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Issues and debates: reductionism and holism

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Should psychologists break behaviour into small parts, or look at the whole person? Memory research gives examples of both approaches.

Key terms

Reductionism: explaining complex behaviour by breaking it into simpler parts. A reductionist explanation focuses on one or a few simple factors, for example explaining memory as stores or brain areas.
Holism: studying behaviour as a whole, including how parts work together and the effects of experience and culture. A holistic explanation looks at the whole person in context.

Memory examples

Reductionist: the multi-store model reduces memory to three stores and two processes (attention and rehearsal). Peterson and Peterson studied one feature, STM duration, using trigrams. Explaining amnesia only through damage to one brain area is also reductionist.
Holistic: Bartlett's reconstructive memory theory looks at how a person's schemas, culture and experiences all affect what they remember, explaining individual differences in memory.

Evaluating each side

Reductionism: strengths: simple parts can be tested scientifically in controlled experiments. Weaknesses: it may oversimplify and miss how factors interact, such as emotion and culture.
Holism: strengths: more complete; it fits real-life experience and individual differences. Weaknesses: harder to test scientifically, because many factors are involved at once.
Worked example

Is the multi-store model reductionist or holistic? Explain.

  1. It breaks memory into three stores and simple processes.
  2. It ignores factors such as emotion and culture.

Answer: Reductionist, because it reduces memory to a few simple stores and processes.

Key idea

Reductionism breaks behaviour into simple parts (the multi-store model, Peterson and Peterson). Holism looks at the whole person in context (Bartlett's reconstructive memory). Reductionism is easier to test; holism gives a fuller picture.

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