This article addresses the debate within the applied behavioral sciences over two paradigms:holism versus reductionism. A review of the literature reveals substantial support for the holistic approach, but most of the applied perspectives employed by policy practitioners are reductionist in character. Through a "sociology of knowledge" evaluation of clinical medicine-one of the most successful applied behavioral sciences-the prevalence of reductionism is related to several social structural factors, including the organizational and normative structure of the practitioner group and the broader interest structure of society. The author presents evidence indicating that the same factors account for the predominance of reductionism in all applied behavioral sciences.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adelman, H.
, & Adelman, A. (1977). Explorations toward a logic of empirical discovery: A case study in clinical medicine. Journal of Philosophy and Medicine, 2(1), 54-70.
2.
Alexander, J. C.
, Giesan, B., Munch, R., & Smelser, N. J. (1987). The micro-macro link. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
3.
Bauman, E.
, Brint, A., Piper, L., & Wright, P. (Eds.). (1978). The holistic health handbook. Berkeley, CA: And/Or Press.
4.
Berliner, H. S.
, & Salmon, J. W. (1980). The holistic alternative to scientific medicine: History and analysis. International Journal of Health Services, 10, 133-148.
5.
Brown, E. R.
(1979). Rockefeller medicine men: Medicine and capitalism in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
6.
Buckley, W.
(1967). Sociology and modern systems theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
7.
Coleman, J. S.
(1986). Social theory, social research, and a theory of action. American Journal of Sociology, 91(6), 1309-1335.
8.
Dror, Y.
(1971). Applied social science and systems analysis. In I. L. Horowitz (Ed.), The use and abuse of social science (pp. 109-132). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
9.
Easton, D.
(1972). Comment on Robert Lane's political science and policy analysis. In J. C. Charlesworth (Ed.), Integration of the social sciences through policy analysis (pp. 88-89) (AAPSS Monograph 14). Philadelphia: AAPSS.
10.
Engel, G.
(1977). The need for a new medical model: A challenge for biomedicine. Science, 197, 129-135.
11.
Feinstein, A. R.
(1967). Clinical judgment. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
12.
Feinstein, A. R.
(1983). An additional basic science for clinical medicine: The constraining fundamental paradigms. Annals of Internal Medicine, 99(3), 393-397.
13.
Forstrom, L. A.
(1977). The scientific autonomy of clinical medicine. Journal of Philosophy and Medicine, 2(1), 8-19.
14.
Freeman, H. E.
, & Rossi, P. H. (1984). Furthering the applied side of sociology. American Sociological Review, 49(4), 571-580.
15.
Freeman, H. E.
, & Sherwood, C. C. (1970). Social Research and Social Policy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
16.
Foucault, M.
(1973). The birth of the clinic. New York: Vintage Books.
17.
Giddens, A.
(1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
18.
Gouldner, A. W.
(1970). The coming crisis of Western Sociology. New York: Basic Books.
19.
Harris, M.
(1986). Cultural anthropology. New York: Harper & Row.
20.
Hastings, A. G.
, Fadiman, J., & Gordon, J. S. (Eds.). (1980). Health for the whole person. Boulder, CO: Westview.
21.
Janowitz, M.
(1972). Sociological models and social policy. Morristown, NJ: The General Learning Press.
22.
Journal of Holistic Health. (1976-1979). 1-4.
23.
King, L. S.
(1982). Medical thinking: A Historical preface. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
24.
Knorr-Cetina, K.
, & Cicourel, A. (Eds.). (1981). Advances in social theory and methodology. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
25.
Kopelman, L.
, & Maskop, J. (1981). The holistic health movement: A survey and critique. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 6, 209-235.
26.
Kronenfeld, J. J.
, & Wasner, C. (1982). The use of unorthodox therapies and the marginal practitioner. Social Science and Medicine, 16, 1119-1125.
27.
Kunitz, S. J.
(1983). The historical roots and ideological functions of disease concepts in three primary care specialties. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 57(3), 412-432.
28.
Lyng, S. G. (1982). Dialectics and social theory: A countersystem analysis of medical practice. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.
29.
McKeown, T.
(1979). The role of medicine: Dream, mirage or nemesis?Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
30.
Maines, D. R.
(1982). In search of mesostructure: Studies in the negotiated order. Urban Life, 11, 267-279.
31.
Marmot, M.
, & Syme, S. L. (1976). Acculturation and coronary heart disease in Japanese-Americans. American Journal of Epidemiology, 104, 225-247.
32.
Marx, K.
, & Engels, F. (1972). The German ideology. New York: International. (Original work published in 1932)
33.
Moore, M. C.
, & Moore, L. J. (1983). The complete handbook of holistic health. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
34.
Murphy, E. A.
(1976). The logic of medicine. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
35.
Murphy, E. A.
(1981). Skepsis, dogma, and belief: Uses and abuses in medicine. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
36.
Ollman, B.
(1971). Alienation: Marx's conception of man in capitalist society. London: Cambridge University Press.
37.
Orlans, H.
(1968, December). Making social research more useful to government. Social Science Information, 7, 151-158.
38.
Phillips, D. C.
(1976). Holistic thought in social science. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
39.
Polkinghorne, D.
(1983). Methodology for the human sciences. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
40.
Popper, K.
(1960). The poverty of historicism. New York: Basic Books.
41.
Reite, M.
, Short, R., Seiler, C., & Pauley, J. (1980). Attachment, loss and depression. Journal of Child Psychological Psychiatry, 212, 1-30.
42.
Rosch, P. J.
, & Kearney, H. N. (1985). Holistic medicine and technology: A modern dialectic. Social Science and Medicine, 21, 1405-1409.
43.
Rosenkrantz, B. G.
(1976). Causal thinking in Erewhon and elsewhere. Journal of Philosophy and Medicine, 1(4), 372-384.
44.
Rossi, P. H.
(1980). The presidential address: Challenge and opportunities of applied social research. American Sociological Review, 45(6), 889-904.
45.
Rossi, P. H.
(1981). Post-war applied social research: Growth and opportunities of applied social research. American Behavioral Scientist, 24(3), 445-461.
46.
Rydell, L. H.
(1976). Trends in infant mortality: Medical advances or socioeconomic changes. Acta Sociologica, 19(2), 147-168.
47.
Scott, R. A.
, & Shore, A. R. (1979). Why sociology does not apply: A study in the uses of sociology in public policy. New York: Elsevier.
48.
Selye, H.
(1956). The stress of life. New YorkMcGraw-Hill.
49.
Sjoberg, G.
, & Cain, L. (1971). Negative values, countersystem models, and the analysis of social systems. In H. Turk & R. Simpson (Eds.), Institutions and social exchange: The sociologies of Talcott Parsons and George H. Homans (pp. 212-229). Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
50.
Spaeth, G. L.
, & Barber, G. W. (1980). Homocystinuria and the passing of the one gene-one enzyme concept of disease. Journal of Philosophy of Medicine, 5(1), 8-21.
51.
Starr, P.
(1982). The social transformation of American medicine. New York: Basic Books.
52.
Syme, S. L.
, & Berkman, L. F. (1976). Social class, susceptibility and sickness. American Journal of Epidemiology, 104(7), 1-8.
53.
Truman, D. B.
(1968, May). The social sciences and public policies. Science, 160, 508-512.
54.
Verbrugge, L. M.
(1985). Gender and health: An update on hypotheses and evidence. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 26, 157-177.
55.
Whyte, W. F.
(1978). Organizational behavior-where do we go from here? In E. M. Eddy & W. L. Partridge (Eds.), Applied anthropology in America (pp. 129-143). New York: Columbia University Press.
