DIVERSITY OF HUMAN BIOLOGY
AND FUNCTIONAL CONTEXTS:
THE ISSUE OF ECOLOGICAL NICHES
The diversity of human biology, as well as human functional contexts, is a
pervasive theme. First, consider human biology. Affective and cognitive dif-
ferences are evident in a century of research on human development from in-
fancy on, as well as current research on human genomes (Kagan, 2001;
Posner & Rothbart, 1998). We cannot ignore vast individual differences in
terms of how people respond to challenging developmental tasks and sustain
(or fail to sustain) their goal-directed efforts (Kosslyn, Cacioppo, Davidson,
Hugdahl, Lovallo, Spiegel, & Rose, 2002). This said, humans as living, adap-
tive, and open systems also make self-regulatory changes (Ford, 1992), and
develop new patterns of behavior, skills, self-perceptions, values, disposi-
tions, in response to adaptive pressures (Matthews & Zeidner, chap. 6; Zim-
merman & Schunk, chap. 12). Such development is the basis for intellectual
growth.
Besides biological variations that greatly enhance our chance of survival
as a species, the diversity of human functional contexts is equally striking. We
define functional context in terms of values, goals, opportunities, and con-
straints a situation affords at any given moment to an organism. For hu-
mans, a functional context can be social and practical (e.g., business and law)
or academic (e.g., sciences and humanities); formal (e.g., disciplinary inquiry;
Wineburg, 1991) and informal (e.g., everyday cognition; Rogoff & Lave,
1984; see also Perkins & Ritchhart, chap. 13); group-based, such as naviga-
tion (Hutchins, 1995) or collaborative scientific inquiry (Dunbar, 1997), or
individual-based, such as chess (de Groot, 1978) or creative writing (Ama-
bile, 2001); involving dynamic changes and time pressure (e.g., business or
military operations; Klein, 1998) or permitting prolonged deliberation and
scrutiny (e.g., scientific research; Neisessian & Thagard, 1999).
A functional context can be primarily learning or performance. To be
sure, any authentic activity or performance involves learning one way or an-
other (Lave, 1993). Performance often engenders new learning or new de-
mands for learning, and learning involves performance (e.g., problem solv-
ing). Nevertheless, the distinction is still important because the lack of
proper knowledge and strategies to tackle specific problems (i.e., the learn-
ing condition) indicates a distinct constraint on intellectual functioning
with profound ramifications for motivation and social and technical sup-
port (Bandura, 1986; Vygotsky, 1978; see also Zimmerman & Schunk,
chap. 12, for a discussion of a shift of focus between process and outcome as
one gains competence).
Given the diversity of human functional contexts, the issue becomes that
of sensibility and adaptivity of a person in fitting in, and sometimes carving
420 DAI