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In this book Harry Heft examines the historical and theoretical foundations of James J. Gibson's ecological psychology in 20th century thought, and in turn, integrates ecological psychology and analyses of sociocultural processes. A thesis of the book is that knowing is rooted in the direct experience of meaningful environmental objects and events present in individual-environment processes and at the level of collective, social settings. Ecological Psychology in Context: *traces the primary lineage of Gibson's ecological approach to William James's philosophy of radical empiricism; *illuminates how the work of James's student and Gibson's mentor, E.B. Holt, served as a catalyst for the development of Gibson's framework and as a bridge to James's work; *reveals how ecological psychology reciprocally can advance Jamesian studies by resolving some of the theoretical difficulties that kept James from fully realizing a realist philosophy; *broadens the scope of Gibson's framework by proposing a synthesis between it and the ecological program of Roger Barker, who discovered complex systems operating at the level of collective, social processes; *demonstrates ways in which the psychological domain can be extended to properties of the environment rendering its features meaningful, publicly accessible, and distributed across person-environment processes; and *shows how Gibson's work points the way toward overcoming the gap between experimental psychology and the humanities. Intended for scholars and students in the areas of ecological and environmental psychology, theoretical and historical psychology, cognitive science, developmental psychology, anthropology, and philosophy.
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Ecological Psychology in Context : James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the Legacy of William James's Radical Empiricism Resources for Ecological Psychology Heft, Harry. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 0805823506 9780805823509 9780585382630 English Environmental psychology. 2001 BF353.H36 2001eb 155.9 Environmental psychology.
Page i Ecological Psychology in Context: James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the Legacy of William James's Radical Empiricism
Page ii RESOURCES FOR ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY A Series of Volumes Edited by: Robert E. Shaw, William M. Mace, and Michael T. Turvey Reed/Jones • Reasons for Realism: Selected Essays of James J. Gibson Warren/Shaw • Persistence and Change Johnston/Pietrewicz • Issues in the Ecological Study of Learning McCabe/Balzano • Event Cognition: An Ecological Perspective Lombardo • The Reciprocity of Perceiver and Environment: The Evolution of James J. Gibson's Ecological Psychology Kugler/Turvey • Information, Natural Law, and the Self-Assembly of Rhythmic Movement Alley • Social and Applied Aspects of Perceiving Faces Warren/Wertheim • Perception and Control of Self-Motion Thinès/Costall/Butterworth • Michotte’s Experimental Phenomenology of Perception Jansson/Bergström/Epstein • Perceiving Events and Objects Flach/Hancock/Caird/Vicente • Global Perspectives on the Ecology of HumanMachine Systems (Volume 1) Hancock/Flach/Caird/Vicente • Local Applications of the Ecological Approach to Human-Machine Systems (Volume 2) Bernstein/Latash/Turvey • Dexterity and Its Development Heft • Ecological Psychology in Context: James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the Legacy of William James’s Radical Empiricism
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Ecological Psychology in Context: James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the Legacy of William James's Radical Empiricism
Harry Heft Denison University
Page iv The following institutions kindly granted permission to reprint photographs from their collections: Archives of the History of American Psychology, The University of Akron; Clark