topic 2 - reductionism & holism debate Flashcards
what is the debate about?
the debate concerns whether it is better to explain phenomena such as human behaviour, by examining its simplest parts or whether ti is better to take into account the whole person and experience.
define the term “reductionism”
is the belief or approach that complex things can be explained by breaking them down into the simplest underlying principles and parts.
define the term “holism”
is the approach or belief that things can be explained by considering the hole rather than the constituent parts. This includes examining the whole behaviour, whole experience, whole person or whole system.
what are the strengths of reductionism?
it is consistent with a scientific approach to understanding human behaviour
it is easier to examine and test simple components of behaviour.
what are the weaknesses of reductionism?
it does not take into account the complexity of behaviour
it can ignore interactions between parts fo behaviour.
what are the strengths of holism?
it can give more complete view of behaviour than the reductionist approach.
it does not ignore the complexity of human behaviour
what are the weaknesses of holism?
it is difficult to investigate behaviour at many different levels and to integrate the explanations.
it can be difficult to predict behaviour based on many levels of explanation (which the reductionist approach can do)
