Ecological Psychology: Concepts and Methods for Studying the Environment of Human Behavior

Introduces behavior setting theory: the observation that the best predictor of a person's behavior is the setting they occupy, not their personality traits. Settings have 'standing patterns of behavior' — regular, recurring behavioral forms that persist despite frequent turnover of the individuals who instantiate them. Different people in the same setting naturally produce the same behavioral pattern without being transformed by it. The setting calls forth what is already latent; it does not install behavior in people.

Barker's core finding provides empirical grounding for the emergence view: if situations shaped people, different individuals in the same setting would converge over time. What he found instead is that stable patterns persist across different people — each one naturally expressing the same form without being changed. This proves the capacity was already latent. The setting activates it; the setting does not create it. Duckworth cites Barker explicitly in her situational framework, but his evidence supports emergence more than shaping.

Informs the Situation domain by establishing that settings have reliable behavioral demands — and that not all people are equally suited to meet those demands naturally. When a nature pattern is mismatched to a setting's standing behavioral form, the person must suppress their natural expression to conform. This is the suppression cost the Map identifies. Settings that match the nature's natural expression produce what Barker called 'synomorphic' fit — form and inhabitant matched.

Barker's research was conducted through naturalistic observation of small-town American communities (Midwest Psychological Field Station, Oskaloosa, Kansas). His behavior settings are relatively stable, physically bounded environments — offices, churches, ball games. The concept does not translate directly to the more fluid, distributed, and digitally-mediated work arrangements that characterize contemporary professional life.