Issues and debates(memory)

Reductionism and Holism

Reductionism

Reductionism

its a scientific theory of describing something using its basic parts.In short,explaining any behavior or phenomenon by breaking it down into its smallest parts

1 advantage of reductionism

one strength of reductionism is that it looks at cause and effect which helps invetigate the roots of peoples behaviour.

1 disadvantage of reductionism

one weakness reductionism is the lack of real world application as lab experiments are performed which means they can be unrepresentative of the majority one example of this is atkinson and shiffirin’s study.

reductionist

when a study that describes a behavior by a single explanation it is reductionist

holism

Emphasizes the whole system,person or experience not just specific parts.

1 strength of holism

one strength of holism is the validity because of the fact that it uses qualitative methods which provide greater insight into the causes of that specific behavior and allows one to understand the whole person and their beliefs

one weakness of holism

one weakness of holism is that there is a lack of generalisability.This is because it focuses on the individual and can be considered unscientific because of this.

what can be associated with reductionism

-multi store memory theory

-information precessing

-lab experiments

what can be associated with holism

-reconstructive memory theory

-qualitative analysis

studies that are reductionist

-Atkinson and Shiffirin(1968)

studies that are holistic

bartlett’s war of the ghosts (1932)