ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY

URIE BRONFENBRENNER Urie Bronfenbrenner (29 April 1917 – 25 September 2005) was an American developmental psychologist—but born in the Soviet Union—who is most known for his ecological systems theory of child development. Bronfenbrenner's research and his theory was key in changing the perspective of developmental psychology by calling attention to the large number of environmental and societal influences on child development.

Bronfenbrenner saw the process of human development as being shaped by the interaction between an individual and his or her environment.

During his time, he saw developmental psychology as only studying individual influences on development in unnatural settings; in his own words, developmental psychology was, "...the science of strange behavior of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible periods of time."

His theory states that there are many different levels of environmental influences that can affect a child's development, starting from people and institutions immediately surrounding the individual to nation-wide cultural forces.

He eventually renamed his theory the bio ecological model in order to recognize the importance of biological processes in development.

According to Melvin L. Kohn, a sociologist from Johns Hopkins University, Bronfenbrenner was critical in making social scientists realize that, "...interpersonal relationships, even [at] the smallest level of the parent-child relationship, did not exist in a social vacuum but were embedded in the larger social structures of community, society, economics and politics."

ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORYEcological systems theory, also called

development in context or human ecology theory, identifies five environmental systems with which an individual interacts.

Microsystem Mesosystem Exosystem Macrosystem Chronosystem

ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY1. Microsystem

Refers to the institutions and groups that most immediately and directly impact the child's development including: family, school, religious institutions, neighborhood, and peers.

2. MesosystemInterconnections between the

microsystems, interactions between the family and teachers, relationship between the child’s peers and the family.

3. ExosystemInvolves links between a social setting in

which the individual does not have an active role and the individual's immediate context.

4. MacrosystemDescribes the culture in which individuals

live.

5. ChronosystemThe patterning of environmental events

and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances.

BRONFENBRENNER’S ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY