Situated Psychology: A Sketch.
Rasmus Birk, Sarah Kirkegaard Jensen, Noomi Matthiesen, Bo Allesøe Christensen
Integrative psychological & behavioral science July 31, 2025 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1007/s12124-025-09927-2 via PubMed
Summary
Situated psychology is a new concept that views human behavior as fundamentally shaped by environment, culture, relations, and context, not merely as a framework for action. Drawing on ecological psychology, situated learning theory, 4E cognition, and critical psychology, it argues that situatedness is integral to psychological processes. The article outlines this multifaceted theoretical perspective, emphasizing that context is not just a backdrop but a constitutive part of psychological phenomena.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Situated psychology treats environment, culture, relations, and context as constitutive of psychological processes, not merely as a framework for behavior. |
Abstract
This article-and this special issue-focuses on situated psychology. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief theoretical outline of what situated psychology is. If the reader wonders why they are not immediately familiar with the term 'situated psychology,' there is a simple explanation: it is a new concept (except for Phillip Cushman's argument that psychology should be "historically situated" (Cushman, 1990). However, despite the novelty of the name for the concept, it draws on a wide range of psychological traditions-ecological psychology, situated learning theory, 4E cognition, critical psychology, and more. The ambition of this article is thus to unfold a multifaceted theoretical perspective that understands situatedness as involving environment/culture/relations/context, but also as something other than just a framework within which human behavior unfolds.