Ecological psychology
Ecological psychology is a term claimed by a number of schools of psychology. However, the two main ones are one on the writings of James J. Gibson, and another on the work of Roger G. Barker, Herb Wright and associates at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Whereas Gibsonian psychology is always termed Ecological Psychology, the work of Barker (and his followers) is also sometimes referred to as Environmental Psychology. There is a considerable amount of overlap between the two schools, although the Gibsonian approach tends to be more philosophical.
Both schools emphasise 'real world' studies of behaviour as opposed to the artificial environment of the laboratory.
Contents |
[edit] Barker
Barker's work was based on his empirical work at this Midwest Field Station. He wrote later: "The Midwest Psychological Field Station was established to facilitate the study of human behavior and its environment in situ by bringing to psychological science the kind of opportunity long available to biologists: easy access to phenomena of the science unaltered by the selection and preparation that occur in laboratories." (Barker, 1968). The study of environmental units (behavior settings) grew out of this research. In his classic work "Ecological Psychology" (1968) he argued that human behaviour was radically situated: in other words, you couldn't make predictions about human behaviour unless you know what situation or context or environment the human in question was in. For example, there are certain behaviours appropriate to being in church, attending a lecture, working in a factory etc, and the behaviour of people in these environments is more similar than the behaviour of an individual person in different environments. He has since developed these theories in a number of books and articles.[1]
[edit] Gibson
Gibson also stressed the importance of the environment, in particular, the (direct) perception of how the environment of an organism affords various actions to the organism. Thus, an appropriate analysis of the environment was crucial for an explanation of perceptually-guided behaviour. He argued that animals and humans stand in a 'systems' or 'ecological' relation to the environment, such that to adequately explain some behaviour it was necessary to study the environment or niche in which the behaviour took place and, especially, the information that 'epistemically connects' the organism to the environment. It is his emphasis that the foundation for perception is ambient, ecologically available information - as opposed to peripheral or internal sensations - that makes Gibson's perspective unique in perceptual science in particular and cognitive science in general. [2] The aphorism: "Ask not what's inside your head, but what your head's inside of" succinctly captures that point.[3] Gibson's theory of perception is information-based rather than sensation-based and to that extent, an analysis of the environment (in terms of affordances), and the concomitant specificational information that the organism detects about such affordances, is central to the ecological approach to perception.
Throughout the 1970s and up until his death in 1979, Gibson increased his focus on the environment through development of the theory of affordances - the real, perceivable opportunities for action in the environment, that are specified by ecological information. He rejected outright indirect perception, in favour of ecological realism, his new form of direct perception that involves the new concept of ecological affordances. He also rejected the emerging constructivist, information processing and cognitivist views that assume and emphasize internal representation and the processing of meaningless, physical sensations ('inputs') in order to create meaningful, mental perceptions ('output'), all supported and implemented by a neurological basis (inside the head).
[edit] See also
- Conservation psychology
- Community Psychology
- Urie Bronfenbrenner
- Environmental Design Research Association
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Situated cognition
- Action-Specific Perception
- Active Perception
[edit] References
- ^ * Barker, R. G. (1968). Ecological psychology: Concepts and methods for studying the environment of human behavior. Stanford, Ca.: Stanford University Press.
- Barker, R. G. (1979). Influence of the frontier environment on behavior. In J. O. Steffen (Ed.), The American West (pp. 61-92). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
- Barker, R. G. (1987). Prospecting in environmental psychology. In D. Stokols & Altman (Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology, Vol. 2. (pp. 1413-1432). New York: Wiley.
- Barker, R. G. & Associates. (1978). Habitats, environments, and human behavior. Studies in ecological psychology and eco-behavioral science from the Mid¬west Psychological Field Station, 1947-1972. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Barker, R. G. & Schoggen, P. (1973). Qualities of community life: Methods of measuring environment and behavior applied to an American and an English town. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Schoggen, P. (1989). Behavior settings: A revision and extension of Roger G.Barker's ecological psychology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
- ^ Gibson, James J. (1966). The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems, Boston: Hughton Mifflin, p. 21.
- ^ Mace, W. M. (1977). James J. Gibson's strategy for perceiving: Ask not what's inside your head, but what your head's inside of. In R. E. Shaw & J. Bransford (Eds.), Perceiving, acting, and knowing. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
[edit] Further reading
[edit] Encyclopedia entries
- Mace, William/Harry Heft (2010): Ecological Approach. In: E. Bruce Goldstein (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Perception, London: SAGE, pp. 375–380.
- Neisser, Ulric (1999): Ecological Psychology. In: Robert A. Wilson/Frank C. Keil (Eds.), The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 255–256.
- Shaw, R./Turvey, M. T./Mace, W. M. (1982): Ecological Psychology: The Consequence of a Commitment to Realism. In W. Weimer/D. Palermo (Eds.), Cognition and the Symbolic Processes II, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 159–226.
- Turvey, Michael T. (2003): Perception: The Ecological Approach. In: Lynn Nadel, Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, London: Nature Publishing Group. Vol. 3, pp. 538–541.
[edit] Books
- Gibson, J.J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 0898599598 (1986)
- Gibson, E. J. & Pick, A. D. (2003). An Ecological Approach to Perceptual Learning and Development. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Heft, H. (2001) Ecological Psychology in Context: James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the Legacy of William James's Radical Empiricism. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Reed, E.S. (1988). James J. Gibson and the psychology of perception. New Have: Yale University Press.
- Reed, E.S. (1996a). Encountering the World: Toward an Ecological Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
[edit] Articles
- Reed, E.S. (1987). James Gibson's Ecological Approach to Cognition (pp. 142-173). In A. Costall & A. Still (Eds.). Cognitive Psychology in Question. Sussex: Harvester Press.
- Reed, E.S. (1996b). James J. Gibson: Pioneer and iconoclast (pp. 247-261). In G. Kimble, C. Boneau, & M. Wertheimer. (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology (Vol. 2) Hillsdale, NJ: APA & Erlbaum.
[edit] Journals
- Ecological Psychology The journal Ecological Psychology publishes experimental studies and theoretical discussion related to Gibson's style of direct perception research.
- Journal of Environmental Psychology
- Environment and Behavior
- Ecopsychology
- European Journal of Ecopsychology
- Journal of Sustainable Behavior
[edit] External links
- International Society for Ecological Psychology
- Centre for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action
- Teaching Psychology for Sustainability
- Metaffordance Affordances and technology interfaces.
- Direct Perception.; An early classic and a good introduction to the theoretical background and available research (circa 1980) on ecological psychology and direct perception; by Claire Michaels and Claudia Carello.
