Two Ecological Perspectives: Gibson vs. Shaw and Turvey

An ecological perspective on psychology views the proper unit of analysis as the organism in its natural environment. In this manner, it is said, one can discover the ways in which animals and environments mutually constrain one another. JamesJ. Gibson was first to bring this particular perspective to psychology, especially in the study of visual perception. Recently, others have begun to extend this idea to other areas of perception , to other areas of psychology, and to other disciplines. Robert E. Shaw and Michael T. Turvey have led this expansion. Gibson, on the one hand, and Shaw, Turvey, and their colleagues, on the other, share much in their approaches. However, it is the purpose of this essay to draw some distinctions between them in hope that neither the views of Gibson, nor those of Shaw and Turvey, will be misconstrued.