Essay
Reductionism vs holism debate: full marks
- Module
- Issues and Debates
- Institution
- AQA
This is an essay describing and evaluating the reductionism vs holism debate. This example is 16/16 A*.
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Discuss the reductioiss hiliss debate. (16 sarks)Holism is the argument that human behaviour should be studied as an indivisible system, as a person
must be analysed as a whole. It focuses on many aspects that contribute to behaviour and how they interact, as –
according to Gestalt – “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. For example, humanistc psychology as
considered holistc as it focuses on how many aspects – such as self-actualisaton, conditons of worth and
congruence – contribute to an individual’s personal growth and psychological wellbeing.
Reductonism is the argument that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into its
consttuent parts. Biological reductonism aims to explain behaviour by focusing on the lowest level of explanaton;
for example the neural explanaton of OCD claims that the disorder is caused by too litle serotonin. Environmental
reductonism aims to explain behaviour by focusing on the middle level of explanaton: psychological reasoning.
For example, the learning explanaton of gambling addicton claims that the addicton is maintained by operant
conditoning and cue reactvity. Because it is difcult to test empirically, the highest level of explanaton – that
deals with social and cultural factors – is ofen not focused on.
A strength of reductonist approaches is that they can be tested scientically. By breaking down behaviour
into smaller parts, variables can be operatonalised and experiments can gather empirical data that can
demonstrate causal connectons. Not only does this high internal validity increase the credibility of psychology as a
science, but it allows for practcal applicatons; for example, Lofus found that leading questons cause our
memories to be stored inaccurately, and this research has been used to develop the cognitve interview, whereby
minimal police conversatonal input has led to increased accuracy of eye-witness testmony.
However, because reductonist research ofen focuses so heavily on one level of explanaton, issues are
ofen oversimpliied and other factors are ignored, meaning that experiments lack external validity, and
generalisability of research to real life and to practcal applicatons is limited. For example, Yuille and Cutshall
studied eyewitnesses to an actual crime and found leading questons had no efect on recall accuracy. In order to
draw conclusions, it may be beter to investgate issues initally using a reductonist approach; however, then
research should move through the levels of explanaton to make conclusions more holistc, as humans are complex
and ofen many factors and their interactons are involved, although it may be difcult to determine which are the
most important.
An interactonist approach – such as the diathesis-stress model for psychopathology – may be a beter
way to understand human behaviour. Diathesis-stress explanatons – which are ofen supported by twin studies –
have led to multdisciplinary and holistc treatments, such as combining CBT and SSRIs to treat depression, that are
associated with lower relapse rates and are therefore more efectve long-term. Furthermore, Martn found that
depressed patents receiving psychotherapy experience the same changes in serotonin as those receiving drugs,
suggestng that the levels of explanaton interact to determine our behaviour. This shows that interactonist
approaches may be more valuable than holistc or reductonist approaches, as they have more efectve practcal
applicatons.
Word count: 189 + 319
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