[xmca] Molar, Molecular and Additive behaviour

Can anyone help me out here. Leontyev says:

"But human practice is not just a series or a sum of
actions. In other words, 'activity is a molar, not an
additive unit'."

OED says:

Molar, Psychol. Designating a large-scale unit of behaviour,
esp. an integrated set of responses serving to bring about a
common goal, as distinguished from an elementary unit of
behaviour such as a physiological response (cf. MOLECULAR
adj. 5); of or relating to (the study of) such behaviour.

1932 E. C. TOLMAN Purposive Behavior "On the one hand,
Watson has defined behavior in terms of its strict physical
and physiological details, i.e., in terms of
receptor-process, conductor-process, and effector-process
per se. We shall designate this as the molecular definition
of behavior. And on the other hand, he has come to recognize
that behavior is more than and different from the sum of its
physiological parts. Behavior has descriptive and defining
properties of its own. And we shall designate this latter as
the molar definition of behavior."

Am I missing something. By "not additive" does Leontyev
simply mean that there's more to it than S -> R ?

Andy

David Preiss wrote:
> based on the work made by max plank and run by san francisco's
> exploratorium
> http://www.exploratorium.edu/evidence/
>
>
>
> David Preiss, Ph.D.
> Subdirector de Extensión y Comunicaciones
> Escuela de Psicología
> Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
> Av Vicuña Mackenna - 4860
> 7820436 Macul
> Santiago, Chile
>
> Fono: 3544605
> Fax: 3544844
> e-mail: davidpreiss@uc.cl
> web personal: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
> web institucional: http://www.epuc.cl/profesores/dpreiss
>
>
>
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Andy Blunden http://home.mira.net/~andy/ +61 3 9380 9435 
Skype andy.blunden
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