I&D 05/06: Reductionism & holism (b) A03

Explain possible strengths of reductionism

* More scientific: focus on empiricism

* Studying basic units of behaviour similar to natural sciences

* Parsimonious – the simplest explanation is often the best.

* More objective: evidence should be observable and unaffected by opinion/subjective interpretation.

* Clarity of understanding, e.g. at the chemical, cellular level

* Better able to isolate cause when studying basic units of behaviour, broken down into elements

Explain possible weaknesses of reductionism

* Reductionism leads to loss of meaning – basic components do not add up to reflect whole experience- loss of validity

* Interaction: simplistic and ignores the complex interaction of many factors

* Loss of context: lose sight of behaviour in context

* Some behaviours, especially social behaviours, can only really be investigated in the holistic context in which they occur

* Other levels: distracts from a more appropriate level of explanation.

Explain possible strengths of holism over reductionism

* Holism involves studying and valuing human experience as a whole, considering meaning, feeling, personal experience / context.

* Only by studying the whole can we really understand human experience

* Types of investigation preferred by humanistic psychologists such as Maslow and Rogers achieve this

* Use of case studies, diaries, interviews - to yield richer, more detailed information - enhances validity

Explain possible weaknesses of holism compared to reductionism

* Less scientific

* Difficult to obtain meaningful information without losing objectivity

* Use of qualitative methods less reliable

* Overly complex: many variables involved

In what ways are models of memory reductionist?

Explain the strengths and limitations of taking a reductionist approach when explaining memory

* In the MSM and WMM the memory system is broken down into a collection of components (memory stores, slave subsystems) and processes (e.g. rehearsal).

* e.g., the MSM views memory as processing information in a linear fashion, one store and process at a time.

Strengths

* By isolating units of the memory system, each can be studied relatively easily in laboratory research.

* e.g., the duration of information in the phonological loop can be studied more precisely and objectively by isolating it from the influences of the visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Limitations

* Models of memory therefore oversimplify a complex system.: memory is probably made up of many components interacting with each other via many processes.

* More recent models (e.g. connectionist) say that memory is ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ because of these interactions.

* e.g., interactions between central executive and phonological loop may mean that memory operates very differently from the impression we get when studying the components in isolation.