holism vs reductionism

• what is holism?

  • looking at the whole person
  • humans can only be understood by looking at all psychological aspects
  • assumes you can't isolate individual parts of human experience
  • sum of the parts doesn't equal the whole e.g. brain + body + experience doesn't = a human
• what's an example of holism?

  • humanistic approach which assumes human psychology is too complex to look at the individual parts
• what is reductionism?

  • studying 'parts' of the system
  • humans can only be understood by investigating each part individually
  • based on principle of parisomy (everything should be explained using the simplest explanation)
  • sum of the parts equals or explains the whole (brain + body + experience = human
  • environmental/biological reductionism
• what's an example of reductionism?

  • a behaviourist explanation of attachment is quite simple
• what are the 2 types of reductionism?

  • biological
  • environmental
• what is biological reductionism?

  • our behaviour is determined by biological factors
  • genetics
  • evolution
  • neurochemistry (neurotransmitters)
• what is environmental reductionism?

  • our behaviour is determined by environmental factors
  • learned through experience
  • influenced by conditioning
• reductionism strengths

  • the basis of scientific approach
  • we can operationalise variables by breaking down behaviour into individual parts
  • we can make predictions (hypothesis) about the cause and effect of certain behaviours
• reductionism limitations

  • it simplifies complex behaviour. explaining behaviours using genetic explanations ignores the social context
  • some behaviours can only be understood at the higher levels of explanation
  • conformity can only be understood at the social level and can't be explained by analysing the individual as conformity only happens in groups