Productive pluralism: The coming of age of ecological psychology.

Abstract

The ecological approach to psychology has been a main antecedent of embodied and situated approaches to cognition. The concept of affordances in particular has gained currency throughout psychological science. Yet, contemporary ecological psychology has seemed inaccessible to outsiders and protective of its legacy. Indeed, some prominent ecological psychologists have presented their approach as a “package deal”—a principled and unified perspective on perception and action. Looking at the history of the field, however, we argue that ecological psychology has developed in rich and pluriform ways. Aiming to open the field to critical engagement and productive exchange, we identify three major strands of thought within ecological psychology, each of which emerged in the 20 years after Gibson’s death: physical, biological, and social ecological psychology. Each of these strands develop ecological ideas in quite different directions, making different use of some of its central concepts, adopting different explanatory principles, and embodying different philosophical worldviews. Proponents of the ecological approach have been arguing for pluralism within cognitive science to make room for ecological psychology. Given the diversity of the strands, we extend this plea to within ecological psychology itself; the field is better off aiming for a productive pluralism in which the different strands are in dialogue with each other.

Reaching conceptual stability by re-articulating empirical and theoretical work on affordances

“…However, more than 40 years since Gibson’s seminal work, affordances remain central to post-cognitive theories and are extensively applied across various research domains. Their potential for application is vast, and we may be witnessing “the coming of age of ecological psychology” ( Bruineberg et al, 2023 ). Empirical work has been split between classical empirical laboratory work and contextual-ecological studies.…”