J. J. Gibson

"The late James J. Gibson coined the term 'ecological psychology' to emphasize his belief that more traditional psychologies of the "mind" or of "behavior" were to narrowly conceived: Mentalism, by its belief in the subjective origins of concepts, tends to divorce the "thinking" animal from environmental sources of constraint. Similarly, behaviorism, with its over-reliance on habits to explain behavior, tends to trivialize the relation of the acting animal to its perceptual world. Ecological psychology, on the other hand, recognizes the coevolution of animals and their environments, and pursues a doctorine of animal-environment reciprocity as its guiding principle."

         
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