Beyond reductionism: Refocusing on the individual with individual-based modeling

A s a psychologist, my research focuses on the behavior of individual organisms. Such research often requires the integration of causes at multiple levels of organization to explain, predict, and control behavior (e.g., lower levels include genetic, physiological, hormonal, and neurological causes; upper levels include, group, social, and ecological causes of behavior). A question of fundamental importance is whether focusing on the individual is more than a disciplinary perspective. Do individual organisms hold a special place in our understanding of the world? If so, how can we hope to integrate information from multiple levels of organization into a deeper understanding of the complex behavior of individual organisms? In this essay, I argue that individual organisms do hold a special place in our world. My starting point is the precept that individual organisms are complex systems that are intractable to reductionistic explanation. This does not imply that JEFFREY C. SCHANK