Reductionism versus Holism

Question 1

What is reductionism?

Answer 1

1. Explaining complex behavior by looking at cause and effect relationship between single factors
2. Looking at only one type of explanation for behavior e.g. biological, whilst ignoring other types of explanation e.g. social

Question 2

What is holism?

Answer 2

Explaining behavior through exploring the interactions between different factors and different types of explanations to explore their combined effect on behavior

Question 3

What areas supports Reductionism?

Answer 3

Most research is reductionist
Biological area is most reductionist
=> Explain behavior through brain activity alone
=> May remove many social life variables from problems

Question 4

What area supports Holism?

Answer 4

Not any in particular. But Grant is an example for why it is necessary
- Grant looked at the interactions between 2 variables: context at encoding, context at retrieval.
- He found that matching contexts lead to enhanced memory. This could not have been discovered by manipulating a single variable in isolation.

Question 5

Reductionism/holism links to free will/determinism

Answer 5

Reductionism links to determinism
=> Studies which look at 1 variable in isolation tends to remove free will explanations of behavior

Question 6

Reductionism/holism links to usefulness

Answer 6

Reductionist studies are useful
=> Establish cause and effect relationships and generate applications from these

Reductionist studies are not useful
=> Ignores interaction of many real life variables. Applications from them may not work in real life