こころと行為の生態学的な分析単位

――ギブソン生態心理学からの考察-――

抄録

  This paper outlines the basic idea of Gibsonian ecological psychology by focusing on its units of analysis. First, I point out that the critical problems of traditional psychology come from its dualistic/reductionistic point of view and mechanical units of analysis. Then, by providing some suggestive empirical data, I show the fact that animals living in their own environment perceive or utilize the higher order behavioral resources of the environment, ‘affordances,’ in stead of ‘stimulus’ which traditional theories suppose to be the causes of animals behavior,. Finally, I introduce the idea of ‘invariants’, which James. J. Gibson proposed, as basic units of perception, and go on to argue the importance of such a special kind of higher order and functional unit of analysis in order to overcome difficulties traditional theory intrinsically have.