Holism Versus Reductionism

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the holism versus reductionism debate, focusing in particular on: (i) the compatibility of reductionism with hard and soft determinism; (ii) defining reductionism as a method of understanding something by isolating each element and considering it individually; (iii) reductionism in research, which is very compatible with determinism, as you can predict outcomes after isolating and extracting factors; (iv) advantages and disadvantages of reductionism in research, including its potential limitations due to the complexity of human behaviour; (v) the holistic approach, which argues that things are more than simply a sum of their parts; (vi) the top down approach (rather than bottom up) in holism, which considers a breadth of influences and/or interpretations; (vii) the advantages and disadvantages of a holistic perspective, including the inherent difficulty in experimenting on things with this philosophical idea in mind.

About the lecturer

Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya is a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Dr Bouguettaya’s research interests are in social psychology and how knowledge from that field can be applied to others, particularly health, including how we can apply social identity theory to societal problems, as well as investigating the different perspectives one might take on those issues. Some of Dr Bouguettaya’s recent publications include 'The relationship between gambling advertising and gambling attitudes, intentions and behaviours: a critical and meta-analytic review' (2020) and 'The Effect of a Food Addiction Explanation Model for Weight Control and Obesity on Weight Stigma' (2020).