Ecological psychology is a term claimed by several schools of psychology with the main one involving the work of James J. Gibson and his associates, 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 some overlap between the two schools, although the Gibsonian approach is more philosophical and deeply reflective on its predecessors in the history of psychology.
Both schools emphasise 'real world' studies of behaviour as opposed to the artificial environment of the laboratory.
Famous quotes containing the words ecological and/or psychology:
“The hatred of the youth culture for adult society is not a disinterested judgment but a terror-ridden refusal to be hooked into the, if you will, ecological chain of breathing, growing, and dying. It is the demand, in other words, to remain children.”
—Midge Decter (b. 1927)
“A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of “spirit” over matter.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)