Defining the Environment in Organism-Environment Systems.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2020 Amanda Corris 29 citations
Enactivism and ecological psychology both emphasize that perceiving organisms actively shape their relationship with the environment rather than passively receiving stimuli. However, neither approach specifies the structure of the environment beyond its contingent links to species-typical sensorimotor capacities. This leaves a gap in understanding how organisms are organized as coupled with their environments. Drawing on developmental systems theory, the environment can be defined as a developmental niche that both shapes and is shaped by individual organisms over developmental and evolutionary time. Specifying the environment as a developmental niche clarifies how and why certain contingencies arise, strengthening the joint appeal to enactivism and ecological psychology as complementary theories of organism–environment coupling.