Evolution of behavior and the comparative method

The comparative method, that is, the discrimination of similarities and differences in the physical and social aspects of the environment, requires the concept of levels of integration and organization to be useful in the study of the evolution and development of behavior. Comparative studies based on the quasi-scientific theories of the inheritance of behavior and the predominance of genetic processes as causal in evolution and development of all species, including people, — Lorenzian ethology, Wilsonian sociobiology —overlook significant differences among species and reduce quantitative and qualitative differences in behavior to a unitary causal mechanism, which is not sufficient to explain complex behavior. Further, such theories oversimplify genetic processes and their relation to behavior. The comparative method is applicable and useful when the questions to be answered are based on stated assumptions which are testable and when the levels of the phenomena being compared are equivalent.