An Environmentally Enriched Model of Human Functioning: The Emergence of Psychological Problems within a Neoliberal Context
Sarah Burkitt
April 6, 2026 DOI: 10.26686/j9wb-wsj4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Proposes an "Environmentally Enriched" model that treats human functioning as emerging from dynamic interaction among embodied mind-shaping, coordinated social practices, and socio-material environments. Argues that neoliberalism can be understood as a niche construction whose institutional arrangements and repeated practices constrain action, affordances, and affect, and that psychological distress may be conceptualised as an ecological and relational phenomenon arising from engagement with these structured niches. |
Abstract
Psychological theory has long acknowledged that human functioning is shaped by biological, psychological, and social processes, yet dominant models continue to struggle to integrate these dimensions in a coherent and explanatory way (Ward & Nielsen, 2018). Biomedical approaches provide causal precision but trend toward reductionism, while the biopsychosocial model expands the explanatory field without resolving how heterogeneous factors are related. This thesis develops and applies an Environmentally Enriched (EE) model of human functioning, drawing on the comprehensive and integrated framework of enactivism, Maiese and Hanna’s mind-shaping thesis (MST), and Rouse’s account of social practices as biological niche construction (Maiese & Hanna, 2019; Rouse, 2023). This EE model conceptualises human functioning as emerging through a dynamic interaction between embodied mind-shaping, systemically coordinated social practices, and socio-material environments, understood as mutually constitutive rather than hierarchically ordered or causally independent. The model is applied to neoliberalism, approached not primarily as an ideology but as a niche construction that structures everyday participation across domains such as education, work, welfare governance, and digital platforms. This thesis demonstrates how institutional arrangements and repeated practices construct reinforcing environmental niches that organise and constrain action, affordances, affect, and embodied social coordination over time. Finally, the thesis examines how psychological difficulties may arise and persist within neoliberal environments when understood through the EE model, conceptualising distress as an ecological and relational phenomenon emerging from ongoing engagement between individuals and structured socio-material niches. Overall, the thesis offers a conceptually robust framework for understanding human functioning within a contemporary socio-political context and provides implications for future models of environmentally enriched human functioning.