HUMAN ECOLOGY AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONCEPT
79
concepts directly applicable for human ecologists in sociology-and
others. The ecosystem is not quite so implicit in anthropology, but Helm
(1962) hints at its importance; it is present in Frake (1962), and Vayda
and Rappaport (1968) provide a good rationale of the need for a
systems approach in anthropology. Vayda (1969a) later designates a
systems approach as “one of two main ways of showing connections
between the environment and cultural behavior”. The importance of
the ecosystem is threaded throughout the collection of essays and
discussion edited by Damas (1969). The ecosystem is much less implicit
in psychological ecology, but a beginning is made by Barker (1965)
and Sells (1966); psychological ecologists could benefit in this respect
from an essay by Gochman (1968) where an attempt is made to establish
systems analysis in psychology as the relating of “behavior to the
organizational aspects of its underlying structure”. Gochman examines
a number of types of significant psychological systems, including beliefdisbelief systems, conceptual systems (a concept being defined as “a
system of ordering that serves as the mediating linkage between the
input side [or stimuli] and the output side [or response]”), and cognitive
systems or “organized subsets of the given . . . universe in terms of
which the individual identifies and discriminates a particular object
or event”. There are apparent ecological implications in Gochman’s
essay.
The study of geography lends itself easily to a systems approach,
adapting from its classical concern with regions. This is epitomized in
the work of members of the Regional Science Association, especially in
the efforts of Isard et al. (1968, 1971). A number of the contemporary
comments on geography as human ecology concentrate on a systems
approach, particularly Stoddart (1965, 1967) but also including English
(1968) and Renner (1970); see also Chisholm (1967) and Borchert (1967).
Pfaltzgraff (1968) emphasizes the systems approach in political ecology
and documents its development in his bibliography; the Sprouts (1965)
note the problems and promise of a systems approach. In economics,
Boulding (1966) considers both ecology and economics as devoted
“essentially to the study . . . of total systems”, and the previously
noted work by h a r d et al. (1968) is given in part to linking ecological
and economic systems (see also Hare, 1967).
The applied fields are also experiencing the rise of a systems method.
Since they so obviously introduce added (sometimes exotic) inputs into
natural systems, they must increasingly examine and attempt to understand the impacts of these inputs on systems and processes. Additionally,
applied human ecologists are increasingly replacing natural systems and
processes with man-created ones. Architects, for example, in their
buildings are concerned with almost totally man-created systems. To
79
concepts directly applicable for human ecologists in sociology-and
others. The ecosystem is not quite so implicit in anthropology, but Helm
(1962) hints at its importance; it is present in Frake (1962), and Vayda
and Rappaport (1968) provide a good rationale of the need for a
systems approach in anthropology. Vayda (1969a) later designates a
systems approach as “one of two main ways of showing connections
between the environment and cultural behavior”. The importance of
the ecosystem is threaded throughout the collection of essays and
discussion edited by Damas (1969). The ecosystem is much less implicit
in psychological ecology, but a beginning is made by Barker (1965)
and Sells (1966); psychological ecologists could benefit in this respect
from an essay by Gochman (1968) where an attempt is made to establish
systems analysis in psychology as the relating of “behavior to the
organizational aspects of its underlying structure”. Gochman examines
a number of types of significant psychological systems, including beliefdisbelief systems, conceptual systems (a concept being defined as “a
system of ordering that serves as the mediating linkage between the
input side [or stimuli] and the output side [or response]”), and cognitive
systems or “organized subsets of the given . . . universe in terms of
which the individual identifies and discriminates a particular object
or event”. There are apparent ecological implications in Gochman’s
essay.
The study of geography lends itself easily to a systems approach,
adapting from its classical concern with regions. This is epitomized in
the work of members of the Regional Science Association, especially in
the efforts of Isard et al. (1968, 1971). A number of the contemporary
comments on geography as human ecology concentrate on a systems
approach, particularly Stoddart (1965, 1967) but also including English
(1968) and Renner (1970); see also Chisholm (1967) and Borchert (1967).
Pfaltzgraff (1968) emphasizes the systems approach in political ecology
and documents its development in his bibliography; the Sprouts (1965)
note the problems and promise of a systems approach. In economics,
Boulding (1966) considers both ecology and economics as devoted
“essentially to the study . . . of total systems”, and the previously
noted work by h a r d et al. (1968) is given in part to linking ecological
and economic systems (see also Hare, 1967).
The applied fields are also experiencing the rise of a systems method.
Since they so obviously introduce added (sometimes exotic) inputs into
natural systems, they must increasingly examine and attempt to understand the impacts of these inputs on systems and processes. Additionally,
applied human ecologists are increasingly replacing natural systems and
processes with man-created ones. Architects, for example, in their
buildings are concerned with almost totally man-created systems. To