How to Explain Behavior

In How to Explain Behavior: A Critical Review and New Approach, Sam S. Rakover proposes a critical review of explanation models (procedures); presents explanation as an essential part of research methodology; depicts understanding as based on explanation models and other procedures; provides a list of basic ideas common to most explanation models; supplies an approach that unifies mechanistic explanations as used by the sciences with mentalistic explanations that are based on one's inner world; and provides a general procedure for explaining individual behavior.

Sam S. Rakover is professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Haifa.

Chapter 1: Understanding and Explanation
Chapter 2: Models of Explanation (I): Natural Sciences
Chapter 3: Models of Explanation (II): Natural and Social Sciences
Chapter 4: Reflections on Models of Explanation
Chapter 5: Methodological Dualism (MD) and the Multi-Explanation Framework (MEF) (I) Theoretical and Empirical Basis
Chapter 6: Methodological Dualism (MD) and the Multi-Explanation Framework (MEF) (II): Setting Up
Chapter 7: A Proposed General Explanation Procedure (GEP) for Understanding an Individual's Behavior