Ecological psychology and development
Résumé
The child-environment relationship has many aspects worthy of consideration. The environment provides both a framework and a support on which (or thanks to which) human life develops. This relationship between the child and the environment has been interpreted in very different – sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory – ways through the theories of development. To understand and demarcate “ecological psychology and development”, we must define the concepts necessarily involved, beginning with what we understand by ecological psychology. The ecological approach gives a more central role to “in-situ experience” and to the environmental conditions, thereby facilitating the activities that favor the child’s development. On one hand, the ecological approach to development has evolved to reinforce the ecological validity of the development processes described and observed experimentally, and on the other hand, it considers the role and the impact of public policies on actions taken to change social and urban contexts.