies which take a reductionist approach make it possible to draw more clear conclusions about cause and effect because they tend to be more highly controlled.
  • As studies take a reductionist approach are so highly controlled, they are often more replicable, enabling researchers to repeat studies to see if there is a similar effet
• Reductionism strengths

  • Human behaviour is often too complex to be reduced to single-factor explanations
  • Reductionist research can therefore lack construct validity in the conclusions drawn about the explanations for behaviour
  • Studies which take a reductionist approach are often highly controlled experiments and can lack ecological validity
  • Reductionist research can encounter the 'decoupling problem' (e.g. a cognitive process such as memory) to be able to study it on its own when in real life it always operates in conjunction with other cognitive processes
• Holism strengths

  • Taking a holistic approach can lead to explanations of behaviour that are high in face validity because all factors are considered
  • Holism can account for 'emergent properties' that only appear through the combination of different factors but would not be present in any single component part (e.g. intelligence emerges through the interaction of the neurons in our brain but would not be seen by studying any single factor on its own)
• Holism weaknesses

  • It can be difficult for researchers to pin down which, out of many different factors, is having the greatest effect
  • Holistic explanations can end up being quite vague, including levels of explanation that may not be necessary. This can undermine the claim that psychology is a science
  • May be limited use as it means it will be difficult to make predictions