Holism and Reductionism

• the essence of this debate involves the best method to explain behaviour
• is it better to explain behaviour at a higher level, including more complex factors or is it better to explain behaviour at a lower level, using simpler components
• levels of explanation refers to different ways of viewing the same behaviour
• reductionism involves reducing behaviour from a higher level of explanation to a lower one, whilst still fully explaining the behaviour. what separates different reductionists is the lowest level of explanation to which they believe reduction works
• for the behaviourists, social and environmental factors can be explained fully by looking at the behavioural level and anything below this level doesn't explain behaviour fully
• the holist argues that there may be different levels of explanation but that behaviour cannot be perfectly reduced to any single one of them
• according to socio-cultural explanations, behaviour can be explained by understanding things that occur in our social environment, as well as cultural influences
• according to psychological explanations, behaviour can be explained in terms of our mental processes and attitudes towards past experiences
• according to cognitive explanations, behaviour can be explained by understanding how individuals process information
• according to behavioural explanations, behaviour can be explained with reference to learning processes such as reinforcement and punishment
• according to biological and evolutionary explanations, behaviour can be explained in terms of biology. for example, the workings of the brain, genes, hormones and neurotransmitters, or evolutionary adaptations that have led to the selection of that particular behaviour