Reductionism/Holism

Question 1

What is reductionism?

Answer 1

There is a single lower level explanation that accounts for psychological explanations

Question 2

What is holism?

Answer 2

Focuses on multiple aspects as reasons for psychological explanations

Question 3

What are the strengths of a reductionist approach?

Answer 3

• Easier to draw more accurate conclusions about cause and effect as they tend to be more controlled
• Usually very highly controlled, so are replicable, enabling a consistent effect to be established

Question 4

What are the weaknesses of research being reductionist?

Answer 4

• Human behaviour is too complicated to be reduced to single factor explanations
• Highly controlled reductionist studies often lack ecological validity

Question 5

What are the strengths of research being holistic?

Answer 5

• Leads to explanations of behaviour that are high in face validity because all factors are considered

Question 6

What are the weaknesses of research being Holistic?

Answer 6

• Difficult for researchers to pin down which out of many different factors is having the greatest effect