Affect, epistemology, and the perceptual-ecological perspective: Interpersonal processes and affordances in psychotherapy

Abstract

Burrell recently presented an approach to epistemology in psychotherapy called the “motor-evolutionary metatheory.” This approach to therapeutic learning and knowledge is driven by the information-processing approach to cognition. It is characterized by an acceptance of the doctrine of the impoverishment of sense data, an information-processing theory of knowledge, and indirect realism. A viable yet contrasting perspective, derived from the pioneering work of James J. Gibson, is developed here. The resulting “perceptual-ecological metatheory” is characterized by the doctrine of information inherent in sense data, a perceptually based epistemic theory, and direct realism. It also includes the central theory of affordances, which is extended to encompass social relations and affect. The perceptual-ecological metatheory links these phenomena in a coherent way. Implications for reconceptualizing the psychotherapeutic process are explored.