The Affordances for Social Psychology of the Ecological Approach to Social Knowing

Abstract

This paper examines the engagement of theory with mainstream social psychology in terms of developments in social cognition and perception. The particular focus is the development and reception of the `ecological' or `mutualist' approach to social perception and cognition. The introduction of some terms of central concern is followed by a brief review of some of the ontological and epistemological issues that have perplexed empirical studies of social knowing. This is followed by documentation and appraisal of attempts over the past twenty-five years to `socialize' ecological psychology and to address the role of language and culture in social knowing. The final section considers some of the conceptual and methodological constraints that have impeded the promulgation of an ecological perspective. Although ecological notions have failed to make much impact on the mainstream, it is concluded that the growing interest in embedded and embodied cognition suggests the continuing relevance of the ecological approach with its relational ontology and emphasis on the reciprocity of perception and action.

Affordances of ICTs: an environmental study of a French language unit offered at university level

“…The project uses the theoretical backgrounds of Ecological Psychology (Gibson, 1979;Good, 2007;Reed, 1996) and Ecological Linguistics (Greeno, 1994;Leather & van Dam, 2003;van Lier 2000van Lier , 2003van Lier , 2004avan Lier , 2004b, to inquire into the process of employing an ICT tool. In particular, the model of affordance, a key concept in such fields as Ecological Psychology (Gibson, 1979;Good, 2007;Reed, 1996), Design (Norman, 1988(Norman, , 1999, Software Design/ Human-Computer Interaction (Hartson, 2003;McGrenere & Ho, 2000), Learning Design (Conole & Dyke, 2004a, 2004bLaurillard et al 2000), Education (Kirschner, 2002;Salomon, 1993;Wijekumar et al, 2006), Educational Psychology (Greeno, 1994) and Ecological Linguistics (van Lier, 2000(van Lier, , 2003(van Lier, , 2004a(van Lier, , 2004b) is used to look closely at the act of employing a technological artefact. An environmentfocused approach has the potential to explore, in detail, the relationship between the teaching and learning environment, learners' behaviour and the uptake of affordances within a defined context of a Second/Foreign language curriculum.…”

“…Since then, the concept of language ecology has been used in multiple areas of humanities such as Social Sciences (Bateson, 1979) Psychology (Gibson, 1979;Good, 2007;Reed, 1996), Human Development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979(Bronfenbrenner, , 1993, Language Studies (Fill & Mühlhäusler, 2001;Haugen, 1972;Wainrich, 2001) and Language Learning (Dong-Shin, 2006;Fettes, 2003;Leather & van Dam, 2003;Shun, Lam & Kramsch, 2003;van Lier 1996van Lier , 1998van Lier , 2000van Lier , 2003van Lier , 2004a2004b).…”

“…The notions of affordance and ability are central concepts in research in the field of Ecological Psychology (Gibson, 1979;Good, 2007;Reed, 1996), Ecological Linguistics (Dong-Shin, 2006Leather & van Dam, 2003;Shun, Lam & Kramsch, 2003;van Lier 1996van Lier , 1998van Lier , 2000van Lier , 2003van Lier , 2004a2004b;) and, in general, complex, socially organized activities (Bateson, 1979;Bronfenbrenner, 1979Bronfenbrenner, , 1993Kirschner, 2002).…”

“…More recently, Good (2007) has explained in more detail the concept of affordance from the psychological perspective, as a unit of analysis that should be seen as being "nested" (Good 2007, p. 277) Good uses the example of himself standing on a chair to reach for a book from a bookshelf to illustrate the concept of affordance. According to Turvey, in Good, an affordance is constructed on "intrinsic rather than extrinsic measures" (Good, 2007, p. 277).…”

“…This cross-disciplinary research uses the theoretical concepts of: Ecological Psychology (Gibson, 1979;Good, 2007;Reed, 1996); Ecological Linguistics (Greeno, 1994; Leather & van Dam, 2003;van Lier 2000van Lier , 2003van Lier , 2004avan Lier , 2004b; Design (Norman, 1988(Norman, , 1999 …”