In this paper I examine some of the reasons for and implications of the ascendance of ecological modernization thought. I stress that its rapid rise to prominence is not because it is a well-developed and highly-codi®ed social theory, but rather because it accords particularly well with a number of intellectual and broader political±economic factors, many of which lie outside the realms of soci...

In recent years, there has been an intense focus on the construction of mathematical models involving certain interesting ecological phenomena like Allee effect. Many animal and plant species suffer a decrease of the per capita rate of increase as their populations reach small sizes or low densities. In this article, a three species food chain model is proposed and analysed where prey species i...

Although the basic mechanics of evolution have been understood since Darwin, debate continues over whether macroevolutionary phenomena are driven by the fitness structure of genotype space or by ecological interaction. In this paper we propose a simple model capturing key features of fitness-landscape and ecological models of evolution. Our model describes evolutionary dynamics in a high-dimens...

Balancing ecological validity and control in psychological testing is a challenge. We have explored the use of Interactive Virtual Environment Technology to create an environment for psychological testing. Specifically we have created a Cocktail Party World to provide experimental control in the study of the phenomena of ostracism in its various forms. To address ecological validity we have cre...

The three papers in this special issue provide novel applications of an evolutionary approach to nonverbal behavior. While each analysis of reactions to nonverbal cues has merit, it also is valuable to place these separate phenomena within a broader framework than can encompass them all. The ecological approach to social perception provides such a framework. It conceptualizes all of the reactio...

In this paper I describe a cellular automaton model of a multi-species ecosystem, suitable for the study of emergent properties of macroevolution. Unlike majority of ecological models, the number of coexisting species is not fixed. Starting from one common ancestor they appear by “mutations” of existent species, and then survive or extinct depending on the balance of local ecological interactio...

The diversity of ways in which host manipulation by parasites interferes with ecological and evolutionary processes governing biotic interactions has been recently documented, and indicates that manipulative parasites are full participants in the functioning of ecosystems. Phenotypic alterations in parasitised hosts modify host population ecology, apparent competition processes, food web struct...

Many physical diseases have been reported to be associated with psychosocial factors. In these diseases, assessment relies mainly on subjective symptoms in natural settings. Therefore, it is important to assess symptoms and/or relationships between psychosocial factors and symptoms in natural settings. Symptoms are usually assessed by self-report when patients visit their doctors. However, self...

Ecological momentary assessment and/or experience sampling methods are increasingly used in health studies to study subjective experiences within changing environmental contexts. In these studies, up to 30 or 40 observations are often obtained for each subject. Because there are so many measurements per subject, one can characterize a subject's mean and variance and can specify models for both....