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.
Table of Contents
1. Regulation vs. Construction
2. An Evolutionary Psychology
3. Affordances: A New Ecology for Psychology
4. The Importance of Information
5. Functional Systems and the Mechanisms of Behavior
6. Varieties of Action Systems
7. The Effort After Value and Meaning
8. The Human Environment
9. Becoming a Person
10. The Daily Life of the Mind
11. Entering the Linguistic Environment
12. Streams of Thought
