ABSTRACT
The ecological approach presented in this chapter is that developed by James Gibson. It is not the only ecological approach to issues in psychology. Of the other ecological psychologists, Barker (1965) is best known as an ecological psychologist. Brunswik (1943, 1956) and Lewin (1943) used the term in com menting on one another as early as 1941. Brunswik (1943) gave Lewin credit for suggesting that he use the term ecology when discussing "the statistics of orga nism and environment" (p. 267).1 Because Barker worked closely with Lewin, and Gibson took Lewin quite seriously (Gibson & Crooks, 1938/1982), Lewin, as well as Brunswik, undoubtedly deserves a good share of the credit for ecologi cal concerns in psychology. Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979), a long-time colleague of Gibson’s at Cornell, is yet another prominent psychologist who calls his work ecological psychology. There are undoubtedly similarities among all the psy chologies that have been called ecological. Obviously, they all deem animal and human environments important for psychologists to study. However, the dif ferences in the core problems they treat and their theoretical elaborations are large enough that they are best regarded as distinct.
