Reductionism and Holism

Holism vs Reductionism

Reductionism and holism are two approaches to studying people and behaviour. Reductionism is the view that aims to break down psychological processes into small and simple elements. In contrast, holism holds that we should consider human behaviour as a whole rather than its parts because many factors contribute to human behaviour.

On the other hand...

Holism and Reductionism in Psychology

Holism in psychology examines the human mind and behaviour as a whole rather than examining distinct parts. Reductionism in psychology examines the human mind and behaviour in parts rather than looking at human behaviour as a whole. A good example can be seen in visual illusions.

In 1912, a group of psychologists aimed to explain how visual illusions were perceived and why the human brain was faulty in some of its perceptions.

If you were asked to report what you seeing the picture below, you would most likely state that you see a white triangle. In fact, there is no triangle. Your brain interprets the parts of the images, making a holistic representation of the separate features, and hints to you that there is a triangle.

Fig. 2 - Visual illusion of the presence of a white triangle.

Gestalt Psychology, thus, was the first psychology school that mentioned the debate between holism and reductionism. It can be treated like the nature-nurture or the free-will versus determinism debates. There is no right or wrong answer, but both approaches have different assumptions, and psychologists, researchers and students need to be aware of these and assess their implications.

Holism vs Reductionism: Psychology

Holism views behaviour as a whole and reductionism views behaviour in parts; we can therefore examine the differences between holism and reductionism in psychology through a holism vs reductionism debate. Reductionism includes biological, cognitive and behavioural approaches, whereas holism includes humanistic, social, and psychodynamic approaches.

Reductionist Approaches

Some reductionist approaches in psychology are biological, behavioural, cognitive, social, and psychodynamic approaches. Rose (1976) proposed several levels of explanation for reductionism. The lowest level is biological explanations (e.g., genes, brain structure). These are followed by psychological explanations (e.g., cognitive, behavioural). The highest level is social explanations.

The Biological Approach

Biological psychologists attempt to explain human behaviour in terms of endogenous processes by looking at neurochemicals, genes, brain structure, and hormonal activity. This approach is called biological reductionism.

The Cognitive Approach

This explanatory approach reduces behaviour to cognitive explanations such as attentional processes or memory.Cognitive psychologists attempt to explain behaviour by breaking it down into isolated variables. They apply machine reductionism by portraying people as information-processing systems and disregarding emotional influences on behaviour.

The Behavioural Approach

Behaviourism explains behaviour with simple responses: stimuli, response, reinforcement and punishment. This approach is also called environmental reductionism because it explains simple and complex behaviour in terms of stimulus-response.

Holistic Approaches

Holistic approaches in psychology explain human behaviour by investigating and examining humans as whole persons and not just the sum of mental processes and functions in their simplest forms.

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychology is considered a holistic approach. Humanistic psychology considers all facets of a person. Humanistic psychologists believe that holism is an excellent perspective to understand the mind and behaviour. The proponent of the humanistic approach, Carl Rogers, described the self as:

The concept creates awareness of who an individual is and who they can be, leading to self-actualisation. This is a holistic view, and in the humanistic sense, the basis of knowledge is the human psyche.

The Social Approach

This approach explains behaviour using the influence of society and social groups. For example, cultural norms and social influences shape gender according to the social approach.

The Psychodynamic Approach

As Freud often considered childhood experiences and other forces, the psychodynamic approach is relatively holistic, in that it explores interactions between various aspects of the psyche. The id, ego, and superego interact to form the person's traits.

Evaluating Holism and Reductionism

Each approach has its benefits and drawbacks. Let us examine this using holism and reductionism as examples.

Psychology: Holism

First, let's examine holism. Here is a table examining the strengths and weaknesses of holism.

Psychology: Reductionism

Now, let's explore reductionism. Here is a table examining the strengths and weaknesses of reductionism.