Encountering the World: Toward an Ecological Psychology Book

Encountering the World radically reorients psychology. Rejecting the mechanistic biases of modern psychology in favor of an ecological approach, Reed argues that psychological processes must be understood as ways in which animals regulate their encounters with the environment. Synthesizing the work of Darwin, modern ecologists, and neural Darwinism, with James Gibson's ecological approach to perception, Reed offers new methods for understanding the ways in which people and animals come to know about and act on their surroundings. Experimental psychologists have typically focused on understanding the mechanisms of behavior, leaving analysis of meaning and value to clinicians and to introspection. Encountering the World shows how a combination of ecological and experimental methods can help us better understand the meaningful aspects of everyday life.Read More