I’ve recently heard an NPR radio piece and read the associated biography on Roger Barker, the founder of ecological (environmental) psychology, and was fascinated by his efforts to study the “naturally occurring behaviour” of “free-ranging persons”.

In 1947, Barker took a job at the University of Kansas, moved to the nearby small town of Oskaloosa, and dedicated himself (and almost a 1 million USD in research funds) to uncovering the contextual nature of human behaviour.  The radio piece and book are a nice entry point to those interested in ecological perspectives on human behaviour so I’ll definitely recommend this to my students taking the seminar Ecological and Web Assessment. The book, however, also raises other interesting questions, such as the role of  exploratory and theory-driven research in behavioural sciences, or the causes leading to the popularity of specific theories and approaches in psychology.

All in all, I can highly recommend both the book, The Outsider, by Ariel Sabar, and the podcast Human Spectacle, This American Life, National Public Radio:

Human Spectacle

“Writer Ariel Sabar tells the story of Roger Barker, a psychologist who believed that humans should be studied outside the lab. So Barker dispatched an army of graduate students to follow the children of Oskaloosa, Kansas, and write down every single thing they did.”