Evaluation

• Practical value

  - holistic accounts of human behaviour tend to become hard to use as they become more complex.

  - e.g. if we accept that there are many different factors that contribute to depression, then it’s difficult to know which is most influential.

  - difficult to know which to prioritise for therapy
• Scientific approach

  - reductionist approach- often form basis of scientific approach

  To conduct well-controlled research, we need to operationalise variables.

  Makes it more possible to conduct experiments that are objective and reliable.

  Gives psychology greater credibility
• Counterpoint to scientific approach

  - reductionist approach oversimplifies complex phenomena.

  - reduced validity

  - explanations involving genes don’t include the social context

  - physiological processes in pointing finger are the same, an analysis wont tell us why the finger is pointed.