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

By J. Good. 2007

109 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/31e4d528bf2d9de415a2d3ffa97cf4e527207062

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. Kevin Crowley
2. J. Howard
3. W. Overton
4. A. Masten
5. David C. Witherington
6. R. Lerner
7. Anthony Steven Dick

In Social Psychology

1. W. Overton
2. David C. Witherington
3. R. Lerner
4. Anthony Steven Dick

Citations in the corpus

• Differences in practitioners’ understanding of play and how this influences pedagogy and children’s perceptions of play (2011, background): “However, affordances can be extended to social and emotional affordances: for example, the interactions and emotional closeness afforded to an infant during feeding time with mother (Good 2007; McArthur and Baron 1983).”
• A New Paradigm for Developmental Science: Relationism and Relational-Developmental Systems (2013, background): “In the end, as Goode (2007) notes: “on the cognitivist view … the starting point is the solitary Cartesian subject detached from the world and its objects (including other people).”