Comparative psychology emphasizes similarities and differences between levels in both the abilities and the organization of behavior. Studies of the organization of species-typical behavior have lagged because of insufficient attention to organization-relevant problems in behavioral ontogenesis. They have also lagged because of a contemporary emphasis on specialized, molecular problems dictated by such positivistic doctrines as the Pavlovian, the Lorenzian, the Hullian, and the Skinnerian. Implications of instinctivistic concepts of behavior are discussed, especially the damping effect they have imposed on developmental research. As an antidote, logical steps are out-lined toward studying the "whole organism" in comparative psychology. To this end a developmental theory is advanced, centered on redefinitions of the concepts of "maturation" and "experience," and designed to suggest a widened range of hypotheses for developmental research, as well as to avoid the blind alleys of such traditional dichotomies...